Why do top-down reforms to public services so often over-promise and under-deliver? Using five concepts from psychology, economics and organisational sociology, Thomas Elston addresses this pressing question of good governance. Focusing on the practical challenge of how to undertake better public management reforms, he questions the assumption that failure typically occurs because of poor reform implementation. Instead, he shows how reforms are often badly designed from the outset, being fashion-led, more focused more on fixing errors than exploiting opportunities and ignoring implicit costs of change. This concise, practically-orientated work employs diverse examples to propose ways to improve the design of public sector reform programmes -- and the services that citizens receive.

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.

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.

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.

This book examines the impact of several decades of public sector reform in four Westminster systems – Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Political and managerial change has re-defined roles and relationships and how their public sectors function. Often this occurs in comparable ways because of a common administrative tradition, but choices made in different country contexts also produce divergent outcomes. In analysing the results and implications of reform, fundamental issues of and tensions in public administration and management are addressed.

• Uses powerful concepts to show decision-makers how to understand and improve public management reforms; • Draws on economics, psychology and organizational sociology to provide a rounded framework for analysis and policy design; • A concise and accessible book practitioners with examples, cases and “myth buster” sections.

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