Transforming the professional archetype?: The new managerialism in UK social services

Ian Kirkpatrick; Stephen Ackroyd

doi:10.1080/1471903032000178563

Transforming the professional archetype? The new managerialism in UK social services

Ian Kirkpatrick, Stephen Ackroyd

The York Management School

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The aim of this article is to question the idea that all professional service organizations are undergoing a process of inter-archetype transformation. This idea, originating in organizational archetype theory, is now being used to interpret contemporary processes of change in British and other public sector services. Drawing on an example of management UK restructuring in social services during the 1990s – that of local authority social services in the UK – two main problems with this thesis are identified. First, this service demonstrates that ‘radical’ change has not occurred and that older professional values and working practices persist. Second, it reveals how, in at least one part of the public sector in the UK, management reforms have been partly undermined by a specific constellation of institutions and practices. These observations call for questioning the proposition that inter-archetype change is what has occurred and that current reforms will inevitably have this sort of transformational effect.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	511-531
Number of pages	21
Journal	Public Management Review
Volume	5
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/1471903032000178563
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2003

Keywords

Archetypes
New public management
Professions
Social services

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10.1080/1471903032000178563

Cite this

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Transforming the professional archetype? The new managerialism in UK social services

Abstract

Keywords

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