Managing to Improve Public Services

A group of leading social science and management specialists show how management can be harnessed to improve public services.

How are public service organizations governed? How can their performance be measured, managed and improved? Public services play a central role in the well-being, sustainability and growth of communities, cities and nations. Managing to Improve Public Services shows how management can be harnessed to improve a range of public services (e.g. policing, health, local government) by examining them through different theoretical lenses (e.g. governance, innovation and change, performance metrics and management). It advances both theory and practice, beyond traditional public administration and 'new public management', by considering the interrelationships between governance and public management. The book is written by a group of leading social science and management specialists, who were awarded the prestigious ESRC/EPSRC Public Service Fellow awards as part of the Advanced Institute of Management Research initiative. It will be of interest to graduate students, academics and policy makers involved in public service management and performance measurement.

List of figures; List of tables; List of contributors; Preface Robin Wensley; 1. The agenda for public service improvement Jean Hartley and Chris Skelcher; Part I. Governance and Accountability: 2. Does governance perform? Concepts, evidence, causalities and research strategies Chris Skelcher; 3. Performativity, management and governance Paul M. Collier; 4. Critical assessment of performance measurement for policy making Michael Pidd; 5. Priority setting in the public sector: turning economics into a management process Cam Donaldson, Angela Bate, Craig Mitton, Stuart Peacock and Danny Ruta; Part II. Performance Metrics: 6. Public service productivity: new approaches to performance measurement in health sectors Mary O'Mahony, Philip Stevens and Lucy Stokes; 7. Performance measurement systems and the criminal justice system: rationales and rationalities Barbara Townley; 8. Valuing public sector outputs Rachel Baker, Helen Mason, Cam Donaldson and Michael Jones-Lee; 9. The use of geodemographics to improve public service delivery Paul A. Longley and Michael Goodchild; Part III. Managing Innovation and Change: 10. The innovation landscape for public service organizations Jean Hartley; 11. Innovation type and organizational performance: an empirical exploration Richard M. Walker and Fariborz Damanpour; 12. Public service failure and turnaround: towards a contingency model George Boyne; 13. Orchestrating complex and programmatic change in the public services Mike Wallace and Michael Fertig; Postscript: 14. Conclusions: current themes and future direction for research Cam Donaldson, Jean Hartley, Chris Skelcher and Mike Wallace; Index.

Public services play a central role in the well-being, sustainability and growth of communities, cities and nations. A group of leading social science and management specialists show how management can be harnessed to improve a range of public services by examining them through different theoretical lenses.

Jean Hartley is Professor of Organizational Analysis at the Institute of Governance and Public Management, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick.
Cam Donaldson is the Health Foundation Chair in Health Economics and Director of the Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle University Business School.
Chris Skelcher is Director of Research for the School of Public Policy and Professor of Public Governance at the Institute of Local Government Studies, University of Birmingham.
Mike Wallace is Professor of Public Management at Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University.