This book explores how the theories and practices of public management have evolved. It covers themes such as political, judicial, and cultural environments. It reviews the influential theoretical developments that represent the intellectual heritage of public administration from Woodrow Wilson and the classics to current schools such as Total Quality Management (TQM) and the drive for reinventing government. The author identifies and explains critical managerial functions such as decisionmaking, communication, leadership, performance evaluation, and the constant search for reform and improvement in public organizations. This comprehensive, in-depth exploration emphasizes the operational and practical consequences of the subject.
Understanding and Managing Public Organizations provides a comprehensive analysis of research and practice on public organizations and management. In this fourth edition of his award-winning best seller, Hal Rainey reviews topics including organizational goals and performance, decision making and strategy, leadership, motivation, organizational structure and design, organizational change, and others. He analyzes effective and ineffective practices, with suggestions for managing contemporary and classic challenges in public organizations, and with illustrative vignettes and examples. Carefully revised and updated, this edition of Understanding and Managing Public Organizations extends previous editions with deeper coverage of collaboration and networks, public values, public service motivation, managerial strategy, performance assessment, innovation and organizational change, and recent trends in public sector management. Praise for the Previous Editions "The third edition of the classic text provides a comprehensive, up-to-date analysis of research on public organizations and management. Drawing on a review of the most current research about government organizations and managers, this important source offers specific suggestions for managing these challenges in today's public organizations." ? Abstracts of Public Administration "A masterful textbook, as well as an important and original contribution to the public organization theory literature ? both comprehensive in its treatment of organization theory and decidedly 'public' in its perspective." ?Public Administration Review "A tremendous contribution to the field. Rainey's ability to synthesize research streams from a variety of fields?such as political science, public administration, public policy, business administration, psychology, sociology, and others?is outstanding." ?Jeffrey L. Brudney, Albert A. Levin Chair of Urban Studies and Public Service, Cleveland State University
This text has been totally revised in line with substantive changes in public management since the previous edition. A wide range of perspectives is offered, especially a critical evaluation on the use of private management insights in the public sphere.
Organization Theory and Public Management is written for current and future public managers. Understanding organization theory helps managers at all levels define program objectives, overcome constraints, and accomplish mandated purposes. Armed with theoretical and conceptual knowledge, managers can better identify the factors that affect organizational performance, determine how these factors interrelate, and decide how best to resolve problems and attain goals. Familiarity with organization theory can facilitate fresh ways to view organizational challenges and discover new paths for pursuing change. Organization theory, supported by intuition and common sense, can be a powerful guide to action. The book approaches each organization theory school of thought on its own terms, drawing out its implications for public management as objectively as possible. Chapter 1 introduces organization theory as a field of study, chapter 2 establishes the unique context of public management, and chapter 3 presents three analytical frameworks for assessing the theories of organization covered in the twelve chapters that follow.
The public sector continues to play a strategic role across the world and in the last thirty years there have been major shifts in approaches to its management. This text identifies the trends in public management and the effects these have had, as well as providing a broad overview to each topic.
This book reviews the evolution of organization theory literature and explains other theories of organization and the implicit wisdom of the instructor's favorite theory. It helps the reader to understand the relevance of organization theory to the problems of administering public organizations.
This global encyclopedic work serves as a comprehensive collection of global scholarship regarding the vast fields of public administration, public policy, governance, and management. Written and edited by leading international scholars and practitioners, this exhaustive resource covers all areas of the above fields and their numerous subfields of study. In keeping with the multidisciplinary spirit of these fields and subfields, the entries make use of various theoretical, empirical, analytical, practical, and methodological bases of knowledge. Expanded and updated, the second edition includes over a thousand of new entries representing the most current research in public administration, public policy, governance, nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations, and management covering such important sub-areas as: 1. organization theory, behavior, change and development; 2. administrative theory and practice; 3. Bureaucracy; 4. public budgeting and financial management; 5. public economy and public management 6. public personnel administration and labor-management relations; 7. crisis and emergency management; 8. institutional theory and public administration; 9. law and regulations; 10. ethics and accountability; 11. public governance and private governance; 12. Nonprofit management and nongovernmental organizations; 13. Social, health, and environmental policy areas; 14. pandemic and crisis management; 15. administrative and governance reforms; 16. comparative public administration and governance; 17. globalization and international issues; 18. performance management; 19. geographical areas of the world with country-focused entries like Japan, China, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Russia and Eastern Europe, North America; and 20. a lot more. Relevant to professionals, experts, scholars, general readers, researchers, policy makers and manger, and students worldwide, this work will serve as the most viable global reference source for those looking for an introduction and advance knowledge to the field.
Local governments do not stand alone—they find themselves in new relationships not only with state and federal government, but often with a widening spectrum of other public and private organizations as well. The result of this re-forming of local governments calls for new collaborations and managerial responses that occur in addition to governmental and bureaucratic processes-as-usual, bringing locally generated strategies or what the authors call "jurisdiction-based management" into play. Based on an extensive study of 237 cities within five states, Collaborative Public Management provides an in-depth look at how city officials work with other governments and organizations to develop their city economies and what makes these collaborations work. Exploring the more complex nature of collaboration across jurisdictions, governments, and sectors, Agranoff and McGuire illustrate how public managers address complex problems through strategic partnerships, networks, contractual relationships, alliances, committees, coalitions, consortia, and councils as they function together to meet public demands through other government agencies, nonprofit associations, for-profit entities, and many other types of nongovernmental organizations. Beyond the "how" and "why," Collaborative Public Management identifies the importance of different managerial approaches by breaking them down into parts and sequences, and describing the many kinds of collaborative activities and processes that allow local governments to function in new ways to address the most nettlesome public challenges.
"During the last three decades, social and behavioral scientists have intensively studied the motivating power of public service. The research focuses on varied concepts-public service motivation, altruism, and prosocial motivation and behavior. This research has produced a critical mass of new knowledge for transforming the motivation of public employees, civil service policies and management practices. The book is the first to look systematically across the different streams of other-oriented motivation research. It is also the first to synthesize research across applied questions that public organizations and their leaders confront, including: recruiting and selecting staff who will ethically and competently pursue public service; designing public work to leverage its meaningfulness; creating work environments that support intrinsically-motivated, prosocial behavior; compensating and rewarding employees to energize and sustain public service; socializing employees for public service missions and values; and leading employees for causes great than themselves"--