Public sector management reform

Thompson (1967, p. 159) wrote that: ôUncertainty appears as the fundamental problem for complex organizations, and coping with uncertainty, as the essence of the administrative process.ö Rather than simply ignoring the role of uncertainty in the management process, Thompson--unlike most other management theorists--chose to integrate the concept of uncertainty into his theory of innovative management organization.

This feat highlights the dilemma that clearly exists: there is an undeniable contradiction between strategic innovation and management organization. Innovation requires new ways of thinking,

alternative methods of operation, and breaking the rules. Management organization, on the other hand, strives to systematize operations, to classify activities, and to produce expected results. Thus, while innovation needs a strong element of uncertainty, management organization needs a strong element of certainty. Strategic innovation and management organization are at odds with each other.

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ercial companies, to find only those that had shown a ôsharpbendö or radical improvement in performance that had been sustained over at least a 3-year period, they isolated a sample of 25 companies. These firms were investigated in considerable detail. Archival and financial research was followed up with interviews with many of the executives involved. The researchers identified nine principal reasons for previously declining performance: falling demand, increased competition, poor marketing, poor management, poor financial control, high costs, poor quality, inappropriate acquisitions, and large projects that failed. They also identified five key ôtriggersö capable of precipitating the process of improvement: intervention from external bodies, a change of ownership, a new CEO, top management's recognition of the problems, and top management's perception of new opportunities. They were surprised to find that in 45% of the sample there had been no change of top management. Marked change could occur without the framebreaking punctuated change. The adoption of a new vision, imported by a new CEO, was evident in some cases but was clearly not the only explanation of these sharpbends. Indeed the recoveries were often the result of heig
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Mayes McKiernan, Grinyer Spender, Ashby Kuhn, Mechanistic Modes, , Hammer Champy, Ideas Uncertainty, Argyris Schon, Schutz Spender, Meyer Rowan, top management, management organization, punctuated change, loosely coupled, spender 1989, top management's, recipe ideas, grinyer spender, mayes mckiernan 1988, interpretive system, strategic innovation, loosely coupled systems, model punctuated change, grinyer mayes mckiernan, strategic innovation management,
Approximate Word count = 3712
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)

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