Tom Entwistle
Biographic Data
| ID | 328597 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Tom Entwistle |
| GIVEN NAMES | Tom |
| FAMILY NAME | Entwistle |
| SIGNATURE | ENTWISTLE T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Cardiff University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6457-4749 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 299 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Amoral Management and the Normalisation of Deviance: The Case of Stafford Hospital
Inquiries into organisational scandals repeatedly attribute wrongdoing to the normalisation of deviance. From this perspective, the cause of harm lies not in the actions of any individual but rather in the institutionalised practices of organisations or sectors. Although an important corrective to dramatic tales of bad apples, the normalisation thesis underplays the role of management in the emergence of deviance. Drawing on literatures exploring…
Why nudge sometimes fails: Fatalism and the Problem of Behaviour Change
Nudge presumes that decision-making is guided by intuitive biases and heavily influenced by the environment in which choices are made. However, critics argue that in place of the quick thinking envisaged by nudge behaviour change reflects deeper and broader thought processes. One of these patterns of thinking – fatalism – has been identified across health and allied disciplines as key to explaining the reason why many people ignore authoritative …
Reframing Governance: Competition, Fatalism and Autonomy in Central–local Relations
Much of the work on contemporary governance points either to a strong central government that continues to operate hierarchically or else to a relatively weak centre which relies on network forms of coordination. In place of the choice between hierarchy and networks, the cultural theory pioneered by Mary Douglas draws our attention to five distinctive ‘social environments’ characterized in terms of hierarchy, individualism, egalitarianism, fatali…
Public–private partnerships, management capacity and public service efficiency
By working with business, public organisations are assumed to benefit from: a more contestable procurement process; access to private sector entrepreneurialism and the realisation of previously untapped scale economies. Nevertheless, realisation of these benefits may be contingent upon an expansion of management capacity to cope with vastly increased transaction costs. We examine the relationship between a commitment to public-private partnership…
For society, state and self: Juggling the Logics of Professionalism in General Practice Appraisal
Sociologists repeatedly appeal to notions of altruism, bureaucratisation and self interest in their efforts to explain the changing place of the professions in contemporary society. We treat these three readings as institutional logics that are key to understanding the way in which doctors respond to the appraisal system at the heart of the UK's approach to revalidation. Our analysis of a survey of 998 general practitioners (GPs) working in Wales…
Putting the Citizen at the Centre? Assembling Local Government Policy in Wales
Since devolution in 1999, the Welsh Government has developed a distinctive approach to the management of local government policy. Alongside an emphasis on welfarism and partnership, local authorities have been exhorted to put the citizen at the centre of public service delivery. Drawing on the notion of assemblage, developed in the governmentality literature, this paper identifies two different rationalities running through Welsh Government polic…
The Multi-Level Governance of Wales: Layer Cake or Marble Cake
Research Highlights and Abstract Provides a reading of the literatures on multi-level governance and federalism to develop a series of propositions about the nature of the relationship between different levels of government in the devolved United Kingdom. Drawing on a survey of local government officers in Wales, the article reports support for both layer cake and marble cake interpretations of multi-level governance. The article concludes with a…
For Appropriateness or Consequences? Explaining Organizational Change in English Local Government
New institutional theory suggests that radical organizational change is guided by a logic of appropriateness in which organizations change their structures and processes in response to changes in prevailing notions of how best to organize. Contingency theories suggests, by contrast, that organizations pursue a logic of consequentiality, trying to maximize performance by adjusting structures and processes in response to relatively tangible things …
Does Cross-Sectoral Partnership Deliver? An Empirical Exploration of Public Service Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Equity
Cross-sectoral partnerships are increasingly seen as a solution to the most pressing social problems facing contemporary societies. Sectoral rationales for partnership suggest that public, private, and nonprofit organizations each possess distinctive advantages that can enhance the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of public agencies’ efforts to address social issues. We present an exploratory quantitative examination of this argument, using …
New Spaces for Inclusion? Lessons from the 'Three-Thirds' Partnerships in Wales
