Paper short abstract:

This essay advances insights into the idea of ‘relational leadership’ and what it might portend for public sector transformation in DCs. It examines the politics of trust in policy decision-making in a developing context and argues that public leadership should be a relationship-based social process

Paper long abstract:

This paper provides new thinking on public sector leadership that recognizes the complexities and contextual dynamics of public sector governance and reform management in a developing context. Drawing on the relational state theory of Mulgan (2012), this essay advances critical insights into the idea of 'relational leadership' and what it might portend for public sector organisational change in developing countries (DCs). The paper examines the politics of trust and the dynamics of power relations in public leadership in a developing country's context and argues that leadership in the public sector should be a relationship-based social process. The relational form of public leadership proposed in this essay, critiques traditional bureaucratic public administration and the New Public Management (NPM) perspective. In particular, the paper explores the limitations of hierarchy and plurality associated with both approaches, highlighting the need to understand the influence of power relations and networks on public sector governance and leadership in developing countries. The case for a shift in focus to relationships reflects changes in the wider global political economy, and is presented as an inevitable consequence of new and complex multi-faceted policy problems facing the public service, especially in DCs, which arguably require a heterodox and context-sensitive response from public leaders and greater collaboration among key stakeholders. Overall, the overarching purpose of this essay is more to stimulate debates around leadership competencies needed to successfully lead bureaucratic change and tackle emerging complex policy problems in DCs, than to provide a best practice model for public leadership.