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This qualitative practitioner research is set in a mixed, rural 11-16 Church of England Comprehensive School. It embraces reflective action enquiry into leadership and management of innovation in a turbulent period of national educational change. It is founded on the belief that if change processes are to be understood widely, practitioners must share experience emanating from reflective and analytical practice. This study is about "managing to learn" It embraces concepts of managing personal learning; managing colleagues' and students' learning; and managing processes leading to the emergence of the school as a "learning organisation" It is also about "learning to change" and espouses learning to promote personal change; learning to facilitate change in others; and learning to establish institutional change as a natural on-going characteristic of organisational life. This study is founded on a process of "reflection", as characterised by Schön (1983). Consequently, it employs a process of personal reflection on leadership roles in managing change and learning processes. It employs processes of reflection on cultural and political aspects of organisational life and resultant manifestations and implications of introducing, implementing, and institutionalising organisational and cultural change. This research utilises "refraction"- that is, convergence and divergence. Firstly, it promotes divergent and creative ways of organising which encourage and facilitate innovative processes. Secondly, it employs processes of converging, focusing, and concentrating on taken-for-granted "critical incidents" in the life of a developing school, to elicit meanings of events as understood by participants. Thirdly, it applies cultural and political prisms to school organisation, together with autocratic, bureaucratic, adhocratic, and reticular-democratic lenses in order to elucidate important cultural, political and organisational data. Finally this research is about "action" It is about doing, intervening, intending, committing, motivating, accomplishing, fulfilling and achieving. The essential concept and understanding of "action" is that it should be informed action.

Many changes were taking place in schools and local government while this thesis was being developed during 1992 and 1993. An historical perspective of the impact of legislation on education is followed by a description of the emergence of school development planning. The literature on school effectiveness and improvement, together with that on inspection and advice, are the contexts for consideration of change and quality in schools. Data from every LEA in the UK is linked with interview data from a sample of LEAs with schools engaged in an ESRC-funded research project. Additional information from national education offices and from other research carried out during the same period is used to triangulate perceptions. Insights from this range of data are then presented in two sections: the implications for LEAs and schools are explored and characteristics identified. The evidence indicates that the strategic role of LEAs has been significant in the introduction of primary school development planning. The implementation of policies that have been mandated by central government since 1988 have increasingly depended on schools' ability to prioritise within their own planning. The impact of these policies on the performance, accountability and strategic capacity of community services is considered. Particular consideration is given to collaboration between services, the power shift away from elected members of LEAs towards school governors, and the scope for effective leadership in education. The implications for the deployment of resources and re-orientation of responsibilities throughout the education service and teaching profession are far-reaching. Conclusions about the appropriateness of networking, of competition, and of new patterns of bureaucracy vary in different parts of the UK. In the wake of recent legislation affecting education and local government, a new initiative is needed to revitalise strategic systemic planning and inter-school collaboration.

Os Conselhos Gestores Municipais funcionam como espaços públicos de debate de temas específicos promovendo a aproximação do cidadão à gestão da coisa pública. O ato legal que dá suporte a esta proposta de participação é a Constituição Federal de 1988. O cidadão é o grande pilar de transformação do contexto democrático quando assume as atribuições de interagir com os representantes eleitos na definição das políticas públicas. A política pública de educação dá aos municípios brasileiros a opção de criar seus próprios Sistemas de Ensino e institucionalizar os Conselhos Municipais de Educação. No município de Poços de Caldas o Conselho Municipal de Educação funciona como instrumento de deliberação e consulta. O objetivo geral deste trabalho é analisar as atividades desenvolvidas por este Conselho. Como percurso metodológico optou-se pelo método misto, quantitativo e predominantemente qualitativo. Cujas técnicas para obtenção dos dados foram: o questionário; a observação não-participante; a entrevista e a análise documental. O resultado da pesquisa demonstra que o Conselho Municipal de Educação de Poços de Caldas é agente de fortalecimento da democracia deliberativa, possuindo efetividade e autonomia deliberativa. / The Local management councils work as public places for having a debate of specific subjects promoting to bring the citizens closer the management public matter. The legal act that gives support for this participation offer is the 1988 Federal Constitution. The citizen is the great transformation pillar of the democratic context when taking on the attributions of interacting with the elected representatives defining the public policy. The educational public policy gives the Brazilian councils the option to create their own Teaching System and to establish the Educational Local Councils. In Poços de Caldas municipality the Educational Local council works as an instrument of deliberation and consultation. The major aim of this paper is to analize the activities this council has developed. As a route of methodology it opted for the mixed method, quantitative and predominantly qualitative. The techniques used to obtain the data were: the questionnaire; the non participating observation; the interview and documentary analize. The result of the research shows that the Educational Local council in Poços de Caldas is the strengthening agent of the deliberate democracy, having got an effective result and deliberate autonomy.

