Principles of public management

Is it possible to reform public administration? Can management theory help? If so, why is the recent wave of managerial reforms (often lumped together under the umbrella term of «New Public Management» or «NPM») so widely criticised? Are private and public management somewhat similar, or are they fundamentally alike only in all unimportant respects? The purpose of this book is to present a theory of public management and then to combine a deductive approach (from the theory’s first principles) and an inductive approach (from the observation of actual applications of managerial concepts and techniques) to derive propositions and considerations about the different components of a government entity. Chapters 1 and 2 present the theoretical framework. Chapters 3 and 4 analyse the activities carried out by governments, their stakeholders and governance structures, their relationships with other entities. Chapters 5 and 6 investigate the implications for governments’ organisational structures; personnel management systems; planning, programming, measurement and control systems. The book may be used for undergraduate and graduate courses in public management. However, it also aims at (i) providing an alternative view on public-sector reforms, thus making a contribution to the academic debate; and (ii) supporting managers and professionals (e.g., consultants) that are already operating in the public sector or are planning to do so