Public Management Reform and Innovation: Research, Theory, and Application

Leading scholars present the most complete, as well as the most advanced,treatment of public management reform and innovation available. The subject of reform in the public sector is not new;indeed, its latest rubric, reinventing government, has become good politics.Still, as the contributors ask in this volume, is good politics necessarilygood government? Given the growing desire to reinvent government, thereare hard questions to be asked: Is the private sector market model suitableand effective when applied to reforming public and governmental organizations?What are the major political forces affecting reform efforts in publicmanagement? How is public management reform accomplished in a constitutionaldemocratic government? How do the values of responsiveness, professionalism,and managerial excellence shape current public management reforms? In thisvolume, editors H. George Frederickson and Jocelyn M. Johnston bring togetherscholars with a shared interest in empirical research to confront head-onthe toughest questions public managers face in their efforts to meet thedemands of reform and innovation. Throughout the book, the authors consider the bureaucraticresistance that results when downsizing and reinvention are undertakensimultaneously, the dilemma public managers face when elected executivesset a reform agenda that runs counter to the law, and the mistaken beliefthat improved management can remedy flawed policy.