Multi-sector partnership working has become an increasingly important mode of governance across many Western European countries. It is seen as a means of overcoming social divisions, promoting more inclusive policymaking, and transforming governance systems. Partnership is perceived to be a more flexible form of governance, capable of resolving some of the complex policy and legitimation problems associated with more traditional statist approache…
Who or What Sets the Agenda: The case of rural issues in England's local public service agreements
Based on a case study of the implementation of England's Local Public Service Agreements (LPSAs) – a funding stream which allowed local authorities to target approximately £1.5 billion at pressing social problems – this article considers the relative importance of internal and external forces on the agenda setting process. Our data suggests that despite the coincidence of events which put rural issues firmly on the media and public agendas in 200…
The Dysfunctions of Markets, Hierarchies and Networks in the Meta-governance of Partnership
Governments increasingly see partnerships as their delivery instrument of choice. There is disagreement, however, about how the proliferation of these institutions should be understood. One interpretation sees ungovernability, instability and unaccountability in the fragmented institutions of local governance. Another maintains that the new approaches to co-ordination have allowed for the reassertion of hierarchical control. On the basis of a the…
The spaces of modernisation: Outcomes, indicators and the local government modernisation agenda
The three challenges of community leadership
The ongoing reform of UK local government emphasises the development of local authorities as ‘community leaders’. Both the definition of the term, and local government's fitness for the role are, however, contested. Previous research suggests that to fulfil this role local government will have to meet three challenges: engage citizens in the determination of community priorities, provide strategic leadership and develop the collaborative potentia…
From Competition to Collaboration in Public Service Delivery: A New Agenda for Research
Competition was one of the guiding threads of public policy under the Conservative Governments of the 1980s and 1990s. But whereas the Conservatives looked to the market primarily for the disciplining and economizing effects of competition, the Labour Government sees the market as a source of innovation and improvement. Following a brief description of these different perspectives, this paper identifies three avenues deserving of further inquiry:…
Leadership and service improvement: Dual elites or dynamic dependency
Effective local leadership is at the heart of the Government's ‘modernisation agenda’. Official pronouncements suggest a fairly straightforward division of roles between elected members who, it is argued, are responsible for community leadership, and officers who should provide corporate leadership of the local authority organisation. In practice, however, executive members frequently find themselves involved in decisions relating to the manageme…
A Prehistory of the Best Value Regime
Best Value was one of the central planks of New Labour's modernisation agenda for local government. This article uncovers the origins of the regime by unpicking the activities of two working groups responsible for its design. Licking its wounds in the aftermath of the 1987 General Election the Labour Party's leadership had come to see the party's record in local government as a source of increasing embarrassment. A series of policy initiatives, f…
Picking Winners to Define and Disseminate Best Practice
From 1998 the Government launched Beacon award schemes in local government, schools, the National Health Service, further education and central government. The schemes were distinctive in that they all shared the assumption that organisational learning could be advanced through a competitive process of identifying successful organisations and recruiting them to disseminate their good practices. Drawing on a number of evaluations of the different …
The multiple strategies of the Local Government Association: Partner, Player and Think-Tank
English The Local Government Association (LGA) is the national association for English local government. This article draws some conclusions about contemporary English central-local relations from the strategies and structures of the LGA. We test three models. The ‘partner’ model implies that the LGA is, or ought to be, in a trusting and equal relationship with the centre. The ‘bargaining’ model envisages a centre dependent on local government’s …
Explaining the Birth of the Local Government Association
In the summer of 1995 the three local authority associations that had provided English and Welsh local authorities with their national representation voted to merge and form the Local Government Association. This article explains the merger as dependent upon the coincidence of three conditions. The first was a positive belief in the benefits of merger shared by the leaderships of the three associations. The second was a disruption of the status q…
New problems, old professions? The changing national world of the local government professions
English The local government professions in the UK are undergoing unprecedented change. The impact of these changes on the world of individual professional practice is already well documented. This article examines the largely neglected national role of the local government professional associations. Confronted with a rapidly changing environment we found national associations experimenting with new approaches to the defence and advancement of th…
