The Oxford Handbook of Public Management

The public sector continues to play a strategic role across the world. The last thirty years have seen major shifts in approaches to public sector management in many different countries. There is also a fierce debate across academic disciplines about contemporary public adminstration/management: some advocate the use of more managerialist approaches; while others critique them. New functions have also arisen in the public sector, such as evaluation or management consulting, which require analysis. There is a renewed need for an analysis of contemporary public sector organisations, which are changing rapidly before our eyes. Thus it is time for an authoritative assessment of the major trends in public management, embracing both their intended and unintended effects. This Handbook brings together leading international scholars to comment on key current issues. The individual chapters include a mix of broad overviews, in depth exploration of particular thematic areas and analyses of different theoretical perspectives such as political science, management, sociology and economics. The authors have been given sufficient space to develop their distinctive arguments. The editors provide an overall concluding chapter. The Handbook combines scholarly rigour, engaging writing from senior authors and high policy relevance. It will be relevant to advanced students, researchers and reflective public sector practitioners.

1 - Public Management: The Word, The Movement, The Science
2 - Public Management: A Concise History of the Field
3 - Bureaucracy in the 21st Century
4 - Public and Private Management Compared
5 - Public Management, Democracy, and Politics
6 - Law and Public Administration
7 - Public Management as Ethics
8 - Public Accountability
9 - Economic Perspectives on Public Organizations
10 - Postmodern Public Administration
11 - Networks and Interorganizational Management: Challenging, Steering, Evaluation, and the Role of Public Actors in Public Management
12 - Whatever Happened to Public Administration? Governance, Governance Everywhere?
13 - Virtual Organizations
14 - The Audit Explosion
15 - Public-Private Partnerships and Hybridity
16 - Decentralization: A Central Concept in Contemporary Public Management
17 - E-Government: A Challenge for Public Management
18 - Professionals in Public Services Organizations: Implications for Public Sector 'Reforming'
19 - Rethinking Leadership in Public Organizations
20 - Organizational Cultures in the Public Services
21 - Performance
22 - Striving for Balance: Reforms in Human Resource Management
23 - Public Service Quality
24 - Budget amd Accounting Reforms
25 - NGOs and Contracting
26 - Evaluation and Public Management
27 - International Public Management
28 - Management Consultancy
29 - Change and Continuity in the Continental Tradition of Public Management

Ewan Ferlie has previously worked at the Personal Social Services Research Unit, University of Kent (1979-1986) and then the Centre for Corporate Strategy and Change, Warwick Business School (1986-1997), University of Warwick. He was awarded a personal chair there in 1996. Between 1997 and 2003, he was a Professor at Imperial College Business School, London, and joined the School of Management, Royal Holloway University of London as Professor and Head of Department in autumn 2003. He is also Director of the Centre of Public Services Organisations there. He has also been a non executive member on Warwickshire Health Authority. He is now Head of Department at the School of Managment at King's College London. Laurence E. Lynn Jr. graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, after which he undertook doctoral study at Yale University, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in economics, and a stint in the U.S. Army, Lynn held various policy making and budgeting positions in the U.S. Federal Government, including Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Director of Program Analysis at the National Security Council, Assistant Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, and Assistant Secretary of Interior. His academic career has included positions at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration and Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies, and the Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University, where he is George H. W. Bush Chair and Professor of Public Affairs. Christopher Pollitt began his working life as a civil servant in Whitehall, where he worked in policy divisions and as a private secretary to two ministers. Subsequently pursued an academic career, including periods at the Open University (1975-1990) and as Head of Department and Dean at Brunel University, West London (1990-1999). Since 1999 he has been Professor of Public Management at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Pollitt has also served as Editor of the international journal Public Administration (1980-1989), President of the European Evaluation Society (1996-98) and Scientific Director of the Netherlands Institute of Government (since 2004). He has carried out consultancy and advice work for many governmental organizations, including the European Commission, the OECD and the World Bank. His special research interests lie in comparative public management and in programme evaluation and performance audit.