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Learning Lessons Tracing the threads of legitimacy in
public reform projects: a critical analysis
Phronetic Research
Where are we going with this specific management
problematic?
Who gains and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power
Is this development desirable?
What, if anything, should we do about it?
The Case: The FiReControl Project; regionalising the fire service
The problematic
Project failure & the Public Accounts Committee:
Lessons Learned?
• Weak leadership, project, procurement and contract
management
• Flawed selection of prime contractor, no previous experience of
market
• Failure to secure the co-operation and support of local Fire
Services.
• Failure to apply effective checks and balances from the start
• Failure to manage delivery of the IT system by the contractor.
• Despite the scale of failure and waste, no one in the
Department has been held accountable.
Largely and predictably ‘blaming’ agents for their behaviours
Either we are not learning enough from these
recommendations or there is something else to learn.
Critical hermeneutics Cycling between texts and their contexts; parts to whole
• New Labour
• Fire Unions
• Chief Fire Officer Assoc.n
agency
• Fire Service
• ODPM
• Public sector
• Government
structures • Terrorism
• Private finance
• Best Value
cultures
Critical hermeneutics and realist depth; Going wider and deeper than standard case methods
Critical hermeneutics methods extends the inquiry out
to the wider context not through recollections but by
recreating past as it happened . Reveals hidden
meaning in texts
Critical realist ontology extends the inquiry to deeper
levels, revealing hidden structures and mechanisms
influencing talk and decisions
Standard case
study approach
bounded by the
project itself
Building & unravelling threads of Legitimacy
failure is a loss of support, a loss of legitimacy...how did it start?
Ideation & approval Late stages of delivery Delivery stages
Then by: Consultants
PMBOK rules/standards
Project boards/teams
Project documentation
Images & symbols
Public sector
secondments
Oversight reports
Unravelled by:
Budget escalations
Lack of deliverables
Crises of legitimacy
Withdrawal of support,
cancellation
Legitimated by:
Political agendas
Rational myths of
Best Value & Efficiency
National insecurity
about terrorism
Gov-funded consultant
reports
Ultimate legitimacy powered by Corporate Agency Capacity to influence structural/cultural modelling
NPM
Corporate Agency
Rhetoric legitimacy
power
Causal mechanisms
Findings some key examples
PAC inquiries fail to explore the influence of these forces rendering any
evaluation incomplete…PAC failed to reveal in the case of Firecontrol :
The legitimating effects of gov-funded consultants reports, which
contributed to government’s authority
Continuous use of rhetoric, claiming the project would deliver “efficiency”
and “national security”, which were never evidenced
The size, cost and funding model for the PFI buildings (PAC considered
major procurement failure) was more to do with New Labour’s agenda for
regional government and private finance, than with fire service
requirements
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2010
•46 down to 9 regions Control room reduction problematic and unachievable, perhaps 21
Mott
Consultancy #1
•new philosophy of enduring preparedness for sustained response to terrorist threats
•communications
9/11 attacks
•Pay disputes, FBU turns against Labour for ‘selling out unions’, New Labour agenda opposes union s
National Fire Strike
•46 control rooms down to 9 now considered achievable. Leads to FiReControl
Mott Consultancy #2
• New ideology: localism
New Coalition
• “Worst project failure”
PAC Inquiry
• Best Value & Efficiency
Local Gov.t Act
• New ideology: PFI
• PPP
• Modernisation
New Labour
• Recommends gradual reform via collaboration
Review of Fire Service
the 7 year reform project
Functional analysis
scope
time cost
structure
agency
culture legitimacy
LESSONS LEARNED?? Narrow PAC inquiry typically blaming agents IS CONFLATIONARY, MORE CAN BE LEARNED!
Wide and deeper inquiry exploring agency, culture and structural influences to identify causal mechanisms that contributed to failure
Reform project failure: a critical inquiry
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