Towards Sustainable Waste Management: Central Steering, Local Enabling or Autopoiesis
English As the UK’s Labour government prepares a new strategy for sustainable waste management, this article considers the efficacy of the previous Conservative government’s endeavours. Confusion over the relative merits of reclamation, incineration and landfill has diverted attention from the key priority of minimising waste and increasing recycling. This article considers the muddled aspirations of the Conservative government’s policy; its reli…
Trust in waste regulation
Does Cross-Sectoral Partnership Deliver? An Empirical Exploration of Public Service Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Equity
Cross-sectoral partnerships are increasingly seen as a solution to the most pressing social problems facing contemporary societies. Sectoral rationales for partnership suggest that public, private, and nonprofit organizations each possess distinctive advantages that can enhance the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of public agencies’ efforts to address social issues. We present an exploratory quantitative examination of this argument, using …
From Competition to Collaboration in Public Service Delivery: A New Agenda for Research
Competition was one of the guiding threads of public policy under the Conservative Governments of the 1980s and 1990s. But whereas the Conservatives looked to the market primarily for the disciplining and economizing effects of competition, the Labour Government sees the market as a source of innovation and improvement. Following a brief description of these different perspectives, this paper identifies three avenues deserving of further inquiry:…
Public–private partnerships, management capacity and public service efficiency
By working with business, public organisations are assumed to benefit from: a more contestable procurement process; access to private sector entrepreneurialism and the realisation of previously untapped scale economies. Nevertheless, realisation of these benefits may be contingent upon an expansion of management capacity to cope with vastly increased transaction costs. We examine the relationship between a commitment to public-private partnership…
Why nudge sometimes fails: Fatalism and the Problem of Behaviour Change
Nudge presumes that decision-making is guided by intuitive biases and heavily influenced by the environment in which choices are made. However, critics argue that in place of the quick thinking envisaged by nudge behaviour change reflects deeper and broader thought processes. One of these patterns of thinking – fatalism – has been identified across health and allied disciplines as key to explaining the reason why many people ignore authoritative …
The three challenges of community leadership
The ongoing reform of UK local government emphasises the development of local authorities as ‘community leaders’. Both the definition of the term, and local government's fitness for the role are, however, contested. Previous research suggests that to fulfil this role local government will have to meet three challenges: engage citizens in the determination of community priorities, provide strategic leadership and develop the collaborative potentia…
New problems, old professions? The changing national world of the local government professions
English The local government professions in the UK are undergoing unprecedented change. The impact of these changes on the world of individual professional practice is already well documented. This article examines the largely neglected national role of the local government professional associations. Confronted with a rapidly changing environment we found national associations experimenting with new approaches to the defence and advancement of th…
A Prehistory of the Best Value Regime
Best Value was one of the central planks of New Labour's modernisation agenda for local government. This article uncovers the origins of the regime by unpicking the activities of two working groups responsible for its design. Licking its wounds in the aftermath of the 1987 General Election the Labour Party's leadership had come to see the party's record in local government as a source of increasing embarrassment. A series of policy initiatives, f…
The multiple strategies of the Local Government Association: Partner, Player and Think-Tank
English The Local Government Association (LGA) is the national association for English local government. This article draws some conclusions about contemporary English central-local relations from the strategies and structures of the LGA. We test three models. The ‘partner’ model implies that the LGA is, or ought to be, in a trusting and equal relationship with the centre. The ‘bargaining’ model envisages a centre dependent on local government’s …
For Appropriateness or Consequences? Explaining Organizational Change in English Local Government
New institutional theory suggests that radical organizational change is guided by a logic of appropriateness in which organizations change their structures and processes in response to changes in prevailing notions of how best to organize. Contingency theories suggests, by contrast, that organizations pursue a logic of consequentiality, trying to maximize performance by adjusting structures and processes in response to relatively tangible things …
The Multi-Level Governance of Wales: Layer Cake or Marble Cake
