Governance of Public Sector Organizations

Governance of Public Sector Organizations examines recent changes in central governmental administration in contemporary democracies by focusing on organizational forms and their effects. There is a considerable need for such knowledge in a period when governments are constantly restructuring their administration. This book studies and explains how New Public Management (NPM) and post-NPM reforms affect the organizational proliferation and specialization, as well as the autonomy and control of central agencies. New empirical data sheds light on the effects of these changes on organizational performance. The book describes how 'whole-of-government' initiatives with emphasis on reassertion of the centre and horizontal coordination supplement NPM reforms, producing increased layering and complexity in government organizations. The contributors to this volume examine agencies in Australia, Canada, the UK, Hong Kong, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy and Hungary. By combining survey, mapping and case study methodologies, they show that structural, cultural, task-related and historical features interact in shaping organizational reforms.

ISBN 0230238203   Pages 360 ISBN13 9780230238206 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 540 Publisher Palgrave Macmillan   Published in Basingstoke Imprint Palgrave Macmillan   Series title Governance and Public Management Format Hardback   Height (mm) 222 Publication date 27 Oct 2010   Width (mm) 141 DEWEY 351   Spine width (mm) 25 DEWEY edition DC22   Academic level Professional / Scholarly

		List of Tables and Figures
		Notes on Contributors
		Preface
		COST
1		Introduction: Reforming Public Sector Organizations by Koen Verhoest		1
Part I		Proliferation and Specialization
2		The Structural Anatomy of the Norwegian State: Increased Specialization or a Pendulum Shift? by John-Erik Agotnes		21
3		The Agency Landscape in Hungary, 2002-2006 by Gyorgy Hajnal		44
4		Specialization and Fragmentation in Regulatory Regimes by Joery Matthys		66
Part II		Autonomy and Control
5		Policy and Management Autonomy of Federal Agencies in Germany by Tobias Bach		89
6		Explaining Autonomy in Public Agencies: The Case of Hong Kong by Wai-Hang Yee		111
7		Determinants of Result-based Control in Italian Agencies by Edoardo Ongaro		133
Part III		Performance and Results
8		The Long-run Performance of Decentralized Agencies in Quebec by Nicole Thibodeau		157
9		Comparing Impacts of Modes of Governance by Marieke van Genugten		177
10		Are Regulatory Agencies Delivering What They Promise? by Martino Maggetti		195
11		Performance of Public Sector Organizations: Do Managerial Tools Matter? by Andrew Sulle		211
Part IV		Post-NPM and Whole-of-Government: Increased Complexity
12		Post-NPM Responses to Disaggregation Through Coordinating Horizontally and Integrating Governance by John Halligan		235
13		Increased Complexity in Public Organizations - the Challenges of Combining NPM and Post-NPM by Per Laegreid		255
		More...

'Global reform of governmental bureaucracies during the past 20 years or so has left academics and practitioners alike with a multitude of new questions, to which many old answers are no longer relevant. This book -- at once comprehensive yet sharply focused in its scope -- is an invaluable contribution to the search for new answers. It deserves to be widely read.' - Robert Gregory, Professor of Political Science, School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand 'Governance of Public Sector Organizations presents intriguing results from an international data collection effort. The volume offers a comprehensive analysis of contemporary institutional developments in central government, particularly the role of executive agencies in governance. Drawing on an international network of senior scholars, this book is theoretically rich, conceptually clear, and methodologically innovative. It is a significant contribution to our knowledge of the executive agencies.' - Jon Pierre, Professor of Political Science, Department of Government, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

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