Training Management Development Advisers in Local Government

During the past two years there have been a number of radical changes in the political, economic and social environment within which local authorities have had to operate. This has placed new pressures and demands both on managers and on local authority organisations which have inevitably affected the attitude towards management development. It is significant that for a period of many years most local authorities have been allowed to evolve a management structure and style within a relatively stable and predictable environment. Then two years ago, the major reorganisation of local government created 422 new local authority organisations (with the exception of London) creating changes in function, boundaries and personnel which were manifest in reorganised structures, policies, management styles, working groups, roles and relationships. Since the reorganisation there has been a series of significant changes in the environment which seems to be part of a continuing trend placing greater emphasis and demand on the individual's ability to manage change at all levels within the organisation.