"Effective and impartial public administration is the foundation of state legitimacy. This was understood 4,500 years ago when Urukagina, the ruler of a small country in Mesopotamia, proclaimed the first known reform of public service. The quality of public administration will be even more important in the 21st century. Successful states will be those that recognise public service as a key determinant of national competitive advantage. That realisation will generate a radical change in the image of the civil servant -- from dull, uninspired public official to passionate advocate of the common good. This transformation will be the product of the complex challenges arising from the interweaving of globalisation with the '4th Industrial Revolution.' These and related developments are forcing governments around the world to search for public service that can respond to the unprecedented range of opportunities and threats emerging from a rapidly evolving international context. In an increasingly frenetic world ruled by 'Wicked Ostriches' and 'Black Elephants', governments require a civil service capable of achieving five outcomes: i) unlocking the creativity and collaborative spirit needed to solve complex problems; ii) overcoming the fallacy that the private sector is inherently more innovative and efficient than the public service; iii) developing societies that are perceived by their citizens as fair; iv) fostering the trust of citizens in their governments; and v) bolstering the legitimacy of the state. The author, who is Director of the United Nations Development Programme's Global Centre for Public Service Excellence in Singapore, suggests that these interconnected aims will result in a new phenomenon: the public recognition by political leaders and citizens that future prosperity, political stability, environmental sustainability and social cohesion are dependent on committed and creative civil servants passionate about promoting the long-term national interest."--Publisher's website.

Effective and impartial public administration is the foundation of state legitimacy. This was understood 4,500 years ago when Urukagina, the ruler of a small country in Mesopotamia, proclaimed the first known reform of public service. The quality of public administration will be even more important in the 21st century. Successful states will be those that recognise public service as a key determinant of national competitive advantage. That realisation will generate a radical change in the image of the civil servant — from dull, uninspired public official to passionate advocate of the common good.This transformation will be the product of the complex challenges arising from the interweaving of globalisation with the '4th Industrial Revolution.' These and related developments are forcing governments around the world to search for public service that can respond to the unprecedented range of opportunities and threats emerging from a rapidly evolving international context. In an increasingly frenetic world ruled by 'Wicked Ostriches' and 'Black Elephants', governments require a civil service capable of achieving five outcomes: i) unlocking the creativity and collaborative spirit needed to solve complex problems; ii) overcoming the fallacy that the private sector is inherently more innovative and efficient than the public service; iii) developing societies that are perceived by their citizens as fair; iv) fostering the trust of citizens in their governments; and v) bolstering the legitimacy of the state.The author, who is Director of the United Nations Development Programme's Global Centre for Public Service Excellence in Singapore, suggests that these interconnected aims will result in a new phenomenon: the public recognition by political leaders and citizens that future prosperity, political stability, environmental sustainability and social cohesion are dependent on committed and creative civil servants passionate about promoting the long-term national interest.'I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.'Mahatma Gandhi

"One day your sluggish company will taken to the sound of a beating drum and the sight of a competitor approaching at ramming speed. On deck will be a jut-jawed Barbarian....He will hardly blink as his target is ripped asunder, sending Aristocrats, Bureaucrats and their unfortunate shipmates to their corporate death....So goes Mr. Miller's tale, from which we can all profit." The Wall Street Journal Barbarians to Bureaucrats presents a brilliant new solution to a stubborn old business problem: how to halt a company's descent into wasteful, stifling bureaucracy. Lawrence M. Miller, a management consultant for such corporate giants as Xerox and 3M, argues that corporations, like civilizations, have a natural life cycle, and that by identifying the stage your company is in, and the leaders associated with it, you can avert decline and continue to thrive. Every company begins with the compelling new vision of a Prophet and the aggressive leadership of an iron-willed Barbarian, who implements the Prophet's ideas. New techniques and expansions are pushed through by the Builder and the Explorer, but the growth spawned by these managers can easily stagnate when the Administrator sacrifices innovation to order, and the Bureaucrat imposes tight control. And just as in civilizations, the rule of the Aristocrat, out of touch with those who do the real work, invites rebellion -- from employees, customers, and stockholders. It will take the Synergist, a business leader who balances creativity with order, to restore vitality and insure future growth. Executives from major corporations have already put the powerful insights of Barbarians to Bureaucrats into practice to regenerate their own companies. Now you can use this brilliant, lucid, and dazzlingly original book to put your company -- and your career -- back on track.

