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Projects: Public Leadership and Management

Our activities cover research, education and knowledge exchange with partners and other stakeholders.

Research

We participate in international projects that focus on:

  • Public Leadership
  • Public management
  • Multi-Level Governance, Place leadership, International Governance and EU governance

As well as UK-oriented projects especially relating to:

  • Place leadership
  • The leadership of newly formed local communities
  • Innovation in public services
  • Social innovation

Some projects involve the active engagement of practitioners in research teams such as in leadership to create public value in policing.

Academic writing

Recent publications include an open access monograph on the philosophical foundations of public administration (Ongaro, 2020) and an edited book on leadership (Storey et al, 2017); a book on losing political office (Roberts, 2017); on public administration and management across Europe (Ongaro and van Thiel, 2018), on the strategic management of public service organisations (2nd edition forthcoming).

Editing and guest editing

Edoardo Ongaro and Alessandro Sancino are co-editors of Public Policy and Administration; Jean Hartley, Edoardo Ongaro and Alessandro Sancino are on the Editorial Board of Public Administration Review, amongst other journals.

Public engagement

Articles in professional journals, reports for practitioners, magazine articles, blogs and social media, such as:

Education and continuing professional development

A free online course of 12 hours study on An introduction to public leadership is available.

Knowledge exchange conferences

Workshops, videos, discussions. TED-type talks by speakers on aspects of public and political leadership:

 

The Public Leadership Perspectives events have been open to the public and explore different elements of public leadership and management, including:

  • Losing political office with Charles Walker, MP; Lord David Blunkett, Dame Jane Roberts and Professor Jean Hartley
  • Evidence-based practice for public servants with Professor Rob Briner, Professor Jack Greene and Dr Carolyn Wilkins
  • Co-production in public management with Professor John Alford, Steve McGuirk, and Dr Karen Potter
  • After the Brexit referendum, what is the UK’s place in the world with Lord David Blunkett, Professor Simon Lee and Professor John Benington
  • The future of the civil service. Bernard Jenkin MP; Stella Manzie and Professor Richard Holti.

The second international Public and Political Leadership Conference was held at Milton Keynes in April 2017. The event programme can be found on the OU Business School website and more information is available on the PUPOL website.

Key projects

Leadership with political astuteness by public managers

Research on Australian, New Zealand and UK public senior and middle managers about how they perceive political skills in the workplace, how and where they use such capabilities, and how they acquired these.Jean Hartley, with John Alford (Melbourne), Owen Hughes (RMIT) and Sophie Yates (ANZSOG).

Losing political office

What is the experience of losing political office through resigning, being deselected or losing at a count? This research examined the experiences of MPs and council leaders, and their families, and reflects on the implications for a vibrant democracy. Jane Roberts.

Political leadership and its development

How is Parliamentary and local authority leadership exercised and how are leadership capabilities developed? Jean Hartley, Jane Roberts and Annette Stansfield.

Leadership in Parliamentary select committees

Select committees are a dynamic area with increasing profile and impact in Parliament and in the media. What does leadership do in this context multiple agendas, multiple arenas and multiple stakeholders? Annette Stansfield.

Dual leadership

Exploring “the purple zone” where leadership by both elected politicians and public servants is negotiated and exercised. Jean Hartley, Stella Manzie, John Alford, Owen Hughes and Sophie Yates.

Collaborative leadership

How is leadership exercised in the UK’s voluntary sector, and in the context of collaboration between voluntary and public sectors? Carol Jacklin-Jarvis.

City leadership

How does city leadership vary in different governance, geographical and institutional contexts? A comparison of cities in UK, Italy, Iceland, Slovenia and Austria. Alessandro Sancino.

Leadership of place by metro-mayors

New metro-mayors will need to forge a sense of place from a “combined authority”. How is leadership exercised and how does place affect leadership and its purposes and relationships with citizens.Jane Roberts.

Clinical leadership

As the NHS keeps shape-shifting, how is clinical leadership exercised in emerging institutional contexts and alongside managerial leadership? John Storey, Richard Holti, Jean Hartley and Martin Marshall.

Police leadership to create public value

How is police leadership exercised where there are many, varied and sometimes conflicting views about what policing priorities should be. Jean Hartley, Quoc Vo, Steven Parker, Jim Beashel.

Education leadership

How is leadership exercised in the context of school governance? Jacqueline Baxter.

Creating public value

Public value has gained profile among academics, policy-makers and practitioners but what is it and what implications does it have for those involved in leading and managing groups, organisations and partnerships? Jean Hartley, Maraifrancesca Sicilia, Alessandro Sancino, and Loua Khalil.

Leadership development for post-conflict peace-building

This PhD research examines how local leaders in Northern Ireland and Bosnia learnt to become leaders and exercise influence in peace-building in and across communities.Loua Khalil./p>

Brexit, EU governance and public administration

This long-term research on EU governance and public administration is creating research knowledge about how the EU makes decisions.  This will be of utmost significance for the unfolding of citizenship and governance – both in the UK and in the EU – in the post-Brexit scenario. Edoardo Ongaro.

Comparative governance and public administration systems

The ‘western model’ of liberal democracy and public governance is challenged by alternative models, some of them having roots in alternative traditions of public administration with an incredibly long history (like the Confucian model of PA and the Islamic PA paradigm). Edoardo Ongaro.

Public strategic management

For some time, strategic thinking and action has been dominated by market competition models of strategy, but a public strategy has to encompass governance, citizenship and public value. This research explores and compares different approaches to strategy. Edoardo Ongaro.

Innovation in governance and public services

Research into innovation which takes account of the democratic and citizenship context. Jean Hartley, Alessandro Sancino. And an investigation into contextual influences on public administration innovation in China. Edoardo Ongaro.

Collaborations

This stream has an international outlook, working with academics around the world, and also working in partnership with policy-makers and practitioners.  For example, in terms of organizational or network partnerships, we are working with:

Find out more about our projects and research

Citizenship and Governance SRA 
The Open University
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA
United Kingdom

Email the team