Governance, Strategy and Policy: Seven Critical Essays

Citation

Galavan, R. (2006), "Governance, Strategy and Policy: Seven Critical Essays", Management Decision, Vol. 44 No. 6, pp. 830-831. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740610673378

Governance, Strategy and Policy: Seven Critical Essays, is the latest in a series of books and articles by the editors dealing with issues of governance. Their work has moved from its origination in boardroom governance to the current title dealing with government and the governance of nations. While the governance of business has been a popular topic for scholars and journalists recently, fuelled no doubt by recent corporate scandals, the governance of nations has received less critical attention; at least by those fluent in the language of organisation strategy, design and leadership. This book brings together public sector and private sector scholars and provides an insight into the governance of nations for those versed in the governance of organisations, and provides those versed in the governance of nations with the perspective of their private sector counterparts.

The book does not follow the trend of many others by pitting public sector and private sector against each other or suggesting that it should be so. Rather, it presents seven insightful and critical essays that challenge the reader to consider the changing landscape of government‐business interaction in the twenty‐first century. The book deals with such topics as the privatisation of state assets and military interventionist policies and reflects on the justification of these developments which are explained on the one hand as corporate profit protection mechanisms and on the other as mechanisms for promoting the welfare of citizens. Each of the essays have an eclectic quality, but the strand that ties them together is the exploration of governance at the nation level and a critical challenge as to whether the participative democratic model of western society can sustain the challenges to come.

In the opening chapter Dixon et al. develop the epistemological and ontological underpinning of societal governance perspectives and explore the mutually exclusive categorisation of hierarchists, individualists, enclavists and outsiders. Of particular interest is their underlying thesis that while the political proponents of these mutually exclusive positions may make a virtue of their difference, the governability of society depends on the ability to reconcile these views in practice.

In a series of related chapters that follow the editors along with Kouzmin begin by advocating the revitalisation in America of what might be popularly taken as free speech, but is more is more accurately portrayed in chapter two as the protection of information rights. In a related theme Kalu follows by considering how information technology can be used to hold public servant to account in a more transparent fashion. Kalu follows by arguing for the separation of the politician from the public servant (or at least illuminate the difference). In chapter four the editors and Jarman continue the theme by calling for an illumination of the relationship between private enterprise and the state. Then in what is a somewhat tangential context Sementelli considers the management, by the state, of water resources. While the context is tangential, and interesting nevertheless, the connective theme is movement of the state into the rent‐seeking sphere of commercial enterprise through the sale of scarce resources.

In the penultimate chapter the theme moves away from the public‐private interface, to the loftier consideration of the governance of government and its leadership in this context. In an interesting and challenging chapter, Afanasyev and Kouzmin point to the convergence of Russian and American governance modes towards oligarchy, where the influence of a few shape the destiny of the masses. Following a similar vein, in the final chapter the editors Kakabadse and Kakabadse turn their attention to the UK model and call for the relationship between advisors, ministers, civil servants and powerful stakeholders to be exposed. They argue that although the design and structure of policy formation processes are flawed, they cannot be fixed until the requisite level of transparency has been achieved; in the context of recent UK controversies involving wealthy stakeholders, political party loans and peerages, their argument has added currency.

Despite the eclectic nature of some of the contributions, and their broad representation of governance from Russia to the UK to the US, there is a consistent reminder that the challenges of twenty‐first century nation governance will require a movement from a representative democracy to a more participative one. With transparency as a defining philosophy and ICT as an enabling mechanism this book begins to identify how this can be achieved. But while the book shows how it might be achieved I found little to convince me that the political elite, who have engaged so readily with the private elite, demonstrate the will to champion this move. If as the editors imply the sustainability of society depends on this movement, then I can think of no better reason to recommend reading this book, even, perhaps even especially, to disagree with the theses offered and participate in the development of the debate.