Public Management

Building the New Managerialist State: Consultants and the Politics of Public Sector Reform in Comparative Perspective

Denis Saint-Martin

In the 1980s and 1990s the governance witnessed a shift from the Weberian model of bureaucracy to the ‘new managerialism’ — a term used to describe the group of ideas imported from ... More

In the 1980s and 1990s the governance witnessed a shift from the Weberian model of bureaucracy to the ‘new managerialism’ — a term used to describe the group of ideas imported from business and mainly brought into government by management consultants. Over the past fifteen years, the British, French, and Canadian governments have spent growing sums of money on consulting services, thus, policy makers inside the state have increasingly been exposed to the business management ideas that consultants bring into the public sector. There are major differences in the extent to which reformers in these countries accepted these ideas in bureaucratic reform. Accordingly, this is a book about policy change and variation. It shows that the reception given by states to managerialist ideas depends on the openness of policy-making institutions to outside expert knowledge and on the organization, development, and social recognition of management consultancy. Less

The Executive's Compass: Business and the Good Society

James O'Toole

This book uses political philosophy to examine the role of the corporation in our culture and its place in creating The Good Society. This book aims to provide business leaders with a ... More

This book uses political philosophy to examine the role of the corporation in our culture and its place in creating The Good Society. This book aims to provide business leaders with a practical “compass” to help them navigate the turbulent waters of social change and political conflict. The device helps managers to identify the ideological origins of contemporary political disagreements and understand the philosophical and ethical sources of our differences of opinion about such issues as executive compensation, plant closings, and environmental regulation. The beauty of this “compass” is that it provides a framework for the executive to create order out of the growing chaos of cultural diversity and conflict of values. It is aimed at expanding understanding of the interrelationship of fundamental values. Less

The Future of Public Employee Retirement Systems

Gary Anderson

Olivia S. Mitchell (ed.)

People covered by public pensions are often the subject of ‘pension envy’, that is, their benefits might seem more generous and their contributions lower than those offered by the ... More

People covered by public pensions are often the subject of ‘pension envy’, that is, their benefits might seem more generous and their contributions lower than those offered by the private sector. Yet this book points out that such judgments are often inaccurate, since civil servants hold jobs with few counterparts in private industry, such as firefighters, police, judges, and teachers. Often these are riskier, dirtier, and demand more loyalty and discretion than would be required of a more mobile labour force in the private sector. The debate challenges traditional ideas about how the public employee labour contract is structured and raises questions about how such employees are attracted to the public sector, retained and motivated on the job, and retired, via an entire compensation package of wages and benefits. This book explores aspects of these schemes, addressing the cost and valuation debate, along with the political economy of how public pension asset pools are perceived and managed. The discussion also explores ways that public pensions can be strengthened in the US, Japan, Canada, and Germany. Less

International Research Management

Philip H. Birnbaum, Frederick A. Rossini, Donald R. Baldwin (eds)

This book presents a group of papers that describe the preconditions, processes, and outcomes of interdisciplinary research projects from the United States, Canada, Israel, Japan, ... More

This book presents a group of papers that describe the preconditions, processes, and outcomes of interdisciplinary research projects from the United States, Canada, Israel, Japan, Brazil, the German Democratic Republic, and Romania. The papers describe the problems and approaches to successfully managing projects in government, private firms, and universities. The book also includes a comprehensive, annotated bibliography. Less

Knowledge to Action: Evidence-Based Health Care in Context

Sue Dopson, Louise Fitzgerald

Health services can and should be improved by applying research findings about best practice. This book explores why it proves notoriously difficult to implement change based on research ... More

Health services can and should be improved by applying research findings about best practice. This book explores why it proves notoriously difficult to implement change based on research evidence in the face of strong professional views and complex organizational structures. It draws on a large body of evidence acquired in the course of nearly fifty case studies using data from 1,400 interviews with doctors, nurses, and managers, as well as observations and documentary analysis. Using qualitative methods to study hospital and primary care settings, the book aims to shed light on why attempts to introduce evidence-based practice in the UK NHS succeeded in some cases where in others it faltered. By opening up the intricacies and complexities of change in the NHS, it reveals the limitations of simplistic approaches to implementing research or introducing evidence-based health care. The book provides an analysis rooted in a range of theoretical perspectives that underlines the intimate links between organizational structures and cultures and the utilization of knowledge, and draws conclusions significant for other areas of public management. The findings have implications for the utilization of knowledge in situations where there is a professional tradition working within a politically sensitive blend of public service, managerial accountability, and technical expertise. Less

