Practical implications – This paper recommended that further research should be conducted to
develop a greater understanding of council management practice and how this could be positively
affected. Simply recommending the transposition of private sector approaches was unlikely to work
and, similarly, the current hands-off approach adopted both between government and councils and
between councils’ corporate centres and their operational services suggested the emergence of
strategic/operational divides. This could be overcome with a more balanced approach and
secondments between the different tiers.