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Political-Management Leadership

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Leadership Perspectives

Abstract

Any student of public sector leadership who does not recognise and endeavour to unwrap the confusions and tensions that arise from the overlap of political and managerial spheres of action, and their shared relationship to the professional core of government, is pointing their torch in the wrong place. They are focusing, separately, on managerial or political leadership but not on their combined dynamic. Politicians and managers have described their working relationship as a bridge, an exchange, a source of tension, a blend of political and administrative contributions, a trading space divided by a line that should not be crossed, but, now and then, is. For over 20 years I have been studying relationships between elected politicians and managers by filming them talking to each other. In this chapter I will use extracts from a small sample of these conversations to explain how politicians and managers jointly create government - a perennial puzzle of increasing consequence for local government.

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Authors
  1. Simon Baddeley
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Executive Learning and Leadership, Cranfield School of Management, UK

    Kim Turnbull James (Professor of Executive Learning, Director) & James Collins (Research Fellow) (Professor of Executive Learning, Director) &  (Research Fellow)

Copyright information

© 2008 Simon Baddeley

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Baddeley, S. (2008). Political-Management Leadership. In: James, K.T., Collins, J. (eds) Leadership Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230584068_13

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