Understanding and Managing Public Organizations, 6th Edition

CHAPTER FOURTEENADVANCING PUBLIC MANAGEMENT THROUGH COLLABORATION

Pundits and politicians have at times asserted that government could be more efficient and effective if it operated like a business. This call for “running government like a business,” while seriously simplistic, has figured importantly in approaches to reforming public organizations. In nations around the world, reforms have often proposed that governments adopt purportedly business-like practices, such as pay for performance, giving superiors more authority to manage subordinates, and reducing “red tape.” Reforms have often called for increased reliance on the private sector more generally by shifting and delegating important government responsibilities to parties outside government (Greve et al., 1999; van Thiel and van der Wal, 2010). An international governmental reform movement that came to be called New Public Management (NPM) took various forms in different nations, but usually included proposals similar to those mentioned above. As Chapter Five describes, however, during this same period one could also observe a shift in theory and practice toward emphasis on more collaborative forms of organizing and operating (Agranoff and McGuire, 2003). In recent years proponents of effective government increasingly called for government to serve as an active partner in collaborative activities (O'Leary and Bingham, 2009). This trend emphasizes government's important role in the pursuit of public value through shared ...