Building Teams and Managing Change in a Local Government Authority Available to Purchase

The Social Services Department of Waltham Forest is of an average size among the London boroughs with a workforce of 1,450 and a budget (in 1985) of about £20 million. In the autumn of 1983 the department was unexpectedly faced with sudden and fundamental changes to the senior management team. The Director who had formed and led the department since its inception in 1971 with a highly personalised and positively directive style, was retired on health grounds following a protracted illness and almost simultaneously one of the Assistant Directors elected for early retirement.