A administração pública apresenta vários problemas, que vão desde a ausência de avaliações quanto aos aspectos de eficiência, eficácia e efetividade na utilização de recursos e das políticas públicas adotadas, até a prática perversa da corrupção em suas diversas formas. Grande parte destes problemas decorre da falta de mecanismos de controle e acompanhamento para saber se as ações promovidas pelos gestores públicos estão de acordo com os objetivos da sociedade. Os problemas que decorrem desta relação de conflito de interesses entre aqueles que delegam a administração de suas organizações e aqueles que recebem esta delegação e administram, são chamados de problemas da relação entre principal e agente. No setor público pode-se considerar que agente é o gestor público (recebe a delegação e administra) e principal é o cidadão ou a própria sociedade (que delega). Estes conceitos têm origem na teoria da agência. Esta teoria é um dos fundamentos da governança, seja no setor privado ou no setor público. E a governança adota princípios como a transparência e a accountability para propor práticas de controle e acompanhamento da administração, a fim de evitar os problemas da relação agente e principal. Deste modo, a presente pesquisa tem por objetivo avaliar se os relatórios de gestão do Poder Executivo municipal são aderentes aos princípios e padrões de boas práticas de governança para o setor público acerca da transparência e da accountability na utilização dos recursos, bem como dos resultados gerados em decorrência das políticas públicas adotadas. Para tanto, a metodologia utilizada neste trabalho foi a seguinte: através da pesquisa bibliográfica, identificou-se na literatura quais os princípios e padrões de boas práticas de governança para a administração pública, e criou-se um quadro-síntese para servir de base para avaliação dos relatórios de gestão quanto aos aspectos de transparência e accountability; através da pesquisa documental foram selecionados os relatórios de gestão da Prefeitura da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro a serem analisados, que foi a cidade escolhida para realização da pesquisa pela proximidade com o autor e pela disponibilização de diversos documentos em seu sítio eletrônico; a seguir, pela análise de conteúdo, fez-se a avaliação dos documentos utilizando-se o quadrosíntese produzido. Os resultados da pesquisa demonstraram que os relatórios de gestão analisados possuem pouca aderência aos princípios e padrões de boa governança, evidenciando-se uma aderência de apenas 37,71% em relação aos elementos estabelecidos no quadro-síntese. Assim, apontou claramente para o fato de que há pouca transparência nos relatórios de gestão, fato este que prejudica a accountability na administração pública. / The public administration has several problems, ranging from the lack of reviews on the aspects of efficiency, efficacy and effectiveness in use of resource and public policies adopted, to the evil practice of corruption in its different ways. Most of these problems derive from the lack of control mechanisms and monitoring to determine whether the actions taken by public managers are in line with the goals of society. The problems arising from that relationship conflict of interest between those who delegate the management of their businesses and those who receive this delegation and manage the business are called problems of the relationship between principal and agent. In the public sector can be considered that the agent is the public manager (receiving the delegation and administrate) and principal is the citizen or the society itself (delegating). These principles have their origin in the agency theory. This theory is a cornerstone of governance, whether in private or in public sector. And adopts governance principles such as transparency and accountability to propose control practices and monitor the administration in order to avoid the problems of agent and principal relationship. So, this research aims to evaluate whether the annual reports of the Local Administration are adherents to the principles and standards of good governance practices for public sector about transparency and accountability in resource utilization as well as the results generated from public policies adopted. For that, the methodology used in this study were as follows: through the literature search, was identified in the literature what were the principles and standards of good governance practices for public administration, and created a summary table to serve as a basis for evaluation of management reports, about the aspects of transparency and accountability; through documentary research were selected the annual reports of the Rio de Janeiro City to be analyzed, which was the city chosen for the research by its proximity with the author and by the availability of several documents in the web site; following, the content analysis was done to evaluate the documents using of the summary table prepared. The research results showed that the annual reports studied have little adherence to the principles and standards of good governance, demonstrating an adherence of only 37.71% compared to the elements set out in the summary table. Thus, there remained clear that there is little transparency in the management reports, a fact which affect the accountability in public administration.