Research Highlights and Abstract Provides a reading of the literatures on multi-level governance and federalism to develop a series of propositions about the nature of the relationship between different levels of government in the devolved United Kingdom. Drawing on a survey of local government officers in Wales, the article reports support for both layer cake and marble cake interpretations of multi-level governance. The article concludes with a…
New Spaces for Inclusion? Lessons from the 'Three-Thirds' Partnerships in Wales
Multi-sector partnership working has become an increasingly important mode of governance across many Western European countries. It is seen as a means of overcoming social divisions, promoting more inclusive policymaking, and transforming governance systems. Partnership is perceived to be a more flexible form of governance, capable of resolving some of the complex policy and legitimation problems associated with more traditional statist approache…
Leadership and service improvement: Dual elites or dynamic dependency
Effective local leadership is at the heart of the Government's ‘modernisation agenda’. Official pronouncements suggest a fairly straightforward division of roles between elected members who, it is argued, are responsible for community leadership, and officers who should provide corporate leadership of the local authority organisation. In practice, however, executive members frequently find themselves involved in decisions relating to the manageme…
Putting the Citizen at the Centre? Assembling Local Government Policy in Wales
Since devolution in 1999, the Welsh Government has developed a distinctive approach to the management of local government policy. Alongside an emphasis on welfarism and partnership, local authorities have been exhorted to put the citizen at the centre of public service delivery. Drawing on the notion of assemblage, developed in the governmentality literature, this paper identifies two different rationalities running through Welsh Government polic…
The Dysfunctions of Markets, Hierarchies and Networks in the Meta-governance of Partnership
Governments increasingly see partnerships as their delivery instrument of choice. There is disagreement, however, about how the proliferation of these institutions should be understood. One interpretation sees ungovernability, instability and unaccountability in the fragmented institutions of local governance. Another maintains that the new approaches to co-ordination have allowed for the reassertion of hierarchical control. On the basis of a the…
Towards Sustainable Waste Management: Central Steering, Local Enabling or Autopoiesis
English As the UK’s Labour government prepares a new strategy for sustainable waste management, this article considers the efficacy of the previous Conservative government’s endeavours. Confusion over the relative merits of reclamation, incineration and landfill has diverted attention from the key priority of minimising waste and increasing recycling. This article considers the muddled aspirations of the Conservative government’s policy; its reli…
Explaining the Birth of the Local Government Association
In the summer of 1995 the three local authority associations that had provided English and Welsh local authorities with their national representation voted to merge and form the Local Government Association. This article explains the merger as dependent upon the coincidence of three conditions. The first was a positive belief in the benefits of merger shared by the leaderships of the three associations. The second was a disruption of the status q…
Reframing Governance: Competition, Fatalism and Autonomy in Central–local Relations
Much of the work on contemporary governance points either to a strong central government that continues to operate hierarchically or else to a relatively weak centre which relies on network forms of coordination. In place of the choice between hierarchy and networks, the cultural theory pioneered by Mary Douglas draws our attention to five distinctive ‘social environments’ characterized in terms of hierarchy, individualism, egalitarianism, fatali…
The spaces of modernisation: Outcomes, indicators and the local government modernisation agenda
Picking Winners to Define and Disseminate Best Practice
From 1998 the Government launched Beacon award schemes in local government, schools, the National Health Service, further education and central government. The schemes were distinctive in that they all shared the assumption that organisational learning could be advanced through a competitive process of identifying successful organisations and recruiting them to disseminate their good practices. Drawing on a number of evaluations of the different …
For society, state and self: Juggling the Logics of Professionalism in General Practice Appraisal
Sociologists repeatedly appeal to notions of altruism, bureaucratisation and self interest in their efforts to explain the changing place of the professions in contemporary society. We treat these three readings as institutional logics that are key to understanding the way in which doctors respond to the appraisal system at the heart of the UK's approach to revalidation. Our analysis of a survey of 998 general practitioners (GPs) working in Wales…
Trust in waste regulation
Towards Sustainable Waste Management: Central Steering, Local Enabling or Autopoiesis
English As the UK’s Labour government prepares a new strategy for sustainable waste management, this article considers the efficacy of the previous Conservative government’s endeavours. Confusion over the relative merits of reclamation, incineration and landfill has diverted attention from the key priority of minimising waste and increasing recycling. This article considers the muddled aspirations of the Conservative government’s policy; its reli…
