Notions of ‘Success’ in General Management

Abstract

It is surely significant that the title of this paper deals in vague terms such as notions, and that in line with true Health Service caution, the idea of success is hedged with appropriate punctuation. It is almost inconceivable that a similar evaluation of general management in the private sector would be so constrained and tentative. No doubt this largely reflects the imperatives of the balance sheet and the ‘cash nexus’ which provide a ready means of assessing managerial competence by reference to objective and absolute criteria. A separate analysis of general management in the private sector might nevertheless conclude that ‘success’ is achieved as much by political intervention and the manipulation of exchange rates, as it is by managerial performance. Certainly, it has always struck me that the epitomes of good management, so persuasively presented in ‘In Search of Excellence’ and so eagerly consumed by the new generation of Health Service Managers, might not stand up to the kind of microscopic scrutiny so commonplace in the Health Service. It would be interesting, for example, to ask the Scottish workforce of the Caterpillar Corporation whether that company's place in the ‘Excellence’ Hall of Fame accorded with their perceptions!