Product Description: This book compares the trajectories and effects of local public sector reform in Europe and fills a research gap that has existed so far in comparative public administration and local government studies. Based on the results of COST research entitled, ‘Local Public Sector Reforms: an International Comparison’, this volume takes a European-scale approach, examining local government in 28 countries...read more

Product Description: In times of rising expectations and decreasing resources for the public sector, performance management is high on the agenda. Increasingly, the value of the performance management systems themselves is under scrutiny, with more attention being paid to the effectiveness of performance management in practice...read more

Product Description: Since its publication in 2000, Public Management Reform has established itself as the standard text in the field, presenting a comparative analysis of recent changes in Public Management and Public Administration in a range of countries in Europe, North America, and Australasia...read more

Product Description: 'This lucid, vivid and intelligent book on 'continuity and change' in policy and management by Pollitt and Bouckaert follows in the footsteps of Pollitt's previous book on the issue of time, a vital but often neglected issue. In the present book the focus is on comparisons: Britain and Belgium, hospitals and police, national and local, and comparison over time...read more

Product Description: In recent years, concerns over the effectiveness of public administration have encouraged the widespread measurement and management of ‘performance’. But is performance management an appropriate model for public sector organizations, and has it proved successful? Moreover, how do the principles of performance management affect how public bodies operate, and the way they relate to the wider community? In this important text, the viability of performance management in public sector organizations is systematically assessed across a number of international case studies...read more

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.

Product Description: Legislative initiative, in response to public demands for more accountability, require public agencies at all levels of government to measure organizational performance and to report on service efforts and accomplishments (SEA). What considerations should managers use in developing performance measurement protocols? What is the experience to date in the U...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Since the late 1980s the quality of public services has become a major focus of attention for politicians, managers and citizens, but surprisingly there has been little material with a truly European focus. This book remedies this absence. Part One provides a theoretical framework which helps the reader make sense of the detail contained in the later case studies. It also locates quality improvement in the special political and organizational context of the public sector. It shows how choosing a particular concept of quality has significant political and organizational consequences and also discusses how quality may be measured. In Part Two seven case studies illuminate detailed operational issues in quality improvement by d

Product Description: The And of the Cold War, advances in information technology, and the many other global changes of the past decade have required managers to change their frame of reference. It is increasingly clear that, for management at all levels, the twenty-first century is going to be greatly different from present and past experience in governance and public administration...read more