Rapid and profound changes are taking place in international development. The past two decades have promoted the ideals of participation and partnership, yet key decisions affecting people's lives continue to be made without sufficient attention to the socio-political realities of the countries in which they live. Embedded working traditions, vested interests and institutional inertia mean that old habits and cultures persist among the development community. Planning continues as though it were free of unpredictable interactions among stakeholders. This book is about the need to recognise the complex, non-linear nature of development assistance and how bureaucratic procedures and power relations hinder poverty reduction in the new aid environment. The book begins with a conceptual and historical analysis of aid, exposing the challenges and opportunities facing aid professionals today. It argues for greater attention to accountability and the adoption of rights based approaches. In section two, practitioners, policy makers and researchers discuss the realities of power and relationships from their experiences across sixteen countries. Their accounts, from government, donors and civil society, expose the highly politicised and dynamic aid environment in which they work. Section three explores ways forward for aid agencies, challenging existing political, institutional and personal ways of working. Authors describe procedural innovations as strategic ways to leverage change. Breaking the barriers to ensure more inclusive aid will require visionary leadership and a courageous commitment to change. Crucially, the authors show how translating rhetoric into practice relies on changing the attitudes and behaviours of individual actors. Only then is the ambitious agenda of the Millennium Development Goals likely to be met. The result is an indispensable contribution to the understanding of how development assistance and poverty reduction can be most effectively delivered by the professionals and agencies involved.

In Bring Back the Bureaucrats, John J. DiIulio Jr., one of America’s most respected political scientists and an adviser to presidents in both parties, summons the facts and statistics to show us how America’s big government works and why reforms that include adding a million more people to the federal workforce by 2035 might help to slow government’s growth while improving its performance. Starting from the underreported reality that the size of the federal workforce hasn’t increased since the early 1960s, even though the federal budget has skyrocketed. The number of federal programs has ballooned; Bring Back the Bureaucrats tells us what our elected leaders won’t: there are not enough federal workers to work for our democracy effectively. DiIulio reveals that the government in America is Leviathan by Proxy, a grotesque form of debt-financed big government that guarantees terrible government. Washington relies on state and local governments, for-profit firms, and nonprofit organizations to implement federal policies and programs. Big-city mayors, defense industry contractors, nonprofit executives, and other national proxies lobby incessantly for more federal spending. This proxy system chokes on chores such as cleaning up toxic waste sites, caring for hospitalized veterans, collecting taxes, handling plutonium, and policing more than $100 billion annually in “improper payments.” The lack of competent, well-trained federal civil servants resulted in the failed federal response to Hurricane Katrina and the troubled launch of Obamacare’s “health exchanges.” Bring Back the Bureaucrats is further distinguished by the presence of E. J. Dionne Jr. and Charles Murray, two of the most astute voices from the political left and right, respectively, who offer their candid responses to DiIulio at the end of the book.

Having led change successfully at three sprawling, monumental organizations—the CIA, Texas A&M University, and the Department of Defense—Robert M. Gates offers the ultimate insider's look at how leaders can transform large organizations and companies. For many Americans, bureaucracy and corporate structure are code words for inertia. Gates knows that it doesn't have to be that way. With stunning clarity, he shares how simple plans, faithfully executed, can cut through the mire of bureaucracy to reform organizational culture. And he shows that great leaders listen and respond to their teams and embrace the power of compromise. Using the full weight of his wisdom, candor, and devotion to duty, he empowers leaders at any level to effectively implement his leadership strategies.

This volume brings together leading scholars in the field of organisation studies to reflect on the universal phenomena of hierarchy (vertical organisation of tasks) and bureaucracy (rule-bound execution of tasks), resulting in a colourful kaleidoscope of thought-provoking, critical and refreshingly non-mainstream analysis.