It was inevitable. If you create league tables for publicsector organisations and measure success by results you will end up with a hireand fire culture. Despite the fact that every one can’t be top of the table theboard and the media will be impatient demanding a swift climb up the league.Those who don’t deliver can expect to be fired and replaced by someone whoclaims to be able to turn around organisations. Treating chiefexecutives and head teachers like football managers is a bizarre way to run publicsector organisations but this is what happening in schools, NHS trusts andLocal Authorities. A recent survey by the Association of School and CollegeLeaders (ASCL) showed that the number of heads and deputies force out of theirjobs has trebled in the last 5 years. These were not incompetent heads or thosefired for misconduct they were sacked for failing to raise pupils results quicklyenough. Of course it is possible to turn around a failing organisation but thegovernment and media have created an unrealistic expectation in terms of timescale.If we were to continue the football analogy the mostsuccessful clubs tend to be those that have consistency and stability inmanagement the obvious examples are Manchester United and Arsenal both withlong serving managers. But don’t compare the public sector to Football. ASchool or Hospital is nothing like a football club.The problem is that league tables are unhelpful becausethey encourage the public to of think success in terms of simple results. To thinkthat the best school is the one in which the most pupils achieve top exammarks. That the best hospital is the one that cures the most patients, that thebest housing department is the one with the shortest waiting list or the bestsocial service department is the one that has the fast time for arrangingadoptions.The media love league tables because it allows them toname and shame to divide the world into the best and worst, it sells newspapers. Managers place more important on measuring progress against pastperformance so are we doing it faster than last year rather than are we doingit faster than are neighbours. Managers are much more interested in the reasonbehind success what is it that they are doing which has result in theirperformance improving faster than ours? What could we learn from them? After all what isso clever about a school that creams off all the brightest pupils at the age ofeleven and then gets the best exam results at 18.? Blair McPherson author of Equipping mangers for anuncertain future and People management in a harsh financial climate bothpublished by Russell House.
