Management and Organisational Theory for Urban Renewal

Abstract

The organisation and management of intervention in urban renewal is a complex activity involving a number of agencies each with its own, often conflicting, objectives; operating in different modes and at different speeds. In reality little attempt is made to coordinate these various activities beyond (i) placing considerable faith in market mechanisms, and (ii) relying on the disjointed incrementalism so aptly described by Lindblom in the 1950s (1959). That is to say that each new policy or decision is a reaction to some perceived problem, usually takes the form of an incremental adjustment to existing policy and is based upon a limited consideration of a small number of well tried alternative solutions. The resulting change then leads to further incremental adjustments in policy. However, to the extent that some agencies do wish to improve their performance in urban renewal and do wish to manage these processes, there are some lessons to be learned from management and organisational theory. Much of this literature has been written in the context of managing a private business, nevertheless many of the concepts and ideas transfer suprisingly well both to the management of the public sector agencies involved in urban renewal, and to the management of urban renewal programmes and projects.