New problems, old professions? The changing national world of the local government professions
English The local government professions in the UK are undergoing unprecedented change. The impact of these changes on the world of individual professional practice is already well documented. This article examines the largely neglected national role of the local government professional associations. Confronted with a rapidly changing environment we found national associations experimenting with new approaches to the defence and advancement of th…
Explaining the Birth of the Local Government Association
In the summer of 1995 the three local authority associations that had provided English and Welsh local authorities with their national representation voted to merge and form the Local Government Association. This article explains the merger as dependent upon the coincidence of three conditions. The first was a positive belief in the benefits of merger shared by the leaderships of the three associations. The second was a disruption of the status q…
The multiple strategies of the Local Government Association: Partner, Player and Think-Tank
English The Local Government Association (LGA) is the national association for English local government. This article draws some conclusions about contemporary English central-local relations from the strategies and structures of the LGA. We test three models. The ‘partner’ model implies that the LGA is, or ought to be, in a trusting and equal relationship with the centre. The ‘bargaining’ model envisages a centre dependent on local government’s …
From Competition to Collaboration in Public Service Delivery: A New Agenda for Research
Competition was one of the guiding threads of public policy under the Conservative Governments of the 1980s and 1990s. But whereas the Conservatives looked to the market primarily for the disciplining and economizing effects of competition, the Labour Government sees the market as a source of innovation and improvement. Following a brief description of these different perspectives, this paper identifies three avenues deserving of further inquiry:…
Leadership and service improvement: Dual elites or dynamic dependency
Effective local leadership is at the heart of the Government's ‘modernisation agenda’. Official pronouncements suggest a fairly straightforward division of roles between elected members who, it is argued, are responsible for community leadership, and officers who should provide corporate leadership of the local authority organisation. In practice, however, executive members frequently find themselves involved in decisions relating to the manageme…
A Prehistory of the Best Value Regime
Best Value was one of the central planks of New Labour's modernisation agenda for local government. This article uncovers the origins of the regime by unpicking the activities of two working groups responsible for its design. Licking its wounds in the aftermath of the 1987 General Election the Labour Party's leadership had come to see the party's record in local government as a source of increasing embarrassment. A series of policy initiatives, f…
Picking Winners to Define and Disseminate Best Practice
From 1998 the Government launched Beacon award schemes in local government, schools, the National Health Service, further education and central government. The schemes were distinctive in that they all shared the assumption that organisational learning could be advanced through a competitive process of identifying successful organisations and recruiting them to disseminate their good practices. Drawing on a number of evaluations of the different …
The three challenges of community leadership
The ongoing reform of UK local government emphasises the development of local authorities as ‘community leaders’. Both the definition of the term, and local government's fitness for the role are, however, contested. Previous research suggests that to fulfil this role local government will have to meet three challenges: engage citizens in the determination of community priorities, provide strategic leadership and develop the collaborative potentia…
Who or What Sets the Agenda: The case of rural issues in England's local public service agreements
Based on a case study of the implementation of England's Local Public Service Agreements (LPSAs) – a funding stream which allowed local authorities to target approximately £1.5 billion at pressing social problems – this article considers the relative importance of internal and external forces on the agenda setting process. Our data suggests that despite the coincidence of events which put rural issues firmly on the media and public agendas in 200…
The Dysfunctions of Markets, Hierarchies and Networks in the Meta-governance of Partnership
Governments increasingly see partnerships as their delivery instrument of choice. There is disagreement, however, about how the proliferation of these institutions should be understood. One interpretation sees ungovernability, instability and unaccountability in the fragmented institutions of local governance. Another maintains that the new approaches to co-ordination have allowed for the reassertion of hierarchical control. On the basis of a the…
The spaces of modernisation: Outcomes, indicators and the local government modernisation agenda
New Spaces for Inclusion? Lessons from the 'Three-Thirds' Partnerships in Wales
