Abstract
Government departments are under pressure to increase efficiency and effectiveness and to reduce staff numbers. The Rayner scrutiny programme is part of this pressure; and it has encouraged greater use of independent investigators and change catalysts within departments. This breed of internal critics often operate within, but at the limits of, official tolerance, like bureaucratic Philip Marlowes whose solutions may be accepted, but rarely with gratitude. Despite these developments external critics have continued to doubt the capacity for self‐criticism and innovation within government. The popular television programme‘Yes Minister’ has encouraged such a view. This article describes one department's attempt at using internal change agents to review the handling of business and to implement major changes in an organization employing over 60,000 people. The exercise suggests that bureaucratic inertia can be overcome internally, although the change process is difficult and sometimes painful for those involved.
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