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