Multi-sector partnership working has become an increasingly important mode of governance across many Western European countries. It is seen as a means of overcoming social divisions, promoting more inclusive policymaking, and transforming governance systems. Partnership is perceived to be a more flexible form of governance, capable of resolving some of the complex policy and legitimation problems associated with more traditional statist approache…
For Appropriateness or Consequences? Explaining Organizational Change in English Local Government
New institutional theory suggests that radical organizational change is guided by a logic of appropriateness in which organizations change their structures and processes in response to changes in prevailing notions of how best to organize. Contingency theories suggests, by contrast, that organizations pursue a logic of consequentiality, trying to maximize performance by adjusting structures and processes in response to relatively tangible things …
Does Cross-Sectoral Partnership Deliver? An Empirical Exploration of Public Service Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Equity
Cross-sectoral partnerships are increasingly seen as a solution to the most pressing social problems facing contemporary societies. Sectoral rationales for partnership suggest that public, private, and nonprofit organizations each possess distinctive advantages that can enhance the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of public agencies’ efforts to address social issues. We present an exploratory quantitative examination of this argument, using …
The Multi-Level Governance of Wales: Layer Cake or Marble Cake
Research Highlights and Abstract Provides a reading of the literatures on multi-level governance and federalism to develop a series of propositions about the nature of the relationship between different levels of government in the devolved United Kingdom. Drawing on a survey of local government officers in Wales, the article reports support for both layer cake and marble cake interpretations of multi-level governance. The article concludes with a…
Putting the Citizen at the Centre? Assembling Local Government Policy in Wales
Since devolution in 1999, the Welsh Government has developed a distinctive approach to the management of local government policy. Alongside an emphasis on welfarism and partnership, local authorities have been exhorted to put the citizen at the centre of public service delivery. Drawing on the notion of assemblage, developed in the governmentality literature, this paper identifies two different rationalities running through Welsh Government polic…
Reframing Governance: Competition, Fatalism and Autonomy in Central–local Relations
Much of the work on contemporary governance points either to a strong central government that continues to operate hierarchically or else to a relatively weak centre which relies on network forms of coordination. In place of the choice between hierarchy and networks, the cultural theory pioneered by Mary Douglas draws our attention to five distinctive ‘social environments’ characterized in terms of hierarchy, individualism, egalitarianism, fatali…
Public–private partnerships, management capacity and public service efficiency
By working with business, public organisations are assumed to benefit from: a more contestable procurement process; access to private sector entrepreneurialism and the realisation of previously untapped scale economies. Nevertheless, realisation of these benefits may be contingent upon an expansion of management capacity to cope with vastly increased transaction costs. We examine the relationship between a commitment to public-private partnership…
For society, state and self: Juggling the Logics of Professionalism in General Practice Appraisal
Sociologists repeatedly appeal to notions of altruism, bureaucratisation and self interest in their efforts to explain the changing place of the professions in contemporary society. We treat these three readings as institutional logics that are key to understanding the way in which doctors respond to the appraisal system at the heart of the UK's approach to revalidation. Our analysis of a survey of 998 general practitioners (GPs) working in Wales…
Why nudge sometimes fails: Fatalism and the Problem of Behaviour Change
Nudge presumes that decision-making is guided by intuitive biases and heavily influenced by the environment in which choices are made. However, critics argue that in place of the quick thinking envisaged by nudge behaviour change reflects deeper and broader thought processes. One of these patterns of thinking – fatalism – has been identified across health and allied disciplines as key to explaining the reason why many people ignore authoritative …
Amoral Management and the Normalisation of Deviance: The Case of Stafford Hospital
Inquiries into organisational scandals repeatedly attribute wrongdoing to the normalisation of deviance. From this perspective, the cause of harm lies not in the actions of any individual but rather in the institutionalised practices of organisations or sectors. Although an important corrective to dramatic tales of bad apples, the normalisation thesis underplays the role of management in the emergence of deviance. Drawing on literatures exploring…
Political science (18 works) · Public Administration (14 works) · Public Administration (13 works) · Economics (12 works) · Law (12 works) · Government (linguistics (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Public Policy and Administration Research (10 works) · Public relations (10 works) · Sociology (9 works)