Does a new philosophy change the structures? Compulsory Competitive Tendering and local authority leisure services in Midland England

Abstract

Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT) in the UK separated the delivery of leisure services from management and strategy. This has led to changes in staffing, conditions of employment, and a rethink about objectives. Mintzberg (1981) argued that there were five basic configurations of organizations. Local authorities are a hybrid of his machine and professional bureaucracies. CCT decentralizes some of the decision-making, marketizes the delivery and some of the welfare issues and introduces new performance criteria. The research investigated how these processes occurred in ten district councils in the Midlands, using semi-structured interviews with senior and facility managers. The findings imply that there are moves towards two variants of the divisionalized form of organization, which tend to be associated with political control. In part, the government has achieved its object of 'flexibilizing' municipal structures and reducing investment, but there are also significant remnants of old systems and attitudes, and substantial resistance of coerced forms of change. The paper spells out examples of change and adaptation/accommodation.