Background: Innovation is an important aspect of business today. It is important for companies to be innovative in order to stay competitive with their competitors. During the last couple of decades, technology has become more and more common both in our daily life, as well as in businesses. This has lead to an increase in technology implementation, especially within the service industry, where customers now can use self-service technologies in order to receive the service on their own. However, a lack of self-service technologies was discovered within the fast food industry. Since these types of innovations increased the service efficiency and decreased the waiting-time for customers, the authors believed that this would be very interesting for local managers within the fast food industry. Therefore, the authors began to investigate how much power local management has over these types of new innovations. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore how local management affects the innovation process, within fast food restaurant chains. Method: By conducting a cross-case study with the two fast food companies Subway and Max, the authors interviewed local fast food managers in order to explore the effect local management have on the innovation process. These two cases were selected since Subway fully consists of franchisees, while Max is almost completely company owned. Therefore, the two most common organizational structures within the fast food industry are included which will provide a more fair view of the industry. Conclusion: The effect of the innovation process has a positive relationship with the amount of power distributed to the local management. However, these areas differ depending on the organizational structure, with franchisees achieving their highest amount of power within medium-sized innovations and managers in company-owned outlets maintain their highest amount of power within minor innovations. Even though the overall communication was perceived as satisfying and efficient, large opportunities for improvements occur. By implementing more horizontal communication within the local management, it is in the belief of the authors that the entire internal communication will benefit. Especially this would benefit the franchise system where an increased local communication and collaboration would lead to more efficient communication throughout the entire organization.

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This dissertation consists of five papers with different objectives. The overall objective is to improve knowledge of effective policies regarding socially deprived large housing estates. All studies deal with the real estate context from a housing company decision-making perspective. The first two papers focus on organisational issues and the following three papers deal with economic issues related to the development of a specific housing area. The research is based on case studies which involve specific methodologies such as interviews, direct observation and collecting data from company accounts. The main message of this thesis is that landlord policies and resources spent on operation and maintenance contribute to local area development. It is also underlined that there is a need for a paradigm shift in Swedish housing, since the regulatory framework appeared to be inadequate. The experience from this study shows that many problems can be solved within the existing laws and through efficient customised property management, but landlords need more effective incentives to improve their policies further. The first two papers address issues about how to organise local management resources in large housing estates. Three different functions were identified: customer service, (e.g. fault-reporting); the letting process; and caretaking (day-to-day management and control over indoor and outdoor areas). The models where more decisions are decentralised lead to better information about the local conditions, make it easier to coordinate work in an area, create more motivation for the staff and make it easier to involve the tenants. This was particularly valuable for socially deprived estates, but the decentralised model raised some moral hazard problems, e.g. the local team create their own agenda, are pressured by certain tenants to give them advantages and that the result is lack of control and consistent housing policy in the company. The third paper deals with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in housing management. Different types of costs are identified and related to the estates’ social condition. The results indicate that a CSR-based management policy leads to approximately 4.5 percent lower annual operation and maintenance costs which improved the company’s profitability, especially if the higher standard of maintenance, made higher rents possible. The study also identified three other benefits of CSR; improved tenant relationship, goodwill and business opportunities and the study is a first step towards a better understanding of the economic consequences of CSR in a real estate-context. The fourth paper analyses the return of the Swedish slumlords, with a focus on a specific area in Malmö. The tenants stayed even though the rent was higher and the quality was lower than in neighbouring areas because of a combination of three factors; rents were paid by different forms of welfare payment, lack of alternatives because of queues to other areas and because some tenants saw an advantage in the “no questions” asked policy that the slumlord followed. It is further argued that the property owners found this slum strategy as profitable either because they hoped to find a “bigger fool” to sell to or because the decision makers in the company had not invested their own money. The study concludes that both tenants and investors were in the end losers, but not the company managers.The fifth paper is an economic evaluation of renovation in socially deprived housing estates. The empirical data indicates that it is profitable to use a clear and active housing management strategy, especially if the rent levels are affected by the standard of management by the landlord. The results also show that the landlord’s policy had positive social effects, both in the form of tenant welfare and in the form of lower costs for Police and the Fire department. The study also indicates that it can be difficult to justify large scale investment purely from a business perspective. / QC 20111122

