Perception,Power and Responsibility in Management Development: A Study of the Implications for Change in the National Health Service

Abstract

The argument starts from the recognition that the management developer has so far had only a very limited impact on the performance of National Health Service managers. One reason for this is found in a tendency to underestimate the importance of individual perception in the process of managerial learning.

The paper suggests an approach which combines ideas about coalitions of power in managerial organisations with a soundly-based 'technology' of management development intervention. It maintains that the management developer may become a more effective change agent in organisations such as the National Health Service by adopting this approach, together with a more vigorous belief in creating change and accepting responsibility for its consequences. The practical implications are discussed by drawing on the evidence of a series of field studies carried out within the National Health Service.