‘You just want to get on with the job'

: What helps and hinders Scottish local government managers to deliver participative decision making?

Abstract

A wide range of public policy and legislation in Scotland outlines the expectations of the Scottish Government that decisions made about local government services will be based on participation by communities. The publication of the Christie Commission report in 2011 identified participation as one of the pillars needed for public sector reform in Scotland. The belief is that making decisions closest to those they impact on will result in improved outcomes. However, while there has been much research on the needs of communities to allow them to participate, there has been little around the needs of managers asked to design, oversee or manage these participative decision making processes.
This thesis seeks to understand the skills and values which would assist managers in this changing way of working, and the various enablers and barriers which may help or hinder their ability to do so. The research covers three areas of data collection – a review of the Scottish policy landscape around participative decision making, a rapid review of the relevant literature, and a series of semi structured, interdisciplinary interviews with managers currently working on delivering participative decision making processes. A grounded theory approach allows for the use of the data to drive a flexible and real world inductive framework.
Central findings from the research are that managers in their role as leaders are key enablers of participative decision making; that poor process design and a lack of resources can act as barriers; and that the context which managers work has implications for the success of participative decision making. Managers expressed a lack of clarity around what is expected of them and the skills which they needed. The conclusions reached have implications for policy makers, local government, managers and future research in the area of public participation and multidisciplinary approaches.

Date of Award	2026
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Dundee
Supervisor	Trish McCulloch (Supervisor) & Alan Mackie (Supervisor)