The opening scene of the film The Fall of the Roman Empire pans steeply up to the top of a high viaduct. Along the top, lined up shoulder to shoulder, on the very edge looking down at the rocks below are Roman soldiers. Their commander riding a white horse stops at random and with the words “those not prepared to die for Rome have no right to live” pushes a soldier to certain death below.
The Legion has just suffered a humiliating defeat and those in charge blame the rank and file.
I don’t know if there is an historical evidence to support this scene but it must be the ultimate in macho management and the use of fear as a motivator.
Now I am not suggesting that those in charge at the DH or your average NHS chief executive takes staff to the tallest building on campus and pushes a few nurse and doctors off the top just because of a bad inspection report, delays in hospital discharges, an increase in the waiting list, a dramatic slide down the league table or a leak to the press about patients waiting on trolleys in corridors. Although the departure of a high profile individual is often accompanied by the question , “were they pushed or did they jump?”.
The nurses at their annual conference made their anger and frustration clear to the Health service minister. And yet I was reading an on line article in the Health Service Journal (HSJ) which had provoked lots of comments when I realised that all the responses were anonymous.
It was the same for other articles people were very unhappy about changes in the NHS and very cynical about their leadership but no one was prepared to put their name to their comments! A clear indication of a general climate of fear and a condemnation of the management style in the NHS.
Macho management is not restricted to the NHS. The newish head of Ofsted has suggested dawn inspection raids on schools suspected of underperforming and stated that if staff morale is low in the teaching profession he must be doing something right. Little surprise then that in a recent NASUWT survey a third of teachers said they did not feel respected as professionals.
A similar story is told in local government with chief executives imposing restructurings, out sourcing services and overseeing redundancies whilst using phrases like “turkeys don’t vote for Christmas”.
As staff morale sinks leadership has become increasingly autocratic and alienating, management by fear replacing leadership by inspiration. For many working in the Public Sector it must feel like those Roman soldiers on the viaduct and like Rome in its decline the Public sector is fragmenting as services are outsourced or privatised.
Blair McPherson author of People management in a harsh financial climate published by Russell House
