Leadership in a Paradoxical Public-sector Environment: The Challenges of Ambiguity

Smita Tripathi; John Dixon

doi:10.1108/17479886200800025

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International Journal of Leadership in Public Services, The

ISSN: 1747-9886

Online from: 2005

Subject Area: Sociology and Public Policy

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Leadership in a Paradoxical Public-sector Environment: The Challenges of Ambiguity

Document Information:
Title:	Leadership in a Paradoxical Public-sector Environment: The Challenges of Ambiguity
Author(s):	Smita Tripathi, (School of Law and Social Science, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, United Kingdom), John Dixon, (School of Law and Social Science, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, United Kingdom)
Citation:	Smita Tripathi, John Dixon, (2008) "Leadership in a Paradoxical Public-sector Environment: The Challenges of Ambiguity", International Journal of Leadership in Public Services, The, Vol. 4 Iss: 3, pp.4 - 14
Keywords:	Management, Organisational leadership, Paradox, Public sector
Article type:	General review
DOI:	10.1108/17479886200800025 (Permanent URL)
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Abstract:	At the heart of any public-sector reform discourse are the conflicting contentions about what constitutes good public leadership. The battles fought - and to be fought - over public-sector reform are over the appropriate role of the state. These contending perspectives are the traditional hierarchical model and the neo-liberal managerialist model of public administration. The aspiration to build a responsive and cost-effective public sector that appropriately balances public and private interests inevitably confronts the challenge of how best to impose neo-liberal managerialist values and practices onto a hierarchical politico-administrative system, grounded on the premise that the state is best placed to determine, protect and promote the public interest, without inevitably creating a counter-productive paradoxical public-management environment. In this public-sector reform scenario, it is necessary to foster a form of leadership - both political and organisational - that demands of itself that it be capable of perpetual adaption in the face of ambiguity and which change. That is a great deal to ask of both shrewd politicians and consummate bureaucrats.