Whitehall staff lack trust in managers’ leadership

30 Jul 09
Civil servants lack confidence in their bosses’ leadership abilities, researchers revealed this week
By Vivienne Russell

30 July 2009

Civil servants lack confidence in their bosses’ leadership abilities, researchers revealed this week.

The Institute for Government said that while many civil servants were highly committed, many did not consider their departments to be well led.

Akash Paun, senior researcher at the institute, told Public Finance: ‘In some departments there is very low confidence in senior leaders and departmental boards, as well as limited awareness of what the boards are there to do.

‘Across the civil service as a whole, confidence in senior management is well below the level found in places like Canada and the US.’

He added that ‘low levels of confidence in leaders seem to go hand in hand with some departments’ difficulties in developing a clear vision about what they were for and communicating to staff a sense of how their work contributes to that’.

The institute’s July 27 report also highlighted civil servants’ poor view of performance management systems. Departmental staff surveys revealed that, on average, fewer than 30% agreed that their department tackled poor performance effectively.

‘In the senior civil service when they ran that question [in 2006], the picture was even worse,’ Paun added.

‘Less than 20% responded positively, including just 32% of permanent secretaries who ought to be in a position to do something about it.’

The report also countered the common perception that central government is particularly strong in the UK.

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