Making Wicked Problems Governable: The Case of Managed Networks in Health Care

Ewan Ferlie, Louise Fitzgerald, Gerry McGivern, Sue Dopson, Chris Bennett

This book characterizes the nature of key reforms—namely managed networks—introduced in the UK National Health Service during the New Labour period (1997–2010). It combines rich empirical case ... More

This book characterizes the nature of key reforms—namely managed networks—introduced in the UK National Health Service during the New Labour period (1997–2010). It combines rich empirical case material of eight such networks drawn from different health policy arenas with a theoretically informed analysis. It makes three main contributions. First, it argues that New Labour’s reforms included an important network element consistent with underlying network governance ideas, complementing the interpretation of other authors who have stressed either choice and markets or the continuation of NPM. It contributes to the wider NPM/post NPM debate by suggesting conditions of sedimentation. It specifies conditions of ‘success’ for these managed networks and explores how much progress was empirically evident. Second, the concept of ‘wicked problems’ is used to conceptualize many of the complex health policy arenas studied. It argues that networks are the least bad governance mode to tackle such wicked problems. Wicked problems conditions may become even more important in the future. It offers a qualified defence of network forms and caution against a whole-scale tilt to marketization in ‘wicked problem’ arenas. Third, it brings in a governmentality perspective to retheorize some of the novel organizational processes which do not fit either professional dominance or NPM models. A number of long-run policy developments under New Labour (such as clinical governance, EBM guidelines, energized clinical and managerial hybrids, patient safety regimes) appear consistent with this governmentality perspective.Less

Paradoxes of Modernization: Unintended Consequences of Public Policy Reform

Helen Margetts, Perri 6, Christopher Hood (eds)

This book explores the unintended and unanticipated effects associated with ‘modernization’ projects and tackles the key question that they provoke: Why do policy-makers persist in such ... More

This book explores the unintended and unanticipated effects associated with ‘modernization’ projects and tackles the key question that they provoke: Why do policy-makers persist in such enterprises in the face of evidence that they tend to fail? The book first discusses what is meant by ‘modernization’ and ‘unintended consequences’, placing public policy reform within more general intellectual and social trends. It presents eight case study ‘modernization’ projects. Their architects promised faster trains, a more efficient and reactive health service, a more motivated public service, better performing local government, enhanced information for prospective US university students, reduced rates of child malnutrition in developing countries, and a free, open, safe, interconnected cyberspace for people to conduct their social and political life. Each case provides a neat story with a paradox that varies the modernization theme and tackles the question: Why was the project pursued? The conclusion categorizes the cases in terms of their outcome, from success to disappointment, and suggests some strategies for a more balanced version of modernization for current and future policy-makers. Less

Performance or Compliance: Performance Audit and Public Management in Five Countries

Christopher Pollitt, Xavier Girre, Jeremy Lonsdale, Robert Mul, Hilkka Summa, Marit Waerness

Performance audit is now in fashion, but has in the past been a somewhat closed world, little studied by outsiders. Now an international team of researchers has studied the work of five ... More

Performance audit is now in fashion, but has in the past been a somewhat closed world, little studied by outsiders. Now an international team of researchers has studied the work of five national audit offices – France, Finland, The Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK. The picture thus revealed contains elements of technical innovation, methodological challenge, and crucial strategic choice. Less

Public Administration: The Interdisciplinary Study of Government

Jos C. N. Raadschelders

Public administration seeks to develop a comprehensive understanding of the internal structure and functioning of government, in all its complexity, and its interaction with society and ... More

Public administration seeks to develop a comprehensive understanding of the internal structure and functioning of government, in all its complexity, and its interaction with society and its citizens. The book provides an account of the discipline, considering its history, growth, boundaries, and underlying assumptions. It tracks the emergence of the field against a background of the expanding conception of the state and the growth of public services, and situates it within the three branches of knowledge – natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. It maps out the sources of knowledge of public administration, and how this is fragmented within the discipline’s specializations, the social sciences, and government and society at large. It examines how leading authors map the discipline, the application of different theories, the associated schools of thought and intellectual debates, and the role of knowledge integration. Scholars in public administration initiated much debate as to whether it should be treated as a science, a craft or profession, or an art. This book argues that to develop a comprehensive understanding of government and its complexity requires a truly interdisciplinary approach. Less