IPPC6

1. Learning Lessons
Tracing the threads of legitimacy in
public reform projects: a critical analysis
Phronetic Research
Where are we going with this specific management
problematic?
Who gains and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power
Is this development desirable?
What, if anything, should we do about it?

2. The Case:
The FiReControl Project; regionalising the fire service

3. The problematic
Project failure & the Public Accounts Committee:
Lessons Learned?
• Weak leadership, project, procurement and contract
management
• Flawed selection of prime contractor, no previous experience of
market
• Failure to secure the co-operation and support of local Fire
Services.
• Failure to apply effective checks and balances from the start
• Failure to manage delivery of the IT system by the contractor.
• Despite the scale of failure and waste, no one in the
Department has been held accountable.
Largely and predictably ‘blaming’ agents for their behaviours
Either we are not learning enough from these
recommendations or there is something else to learn.

4. Critical hermeneutics
Cycling between texts and their contexts; parts to whole
• New Labour
• Fire Unions
• Chief Fire
Officer Assoc.n
agency
• Fire Service
• ODPM
• Public sector
• Government
structures • Terrorism
• Private finance
• Best Value
cultures

5. Critical hermeneutics and realist depth;
Going wider and deeper than standard case methods
Critical hermeneutics methods extends the inquiry out
to the wider context not through recollections but by
recreating past as it happened . Reveals hidden
meaning in texts
Critical realist ontology extends the inquiry to deeper
levels, revealing hidden structures and mechanisms
influencing talk and decisions
Standard case
study approach
bounded by the
project itself

6. Building & unravelling threads of Legitimacy
failure is a loss of support, a loss of legitimacy...how did it start?
Ideation & approval Late stages of deliveryDelivery stages
Then by: Consultants
PMBOK rules/standards
Project boards/teams
Project documentation
Images & symbols
Public sector
secondments
Oversight reports
Unravelled by:
Budget escalations
Lack of deliverables
Crises of legitimacy
Withdrawal of support,
cancellation
Legitimated by:
Political agendas
Rational myths of
Best Value & Efficiency
National insecurity
about terrorism
Gov-funded consultant
reports

7. Ultimate legitimacy powered by Corporate Agency
Capacity to influence structural/cultural modelling
NPM
Corporate
Agency
Rhetoric
legitimacy
power
Causal
mechanisms

8. Findings some key examples
PAC inquiries fail to explore the influence of these forces rendering any
evaluation incomplete…PAC failed to reveal in the case of Firecontrol :
 The legitimating effects of gov-funded consultants reports, which
contributed to government’s authority
 Continuous use of rhetoric, claiming the project would deliver “efficiency”
and “national security”, which were never evidenced
 The size, cost and funding model for the PFI buildings (PAC considered
major procurement failure) was more to do with New Labour’s agenda for
regional government and private finance, than with fire service
requirements

9. 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2010
•46 down to 9
regions Control
room reduction
problematic and
unachievable,
perhaps 21
Mott
Consultancy #1
•new philosophy of
enduring
preparedness for
sustained response
to terrorist threats
•communications
9/11 attacks
•Pay disputes, FBU
turns against Labour
for ‘selling out
unions’, New
Labour agenda
opposes union s
National Fire
Strike
•46 control rooms
down to 9 now
considered
achievable. Leads
to FiReControl
Mott
Consultancy #2
• New
ideology:
localism
New
Coalition
• “Worst
project
failure”
PAC Inquiry
• Best Value &
Efficiency
Local Gov.t
Act
• New ideology:
PFI
• PPP
• Modernisation
New
Labour
• Recommends
gradual
reform via
collaboration
Review of
Fire Service
the 7 year reform
project
Functional analysis
scope
time
cost
structure
agency
culture
legitimacy
LESSONS LEARNED??
Narrow PAC inquiry
typically blaming
agents IS
CONFLATIONARY,
MORE CAN BE
LEARNED!
Wide and deeper inquiry exploring agency, culture and structural influences to
identify causal mechanisms that contributed to failure
Reform project failure: a critical inquiry