Biography in the study of public administration: towards a portrait of a Whitehall mandarin |
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Authors: | Peter Ribbins Brian Sherratt |
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Affiliation: | School of Education, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK |
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Abstract: | This paper reports on part of an on-going interview-based study of the eight permanent secretaries who served at the Department for Education from 1976 to 2012. Following a discussion of the relevance of biography to the study of public sector administrators, it presents a portrait of Sir Tim Lankester. Based on his own account and that of relevant others it draws on a four-stage career model to describe his life before and during his time as a civil servant. Centring on his career as permanent secretary in three it considers, inter alia, his working relationship with his Secretaries of State; his view of the role of permanent secretary; his policy contribution; and, his style and achievements. Following an examination of the merits of such research, the paper concludes with a brief discussion of the possible contribution of prosopography and a call for ethnographic studies of public administration. |
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Keywords: | Biography portraits Lankester career permanent secretary prosopography ethnography |
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