This book is a history and analysis of the government department most important in the development of the unified Civil Service in the United Kingdom.

The Civil Service Commision was created in 1855 and became the key institution in the development of the British civil service. Its work was primarily the recruitment of civil servants by fair methods, treating all qualified applicants equally, and using open competitions wherever practicable. It was held in high esteem not only in the United Kingdom but also in the many other countries throughout the world which, in many places, modelled their methods of public service recruitment on its pioneering work. It continued until 1991, when most of its work was devolved to over 3,000 government departments and executive agencies. This book describes the gestation, growth, development and eventual demise of the Commision and includes a number of in-depth case studies. Using source material such as official files, many only recently available for research, together with other records and evidence to official committees, the book provides a biography of an institution. It shows how the department was formally organised and there is a particular focus on how it actually worked on a day-to-day basis. With three in-depth chapters on the chronological development of the Commision and seven case studies of themes or issues that reveal methods of work and influences on its activities, this book uses file-based research more extensively than any other history of a British government department. The Civil Service Commision, 1855-1991 reveals insights into civil service recruitment and makes a major original contribution to our understanding of the practice and politics of public administration.

This first volume of the Official History of the UK Civil Service covers its evolution from the Northcote-Trevelyan Report of 1854 to the first years of Mrs Thatcher’s government in 1981. Despite current concerns with good governance and policy delivery, little serious attention has been paid to the institution vital to both: the Civil Service. This Official History is designed to remedy this by placing present problems in historical context and by providing a helpful structure in which others, and particularly former officials, may contribute to the debate. Starting with the seminal 1854 Northcote-Trevelyan Report, it covers the ‘lost opportunity’ of the 1940s when the Service failed to adapt the needs of ‘big government’ as advocated by Beveridge and Keynes. It then examines, in greater detail, the belated attempts at modernisation in the 1960s, the Service’s vilification in the 1970s and the final destruction of the ‘old order’ during the first years of Mrs Thatcher’s government. Particular light is shed on the origins of such current concerns as the role of special advisers the need for a Prime Minister’s Department the evolution of Parliamentary Select Committees to resolve the potential tension between bureaucracy and Parliamentary democracy. This Official History is based on extensive research into both recently released and unreleased papers as well as interviews with leading participants. It has important lessons to offer all those, both inside and outside the UK, seeking to improve the quality of democratic government. This book will be of great interest to all students of British history, British government and politics, and of public administration in general.

Organizations are a defining feature of the modern world, and the study of organizations (Organization Studies) has become well established in both sociology departments and professional schools, most notably business and management schools. Organization Studies has long drawn inspiration from foundational work in sociology. The sociological lens affords depth of insight into the technological, economic, cultural, and political forces that shape organizations from both within and without. In particular, "classical" works in sociology have long energized organizational research, primarily by suggesting ways of making sense of the ever-accelerating pace of social change. In recent decades, however, the field has lost interest in these sociology classics. This trend reflects and reinforces an increasingly academic focus of contempory Organization Studies. Not only does this trend weaken Organization Studies' engagement with the big social issues of our time, but it isolates the field from the broader field of the social sciences. The aim of this Handbook is to re-assert the importance of classical sociology to the future of Organization Studies. Alongside several thematic chapters, the volume includes chapters on each of nearly two dozen major European and American theorists, each of these chapter addressing: (a) the ideas and their context, (b) the impact of these ideas on the field of Organization Studies, and (c) the potential future research these ideas might inspire. The goal is not reverential exegesis, but rather to examine how the classics can energize organizational research. This wide-ranging Handbook, with contributions from leading American and European scholars, will be a vital, informative, and stimulating resource for anybody undertaking research in, teaching, or interested in learning more about Organization Studies today. About the Series Oxford Handbooks in Business & Management bring together the world's leading scholars on the subject to discuss current research and the latest thinking in a range of interrelated topics including Strategy, Organizational Behavior, Public Management, International Business, and many others. Containing completely new essays with extensive referencing to further reading and key ideas, the volumes, in hardback or paperback, serve as both a thorough introduction to a topic and a useful desk reference for scholars and advanced students alike.

"This book overturns the conventional thinking about organization and identity and puts in its place a wholly new theoretical synthesis. It is not just an extraordinarily incisive commentary on modern life but it is also a key to thinking about identity in new ways which will prove an indispensable guide as we move beyond social constructionism. Remarkable."- Nigel Thrift, Vice-Chancellor, The University of Warwick "I have to say that as usual I find very refreshing Paul du Gay′s courageous and unconventional approach, a clarity of vision that I find very appealing."- Professor Marilyn Strathern, University Of Cambridge Like many other popular academic terms, 'identity' has been asked to do so much work that it has often ended up doing none at all and, as a consequence, there has been a recent turn away from identity work. In this book, Paul du Gay moves identity theory in a new direction, offering a distinctive approach to studying how persons - human and non human - are put together or assembled: how their 'identities' are formed. He does through an engagement with a range of work in the social sciences, humanities and in organization studies which privileges the business of description over metaphysical speculation and epochalist assertion. At the heart of the book is an approach to the material-cultural making up of 'persons' that involves a shift away from general social and cultural accounts concerning the formation of 'subjectivity' and 'identity' towards an understanding of the specific forms of personhood that individuals acquire through their immersion in and subjection to particular normative and technical regimes of conduct. The book is written for postgraduate students and researchers interested in debates about identity, subjectivity and personhood in a range of disciplines - especially those in sociology, social anthropology, geography, and organization and management studies.

A wide-ranging and provocative new interpretation of the increasingly important role of delegated public bodies in British political life.