ABSTRACT
There is sometimes a debate about whether management is an art or a science. Many definitions of art include the idea that, at least in part, a work of art in any form should invite its audience to stand apart from daily routine and reflect on wider meanings. To create such opportunities for thinking within what is a busy and frenetic world, whilst at the same time looking after highly delinquent and severely damaged young people, must be considered an art indeed! It is essential, however, that space for thinking is made and that slots of time are worked into the pattern of the week so that managers and staff are able to reflect, think about their work and take stock of what is going on around them. Secure units are complex organisations doing difficult work, and looking after damaged and delinquent children or young people poses some very troubling questions for society which provoke very ambivalent responses about the role and purpose of such institutions. Secure units are also volatile organisations, subject to powerful external forces yet at the same time expected to contain equally powerful and highly charged emotional pressures generated from within. Almost more than any other kind of organisation these units are places of ambiguity and uncertainty. As Pascale and Athos put it:
The inherent preferences of organisations are clarity, certainty and perfection. The inherent nature of human relationships involves ambiguity, uncertainty and imperfection. How one honours, balances and integrates the needs of both is the real trick of management.
