Why DON'T public sector snr execs lose their jobs when they screw up?

[BrummieOnTheRun]

Having been horrified last night at Gerry Robinson's observations on NHS 'management', we wake up to the news that the Home Office has screwed up...again. And 15 underperforming directors in the Home Office are not going to be sacked, just reassigned.

I've never worked in the public sector so I'm intrigued. What on earth is going on these dysfunctional organisations? Is it the 'job for life' culture, poor training or lack of private sector experience of senior managers that's to blame?

they play golf with each other
dine with each other
their wives go shopping together

they lunch in each others houses

their kids go to the same school

its not like you and i doing our 9-5

you would have to do a nick leeson to be ostrasized.

oh and it doesnt apply to the regular bods and isnt contained to the public sector.

in the organisation i work in - the same thing occurs.

thee is a group who play tennis and golf together if they 'know someone' who is good for a job - its no surprise that person gets it.

Very cynical Custardo but unfortunately also true.

That 'jobs for the boys' thing probably happens in most private sector organisations too - but not to THAT extent. It must be incredibly depressing to work in an environment where more senior managers have no accountability for their action / inaction.

But how DO they manage to avoid that personal accountability for failing to set up normal management structures and the screw ups that result? (I couldn't believe in the NHS example that they were paying external consultants to tell them what their own staff knew because their internal reporting lines were non-existent).

And surely these guys have objectives that SOMEONE is monitoring? Surely the crony-ism can only go so far?

I'm really naive, aren't I?

It just really annoyed me that the collective talent (many of the solutions already lay in 'lower' levels of the organisation) was bloody ignored or not even solicited.

Believe it or not there are many talented people in the Public sector doing good and very important work. Not a popular view I'm sure but I have known people to leave very prestigious jobs in the private sector to join the Public Sector as they want to make a difference. I don't work in the Home Office though.

thing is the staff structure and politics are inextricably intertwined - so reporting that something is failing to your manager - who instigated said project, is banking reputation on it etc is nopt a good idea - becuase you in turn will lose and standing in the organisation.

where i work i am employed to consult residents about what they would like to see from us as an organisation. through all our previous researchw e know - all they want is their repairs doing on time giving them a decent home.

however as an organisation we have implimented a call centre.

this call centre cost millions of tenants money, senior management endorsed it.

tenants hate it
they wernt even consulted on it - even though we are statutarily obliged to do so - becuase the tenants dont matter you see - the political aspirations of the managers matters.

so money is spend on it - its hyped up internally as the best thing ever

and then i watch those NATWEST adverts 'no call centres ...a real person'

and cant help but laugh maniacally.

the ordinary bods within the organisation know its bullshit - we twist our research - the questions we ask - the way we present it - to support something the residents hate - with passion.

bull shit

Well yes you are a bit Brummie, but it would take too long to explain why (very detailed long winded explanations etc)

In a nutshell - not all is as it appears

They said the average tenure of NHS chief execs was 2 1/2 years, so surely that suggests that there is personal accountability in those organisations at least?
Watching the Gerry Robinson programme, we got the impression that the problem was almost the other way round in that case: no chief exec stays long enough to get his head round the organisation or to gain the trust of the clinicians, and as they might be there for 25 years there's no wonder they see it as their organisation rather than his.
It looked like there was pressure on the chief exec to deliver big results, hence his desire to operate only at a big strategic blue skies level, when actually what was needed was someone who was willing to get down to the nitty gritty.

Obviously that's not true of all public sector management, but I wonder whether sometimes 'accountability' is an easy answer and not really what's lacking?

Public sector senior execs don't get fired because if they mess up it doesn't matter - the taxpayer foots the bill. Private sector execs do get fired if they lose too much money as badly run companies tend to go bankcrupt.