The Developing Managers on a Tight Budget Series
These are difficult times for public sector managers some people think the business can do ok with a lot fewer of them. Managers must deliver savage budget reductions, cut services, make people redundant and keep the remaining staff motivated whilst their wages are frozen. When this has been achieved they will find themselves working for smaller and very different organisations and they will find they are no longer doing the same job.
I wrote People management in a harsh financial climate in response to this challenge of getting people to work in new ways and helping managers through a period of painful changes. Then I thought ok what happens when the budget cuts have been made, when services have been outsourced and the workforce dramatically reduced? It wouldn’t be the same type of organisation and the job of manager will be very different. For a start spans of responsibility will be much broader as a result of fewer management posts. Managers will be responsible for a range of services which they have no professional back ground in. A smaller Public Sector will have a different relationship with a bigger private and voluntary sector one based on influencing rather than determining. How will we equip managers for a very different and as yet uncertain future? How will we afford management development at a time when budgets are so tight?
It was this thinking that prompted me to write Equipping Managers for an Uncertain Future. The book is base on the belief that the best way to equip managers for an uncertain future is to focus on core management skill that is managing budgets, managing information managing buildings and equipment but most of all managing people. I have used my experience as a manager to produce short thought provoking articles which focus on every day management issues. Material that can be discussed in one to ones, management learning sets or private study. As a former director I have also tried to give the reader an insight into the thinking of senior management and what really goes on at the top. Which should help in managing your manager and getting that senior management post.