A administração pública apresenta vários problemas, que vão desde a ausência de avaliações quanto aos aspectos de eficiência, eficácia e efetividade na utilização de recursos e das políticas públicas adotadas, até a prática perversa da corrupção em suas diversas formas. Grande parte destes problemas decorre da falta de mecanismos de controle e acompanhamento para saber se as ações promovidas pelos gestores públicos estão de acordo com os objetivos da sociedade. Os problemas que decorrem desta relação de conflito de interesses entre aqueles que delegam a administração de suas organizações e aqueles que recebem esta delegação e administram, são chamados de problemas da relação entre principal e agente. No setor público pode-se considerar que agente é o gestor público (recebe a delegação e administra) e principal é o cidadão ou a própria sociedade (que delega). Estes conceitos têm origem na teoria da agência. Esta teoria é um dos fundamentos da governança, seja no setor privado ou no setor público. E a governança adota princípios como a transparência e a accountability para propor práticas de controle e acompanhamento da administração, a fim de evitar os problemas da relação agente e principal. Deste modo, a presente pesquisa tem por objetivo avaliar se os relatórios de gestão do Poder Executivo municipal são aderentes aos princípios e padrões de boas práticas de governança para o setor público acerca da transparência e da accountability na utilização dos recursos, bem como dos resultados gerados em decorrência das políticas públicas adotadas. Para tanto, a metodologia utilizada neste trabalho foi a seguinte: através da pesquisa bibliográfica, identificou-se na literatura quais os princípios e padrões de boas práticas de governança para a administração pública, e criou-se um quadro-síntese para servir de base para avaliação dos relatórios de gestão quanto aos aspectos de transparência e accountability; através da pesquisa documental foram selecionados os relatórios de gestão da Prefeitura da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro a serem analisados, que foi a cidade escolhida para realização da pesquisa pela proximidade com o autor e pela disponibilização de diversos documentos em seu sítio eletrônico; a seguir, pela análise de conteúdo, fez-se a avaliação dos documentos utilizando-se o quadrosíntese produzido. Os resultados da pesquisa demonstraram que os relatórios de gestão analisados possuem pouca aderência aos princípios e padrões de boa governança, evidenciando-se uma aderência de apenas 37,71% em relação aos elementos estabelecidos no quadro-síntese. Assim, apontou claramente para o fato de que há pouca transparência nos relatórios de gestão, fato este que prejudica a accountability na administração pública. / The public administration has several problems, ranging from the lack of reviews on the aspects of efficiency, efficacy and effectiveness in use of resource and public policies adopted, to the evil practice of corruption in its different ways. Most of these problems derive from the lack of control mechanisms and monitoring to determine whether the actions taken by public managers are in line with the goals of society. The problems arising from that relationship conflict of interest between those who delegate the management of their businesses and those who receive this delegation and manage the business are called problems of the relationship between principal and agent. In the public sector can be considered that the agent is the public manager (receiving the delegation and administrate) and principal is the citizen or the society itself (delegating). These principles have their origin in the agency theory. This theory is a cornerstone of governance, whether in private or in public sector. And adopts governance principles such as transparency and accountability to propose control practices and monitor the administration in order to avoid the problems of agent and principal relationship. So, this research aims to evaluate whether the annual reports of the Local Administration are adherents to the principles and standards of good governance practices for public sector about transparency and accountability in resource utilization as well as the results generated from public policies adopted. For that, the methodology used in this study were as follows: through the literature search, was identified in the literature what were the principles and standards of good governance practices for public administration, and created a summary table to serve as a basis for evaluation of management reports, about the aspects of transparency and accountability; through documentary research were selected the annual reports of the Rio de Janeiro City to be analyzed, which was the city chosen for the research by its proximity with the author and by the availability of several documents in the web site; following, the content analysis was done to evaluate the documents using of the summary table prepared. The research results showed that the annual reports studied have little adherence to the principles and standards of good governance, demonstrating an adherence of only 37.71% compared to the elements set out in the summary table. Thus, there remained clear that there is little transparency in the management reports, a fact which affect the accountability in public administration.