Improving Public Management

Now in paperback in an Enlarged Edition, this volume explores the lessons of one of the most comprehensive attempts to improve public management. Metcalfe and Richards describe and assess Thatcher's Efficiency Strategy as an exercise in improving public management. They explain how the strategy has gone about improving administrative performance by increasing cost-consciousness in the use of resources and creating flexibility for managing change. They analyze major themes such as: decentralization, information systems and budgets as management tools, organization design, and the management of interdepartmental relations.

Public management involves leading, coordinating, and stimulating public agencies and programs to deliver excellent performance. Research and practice of public management have developed rapidly in recent years, drawing on the fields of public policy, public administration, and business management. In carrying out their crucial roles in shaping what government delivers, public managers today must confront daunting challenges imposed by shifting policy agendas, constrained financial resources combined with with constant public demands for a rich array of public services, and increasing interdependence among public, private, and third-sector institutions and actors. At the same time, these challenges and other developments offer exciting opportunities for improving knowledge and practice in public management, for the benefit of everyone. In this volume, leading scholars contribute advances in the theory, methods, and practice in this burgeoning field. The selections address four key topics:-The nature and impact of public management;-Creative new methods for public management research;-Reform, reinvention, innovation, and change;-New models and frameworks for understanding and improving public management

′A broad-ranging and highly intelligent account of key recent developments internationally which skillfully updates the public management and governance literatures′ - Ewan Ferlie, Royal Holloway ′Public management has been radically changed and reformed... this book gives students a fine introduction to these changes and to the theories dealing with them′ - Jørgen Grønnegaard Christensen, University of Aarhus An introduction and guide to the dramatic changes that have occurred in the provision of public services over the last two decades, this book combines theoretical perspectives with a range of case studies from Europe, North America and further afield to explain why, how and with what success liberal democracies have reformed the service role of the state. The book pays close attention to four major dimensions of this transition: " External challenges and opportunties: globalisation and EU integration " Reducing the role of the state: Liberalisation, privatisation, regulation and competition policy " Improving the role of the state: New Public Management, e-Government and beyond " Managing the New Public Sector: organisations, strategy and leadership This text is designed for undergraduate courses in public governance, but it also addresses the core components of MPA programmes - the parameters, tools, principles and theories of public sector reform.

This volume shows how public agencies can be made more efficient and humane, providing practical guidance to enhance both service quality and client satisfaction at local, state and national levels. Examples focus on the issues of quality management, improving service delivery, job reorganization and worker empowerment.

How policymakers should guide, manage, and oversee public bureaucracies is a question that lies at the heart of contemporary debates about government and public administration. This text calls for public management to become a vibrant field of public policy.

Explores public sector reform from a strategic management perspective. The authors whose work is presented in this book examine seven strategies for public management reform. They address the need for and application of various strategies, and impediments to implementation of each strategy. Case analysis is used to derive findings and conclusions.

In this major new contribution to a rapidly expanding field, the authors offer an integrated analysis of the wave of management reforms which have swept through so many countries in the last twenty years. The reform trajectories of ten countries are compared, and key differences of approach discussed. Unlike some previous works, this volume affords balanced coverage to the 'New Public Management' (NPM) and the 'non-NPM' or 'reluctant NPM' countries, since it covers Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, the UK and the USA. Unusually, it also includes a preliminary analysis of attempts to improve management within the European Commission.

Public Management and Governance examines the factors which make government critically important and the barriers which often stop it being effective. It questions what it means to have effective policies, efficient management and good quality public services, and it explores how the process of governing could be improved. Key themes include: the challenges and pressures facing governments around the world; the changing role of the public sector in a ‘mixed economy’ of provision; governance issues such as ethics, equalities, transparency and citizen engagement. This revised and updated third edition includes eight new chapters which provide in-depth coverage of key new aspects of public management and governance. It also features a wide selection of international case studies and illuminating examples of how public policy, management and governance can be improved – and what happens when they fail. Each chapter is supplemented with discussion questions, group and individual exercises, case studies and recommendations on further reading. Public Management and Governance is one of the leading student textbooks in its field, featuring contributions from top international authors and covering a wide range of key topics in depth. It is an essential resource for all students on undergraduate and postgraduate courses in public management, public administration, government and public policy.

The performance of public services is a matter of concern in many countries. Issues of public service efficiency, cost, and effectiveness have moved to the forefront of political debate. This book applies the latest thinking from Management and Organization Studies to public organizations to examine how the public sector can perform better.

Governments across the world are pursuing reform in an effort to improve public services. But have these reforms actually led to improvements in services? Evaluating Public Management Reforms develops a framework for a theory-based evaluation of reforms, and then uses this framework to assess the impact of new arrangements for public service delivery in the UK. This book: * identifies the conceptual and practical problems of finding clear criteria for evaluating reforms * focuses on the shifts in public management towards markets and competition, towards the publication of performance indicators, and from larger to smaller organizations * considers what impact these reforms have had on the efficiency, responsiveness and equity of services * comprehensively reviews the evidence on the effects of reform on health care, housing and education * discusses the implications for public sector management.