Strategizing for grand challenges: economic development and governance traditions in Malaysian local government

Jeffrey Hughes,Mazlan Yusoff,Kevin Orr

doi:10.1177/00208523211048167

Jeffrey Hughes, Mazlan Yusoff + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/00208523211048167

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Abstract

This qualitative study provides empirical knowledge and develops theory about the role of strategic management in Malaysian local government. As the country addresses the grand challenge of economic growth amid enduring national aspirations of moving from developing to fully developed status, the analysis identifies six approaches to strategic management across nine Malaysian local authorities. Rather than presenting a linear story of progression, the six models of strategizing in Malaysia illuminate the governance traditions that co-exist in this setting. The study examines the assumptions about public management that underpin the different approaches and relates these to the country's inheritance of classical public administration and centralized government, the introduction of New Public Management, and the subsequent emergence of features of New Public Governance. It contributes to theory by providing an analysis of the role of strategy in each of the three governance traditions and connects debates about local governance with scholarship on strategic management. It also contributes to the emerging literature on strategizing for grand challenges and the limited repository of such studies located in a public sector context. The article ends by identifying the implications for policy and practice and suggesting areas for further research. Points for practitioners This study highlights the need for collaboration to address strategic meta problems, manage economic pressures and deliver public services. The six approaches to strategy development presented provide a set of models and frames through which practitioners may assess their local environment. Our typology offers a basis for cross-sectoral learning and reflection, including ways of diagnosing contextual variables and developing strategic knowledge. The Malaysian case shows how the context of strategy formation has been affected by the shift from local government to governance, as well as by interacting colonial legacies.

Highlights

In this article we provide empirical knowledge about public management in Malaysia and use that to develop theory about of the role of strategic management in local governance
In each case we identify the assumptions about public management that underpin each of these practices and relate them to Malaysia’s history of centralization, the introduction of New Public Management (NPM) (Bellé and Ongaro, 2014; Manning, 2001; Reiter and Klenk, 2019) and the evolution of features of New Public Governance (NPG) (Casady et al, 2020)
This undertaking is an important one for scholars who wish to understand and appreciate the range of practices in this relatively under-researched context and how strategy is employed as a mechanism to overcome an enduring grand challenge beneath the national level

Summary

Introduction

In this article we provide empirical knowledge about public management in Malaysia and use that to develop theory about of the role of strategic management in local governance. Globalization and austerity act to encourage participants in networks of local governance to acknowledge interdependencies and build closer coalitions Both NPM and NPG share a sense of the importance of strategic management. Harding (2015: 153) positions Malaysia in the context of a progression “from the shadow of an old state”, perhaps reluctant to let go of some of its centralizing practices He suggests that Local Government acts as something of a pressure valve to “help lower the tension of contestation over big prizes at the national level” (Harding, 2015: 152).

Methodology

Discussion and conclusion