Module One, Lecture Nine: A Case of Leadership and

GovernanceProfessor Kerry E. Howell

Did cultural perspectives emanate from leaders and of what did these consist?

Was/is the WA transforming itself into a ‘cultural producer’?

Does the Welsh Assembly provide leadership for Wales?

Path-dependency is where ideas incorporated in the formation of an institution are endogenous to present and future decisions.

Institutions only change in relation to past decisions

‘Path-dependent in that initial choices determine later developments and once a particular pathway is selected, alternatives tend to be ruled out thereafter’ (Bulmer and Burch 2001; p 81).

  Culture incorporated the accepted meaning

for a group at a particular historical moment Culture involves values and beliefs that are

both created by and revealed to members of organisations.

Human beings are ‘suspended in webs of significance that they themselves have spun I take culture to be those webs, and the analysis of it to be therefore not an experimental science in search of law but an interpretive one in search of meaning’ (Geertz, 1993; p 5).

Must not confuse ‘individual assumptions’ of the leader with the shared assumptions that define the concept of culture.

Culture emerges when ‘individual assumptions’ lead to ‘shared experiences’ that solve the group’s problems of ‘external survival’ and ‘internal integration’.

Culture is created by ‘shared experience’, but it is leaders who initiate the process by imposing beliefs, values and assumptions at the outset (see Schein, 1997; p 225).

Achieve desired outcomes

Ensure democratic behaviour

Encourage involvement

Collective Responsibilities

Pre-devolution Wales Leadership as Cultural Producer Civic Constitution and Welsh Assembly Richard Commission Ron Davies

Worldviews and path-dependency may be identified in cross-party or general cultural perspective outlined in the Democracy Declaration (1994)

The declaration was approved by a Constitutional Conference of 250 people who represented local authorities, political parties, trade unions and churches in Wales.

Called for elected parliament, cultural diversity, gender balance, responsibility and greater democracy in terms of electoral procedures and representation, (see Osmond, 1995; pp 187-88).

Further outlined in evidence and conclusions of Richard Commission (path-dependency).

Interviews discovered concepts such as transparency, accountability, autonomy, inclusiveness, democratic deficit.

Cross-party ideals identified in secondary data e.g Democratic Declaration (1994).

Party line or external cultural perspective taken into the Assembly?

Leadership part of brief and based around the above ideals.

Leaders individual assumptions become ‘shared basic assumptions’ and ‘emerging stable relations’ became culture (Shein, 1997).

Early leadership defines culture through shared experience

Intensity diluted through on-going shared experience of government and policy-making

Deals with internal integration and survival

Bulmer, S. and Burch, M. (2001). The Europeanisation of Central Government: the UK and Germany: Historical Institutionalist Perspective in G. Schneider and M. Aspinwall (Eds.) The Rules of Integration: Institutionalist Approaches to the Study of Europe. European. Policy Research Unit Series, Manchester, Manchester University Press, pp 73-96.

Bulmer, S. Burch, M. Carter, C. Hogwood, P. and Scott, A. (2001) European Policy-Making Under Devolution: Britain’s New Multi-Level Governance. European Policy Research Unit (EPRU) Book No 1/01 Department of Government Manchester University.

Howell, K. E. (2003) Developing Self and Other Recognition: Political Identity in the National Assembly for Wales. Public Policy and Administration. Vol 18 (2) Summer pp 89-105.

Howell, K. E. (2007) Cultural Perspectives in the National Assembly for Wales: Identifying Path-Dependency, Critical Moments and Critical Junctures. Contemporary Wales, Vol 19, pp 38-56. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.

Howell, K. E. (2009) Devolution and Institutional Culture: Path-Dependency and the Welsh Assembly. Policy Studies. Vol 30, Issue 2, 2009 pp 221-235. UK: Taylor & Francis Publishers. See Notes for Further Reading

Chaney, P. and Fevre, R. (2001). Ron Davies and the cult of inclusiveness: Devolution and participation in Wales. Contemporary Wales, 14, 21-49. Cardiff: University of Wales Press

Chaney, P. Hall, T. and Pithouse, A. (Eds) (2001) New Governance-New Democracy? Cardiff: University of Wales Press.

Davies, J. (1990) A History of Wales. London: Penguin. Government White Paper (1997) A Voice for Wales. London: HMSO. Government of Wales Act (1998). London: HMSO. Griffith, W. (1950) The Welsh. UK: Penguin. Hall, P. A. and Taylor, R. C. R. (1996) Political Science and Three New

Instituionalisms. Comparative Political Studies Vol. XLIV 936-957. Morgan, K. O. (1999) Welsh Devolution: the Past and the future in Taylor,

B. and Thompson, K. Scotland and Wales: Nations Again? pp 199-219 University of Wales Press.

Nagel, J. H. (1987) Participation. Englewood Cliffs New York: Prentice Hall. Osmond, J (1995). Welsh Europeans. Seren, Bridgend.

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reproductions must comply with the terms of that license.Author Kerry Howell

Research AssistantInstitute University of PlymouthTitle A Case of Leadership and Governance

Description Strategic Leadership and Governance

Date Created August 2011

Educational Level 7

Keywords UKOER, LFWOER, UOPCPDLM, Kerry Howell, CPD, Continuing Professional Development, Leadership

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