Call for better public management to avert disaster

An OU academic will call for better management of public services, so that disasters such as Grenfell Tower can be avoided.

In his inaugural lecture, Context in public management, the missing link, on Tuesday 6 February, Edoardo Ongaro, OU Professor of Public Management, will look at how culture, history and geography have a bearing on how public services should be managed in different locations.

Many of these ideas are drawn out in Professor Ongaro’s recent book: The Palgrave Handbook of Public Administration and Management in Europe, in which he looks at the distinctiveness of Europe as an entity for public administration but yet the separateness of some of its elements, which leads to the conclusion that one size does not fit all in the management of public services.

He will also warn against the management of public services adopting a “box-ticking” approach in an attempt to meet targets. A recent example of his views on this is the approach he takes on the Grenfell Tower disaster where he believes that the council was so target driven that heedfulness of the outcomes that really matter - preserving the safety of people by monitoring the key risk areas - may have been overlooked, eventually contributing to the dramatic event that occurred.

“We see the results daily of generic approaches being taken in public management so that the correct boxes are ticked to meet performance targets," he said.  "In my lecture, I will suggest that this approach is misleading and warn against it and suggest that the context in which these decisions are taken, must be taken into account.”

Find out more about Professor Ongaro’s inaugural lecture: Context in public management, the missing link.

Read about his new book: The Palgrave Handbook of Public Administration and Management in Europe.

Read about Professor Ongaro’s research