The Problems of Effecting Change within the British Civil Service: A Cultural Perspective Available to Purchase

This paper uses a cultural perspective to explore the problems of change within the British Civil Service. The catalyst for such change is the Government's “Improving Management in government: Next Steps” report (1988). Its intention is to alter radically the structure of the government in the 1990s and beyond. Such a transformation is consistent with other government change initiatives introduced into the NHS, the education service and the prison system. These are both radical and ambitious and illustrate the growing determination to counter what are regarded as the weaknesses and inefficiencies of centralized bureaucracy.