This book defines organizational development (OD) and discusses the philosophy of OD in terms of its assumptions and values. It addresses the issue of change in organizations and deals with groups and group processes since they are the forerunners of teams in organizations.

Calls for performance measures and metrics sound good, but public sector organizations often lack the tools required to assess the organization as a whole and create true change.In order to implement an integrated cycle of assessment, planning, and improvement, government agencies at all levels need a usable framework for organizational assessment that speaks to their unique needs. Organizational Assessment and Improvement in the Public Sector provides that framework, an understanding of assessment itself, and a methodology for assessment focused on the public sector. The book introduces the concept of organizational assessment, its importance, and its significance in public sector organizations. It addresses the organizational theory that underlies assessment, including change management, organizational and individual learning, and organizational development. Building on this, the author focuses on the processes and demonstrates how the communication that results from an assessment process can create a widely accepted case for change. She presents a model grounded in the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program criteria but adapted for the culture of government organizations. She also addresses the criteria that form the basis for assessment and implementation and provides examples and best practices. Facing decreasing budgets and an increasing demand for services, government agencies must increase their capabilities, maximize their available fiscal and human resources, and increase their effectiveness and efficiency. They often operate in an atmosphere that prizes effectiveness but measures it in silos assigned to individual programs and a structure that encourages people to do more with less while systematically discouraging efficiency. Stressing the significant and important differences between a business and a government, this book supplies the knowledge and tools necessary to create a culture of assessment in government organizations at all levels.

Cultural, economic and political trends are changing the way public administrations are organized and this book examines the new challenges managers face, with the need for a shift from a traditional bureaucratic model to a competency-based approach to organizational design and management in the areas of recruitment, training, career development and assessment. Through the analysis of an experimental project launched jointly by the Italian National School for Administration (SNA) and the Prime Minister’s Office, this book showcases how a competency-based system can be a key tool in reforming HR in the public sector, with significant effects on the organization and management of public administration.

Organization Development provides a forum for the ideas and experiences of a researcher and consultant concerned with change in organizations. It shows how choice and change can be guided in a world now characterized by what the author terms "permanent temporariness." The book is at heart an approach to increasing the amount of responsible freedom at work. In this respect, the volume responds to an avalanche of social criticism that has been directed at bureaucracy, "organizational America," and the "organizational ethic." The field at organization development is informed by such criticisms but transcends it via technology and values that drive change and choice alike.

Existing research understands co-production as leading to shifts in roles of the public sector institutions and their staffs. The shift is seen in the way that a discursive use of the term service provision with embedded logics encompassing fiscal accountability, performance measurement, efficiency, and process regulation has changed towards discourses that embrace collaboration between the public sector front staff and the citizens, with the aim of developing legitimate and effective welfare services that are co-produced by means of active participation and distributed decision making. However, this change requires new approaches to the way in which the implementation of new practices and tools is executed in practice as studied and researched, and how the new practices and tools are understood and evaluated in organizations. Processual Perspectives on the Co-Production Turn in Public Sector Organizations is an essential reference book that examines, unfolds, and develops approaches to co-production and implementation as dynamic, processual, collaborative, sensemaking, and as requiring and resulting in capacity building and learning. Moreover, the book examines new approaches to engage citizens and public sector actors in collaborative and co-productive processes, especially with concern for new goals pertaining to sustainability, social equity, democratic legitimacy, etc. Covering topics that include knowledge management and collective leadership, the book presents perspectives on capacity building, learning, change, and evaluation in organizations and current research in different areas of the public sector. It is intended for public sector administrators and managers investigating the relevancy, approaches, and methods in co-production. Furthermore, it targets civil actors and welfare service users, leaders and managers of public organizations, researchers, academicians, and students in programs that include social welfare development, public administration, political science, and organizational development.

This book covers all the major aspects of change management for those working in public sector and not-for-profit organisations. It summarises key theories and approaches to change management and includes detailed, worked descriptions of key techniques used in change management processes and programmes, with extensive reference to case studies drawn from a range of public sector, not-for-profit organisations and other environments. - Written by a highly knowledgeable and well-respected practitioner in the field - Draws on the author's wide-ranging practical experience of major organizational development and change management in a wide range of situation Applies as well as describes theory - Provides practical and realistic solutions to real-world problems