Team Management and Development in Montserrat and Anguilla
| Author | J. E. Kersell |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230100109 |
| Date | 01 January 1990 |
| Published date | 01 January 1990 |
PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, VOL.
10,
81-91 (1990)
Th
Team Management and Development in Montserrat
and Anguilla
J.E.
KERSELL
University
of
Waterloo
SUMMARY
British constitutional and political traditions of the Crown Colonies
of
Montserrat
a
3
Anguilla have been modified
by
their unique histories, particularly in a common commitment
to team management. Some senior public servants in Montserrat are reluctant to acknowledge
the virtues
of
a team approach, but their more junior colleagues have beengiven training in team
techniques which has laid a firm foundation for team work and collective management.
Professional effectiveness and job satisfaction have increased. The principles
of
team manage-
ment are reciprocity, disposition for agreement, fairness, honesty, mutual trust and confiden-
tiality. However the reluctant leadership of some Permanent Secretaries produces frustration
and problems
of
morale. The Permanent Secretary level is the last to be impregnated with the
team administration philosophy in Anguilla, too. But team management is recognized as
necessary for building consensus and for the smooth running
of
a small public service.
Subordinates employing team techniques have been assessed by their superiors as more
successful in staff-management relations, policymaking and productivity than traditional,
hierarchical managers. Team techniques have been carried over into a number of small
businesses on the island. This phenomenon is unique among the United Kingdom’s West Indian
colonies. The problems of team management include time and accountability.
INTRODUCTION
Montserrat is the oldest Crown Colony and Anguilla the newest in the British West
Indies. They are located in the north-east Caribbean in what used to be the British
Leeward Islands. They are separated by roughly
175
km
of
sea containing the now
independent islands
of
St. Christopher-Nevis, the Dutch islands of Sint Eustatius and
Saba, the French Saint Barthelemy and St Martin, an island shared by both the Dutch
and the French.
Montserrat has about
12,000
people in just over
100
sq km, while Anguilla has
approximately
7,000
in its roughly
90
sq km, though the latter has far less arable land
and very little rainfall (an average
of
only
900
mm). They share, of course, the British
legal and political traditions
of
Parliamentary and Whitehall institutions with interest-
ing variations bred
of
their unique histories and experiences. Quite remarkable,
Professor Kersell is in the Department
of
Political Science, University
of
Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario,
Canada N2L
3G1.
Much
of
the information contained in this article was sought and given
on
the understanding that
its
sources would remain confidential.
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