Leadership in a Managerial Context1

The twenty years from the mid-1980s saw a transformation in the management of public organizations in many countries. As argued by those following the trajectory of what has been variously termed ‘managerialism’ (Pollitt 1993), ‘the new public management’ (Hood 1991), or simply ‘public management’, the old traditional model of public administration has been largely overtaken and replaced (see Hughes 2003). The public management reforms have been controversial and not fully accepted (see Pollitt/ Bouckaert 2004) and reforms have not progressed as far in some countries, notably those from the statist tradition in continental Europe (Kickert 2000). There is, however, substantial agreement that one of the key features of the newer models of public management in countries that have followed this model is the personal responsibility for results ascribed to public managers themselves.