The context and environment of public services is becoming increasingly complex and the management of change and innovation is now a core task for the successful public manager. This text aims to provide its readers with the skills necessary to understand, manage and sustain change and innovation in public service organizations. Key features include: the use of figures, tables and boxes to highlight ideas and concepts of central importance a dedicated case study to serve as a focus for discussion and learning, and to marry theory with practice clear learning objectives for each chapter with suggestions for further reading. Providing future and current public managers with the understanding and skills required to manage change and innovation, this groundbreaking text is essential reading for all those studying public management, public administration and public policy.

Forming part of the Understanding Organizational Change series, Managing Organizational Change in Public Services focuses on the organizational dimension of change management in public services. Combining aspects of change management theory with ‘real life’ practice in the form of organizational cases from different regions and sectors, this edited collection identifies and analyzes significant issues regarding the development, implementation and evaluation of public service change initiatives. Featuring contributions from leading authors in the field, this text provides an overview of organizational change management with a focus on leadership, management, and strategies for change. Looking at cases from Europe and North America, Managing Organizational Change in Public Services offers both a global, as well as a cross-sector analysis of this complex and challenging process. Different sectors that are examined include: Transport Health Education This book offers an excellent introduction to change management and how it works within the public service organizations internationally. It will be vital reading for all those engaged with the study or practice of this dynamic subject.

Successful change in the public sector can be supported or hindered by political and administrative leadership, individual and group motivation, and the public’s perception of the effectiveness of public officials and government structures. But do the very characteristics of public sector organizations present obstacles to successful transformative change? This book assesses the current state of the literature on leadership and change in government and public policy, and introduces the reader to innovative new ways to demonstrate leadership in times of change. Contributions from accomplished scholars in the field cover the traditional public administration areas of performance and management, as well as the diversity of issues that surround public leadership and change, both domestic and global. Chapters on public sector innovation, performance leadership, governance networks, complexity in disaster management, change initiatives in educational systems and local government, citizen advisory bodies, and gender and race equality, to name but a few, provide important case studies throughout the volume. Leadership and Change in Public Sector Organizations will be required reading for upper level undergraduate and graduate courses in public administration/management, leadership, and public policy analysis.

This book explores the management of change to improve publicservice effectiveness. It breaks new ground in addressing whypublic service change is becoming increasingly complex to manage,how people cope with this new complexity, what implications arisefor improving policy and practice, and which avenues for furtherresearch and theory-building look particularly promising. The contributors are all leading researchers from the USA,Canada and the UK. Together they provide a synthesis ofstate-of-the-art thinking on the complex change process inAnglo-American contexts, policy-making for public service reformthat generates managerial complexity, and practice in serviceorganizations to improve provision. Special reference is made toeducation and health: the largest and most complex of the publicservices. The analysis has wider relevance for other publicservices and national contexts. Managing Change in the Public Services is essentialreading for all concerned with public service improvement - leadersand managers in service organizations, administrators, trainers,advisers and consultants who support the management of change,policy-makers and public servants, and advanced course students andacademics. The book also offers general insights for the theory andpractice of managing organizational and systemic change.

New Public Management as an administrative reform ideology as well as conceptual innovation has changed the outlook of public administration during the last ten years. Public administration and public administration reform should not only be concerned with the improvement of the efficiency and coherence which play an important role in public administration, but also political values like liberty, equity and security as well as legal values like the rule of the law. The modernization agenda of public administration has a rather internal focus, while the ultimate test for the modernization of public administration is the way in which governments are able to respond to changing social, cultural and economic conditions and the wicked policy problems which result from them. This publication contains interesting contributions to the science and practice of public administration.

In the organizational context, the word "innovation" is often associated with private sector organizations, which are often perceived as more agile, adaptable, and able to withstand change than government agencies and nonprofit organizations. But the reality is that, while they may struggle, public and nonprofit organizations do innovate. These organizations must find ways to use shrinking resources effectively, improve their performance, and achieve desirable societal outcomes. Innovation in the Public Sector provides alternative frameworks for defining, categorizing, and studying innovation in government and in the nonprofit sector. Through a diverse collection of international case studies, this book broadens the discussion of innovation in public and nonprofit organizations, demonstrating the hurdles organizations face and examining the technological advances and managerial ingenuity innovators use to achieve their goals, both within and beyond the boundaries of the innovating organization. The chapters shed light on key issues including: how to conceptualize innovation; how organizations decide between competing good ideas; how to implement innovation; how to contend with challenges to innovation; how to judge success in innovation This book provides current and future public managers with the understanding and skills required to manage change and innovation, and is essential reading for all those studying public management, public administration, and public policy.