I was struck by something I read recently written by Blair
McPherson, a former senior social work manager with a large local authority and
a much-published writer on social care management. Blair wrote in the Community
Care social work blog:
“The more the public
sector behaves like the private sector, with an emphasis on competition,
keeping costs (wages) down and cutting overheads (management posts), the
greater the pressure to achieve overambitious performance targets. And the
greater the risk of bullying, fiddling figures, cutting corners, exploiting
staff and intimidating whistleblowers.”
He is right. There is a deplorable tendency in the public
sector for managers to think they have to be ‘tough’. The recent article by Amelia Hill in the Guardian recounts the stories of health and social care practitioners
who have blown the whistle when they observed service users being abused or
neglected by other members of staff. Often these employees have been bullied by
managers as a reward for their public-spiritedness.
Or, less dramatic perhaps but equally worrying, a recent
survey reveals that senior managers are perceived to be out of touch with practice and
fail to consult when changes are introduced – see http://chrismillsblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/is-bad-management-inevitable.html
A consequence of macho management, which Blair McPherson
doesn’t mention, is that it is likely to increase the risk of safety breaches
and accidents. If senior managers are out of touch with the frontline, and if
people who raise concerns about bad practice are punished for doing so,
organisations are simply flying blind, with those leading them unaware of the
risks that are being incurred.
Fear and the blame culture are the enemies of safety. In
order to create a ‘reporting culture’ in which people feel empowered to report
near misses and mistakes, and to draw attention to bad practice and shortfalls
in services, people need to feel that they will be safe in doing so. They need
to know that they will be treated fairly and justly. It is the responsibility
of management to make sure that happens.
