Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine asset management in three cities. It is informed by polyphony as a theoretical perspective and draws on the fact‐building process to explore the practice of asset management in these study settings. Design/methodology/approach – A...

Purpose This paper aims to examine the trajectory of public management reforms in Italy. This experience indicates the complexity of managerialism in countries with a legalistic system and where public administration cultures have been, and continue to be, embedded in politics....

There has been a major debate on the merits of accrual accounting in the public sector in general. This paper is an implementation study of accrual accounting in local government. It examines this issue from an implementation perspective. The implementation perspective adopted draws on Matland's...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine asset management in three cities. It is informed by polyphony as a theoretical perspective and draws on the fact-building process to explore the practice of asset management in these study settings. Design/methodology/approach – A comparative...

This is a study of the implementation of the UK central government's modernization policies for local government. The specific focus of the study is on one particular implementation tool which local authorities were required to use by central government edict: activity based costing. This...

Purpose – This paper considers the dark side of organisational effectiveness and the processes by which and organisation can move into a state of crisis. The paper sets out a series of arguments around the relationships between people and processes and the manner in which they contribute to...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion of effectiveness in the context of organisational crisis. It considers the “darker” side of organisational effectiveness by exploring the processes by which effectiveness can be eroded as an organisation moves from an ordered...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to consider the nature of the business continuity management (BCM) process and to frame it within wider literature on the performance of socio-technical systems. Despite the growth in BCM activities in organisations, some questions remain as to whether...