Public Service Improvement

The performance of public services is a matter of concern in many countries. Issues of public service efficiency, cost, and effectiveness have moved to the forefront of political debate. This book applies the latest thinking from Management and Organization Studies to public organizations to examine how the public sector can perform better.

This volume shows how public agencies can be made more efficient and humane, providing practical guidance to enhance both service quality and client satisfaction at local, state and national levels. Examples focus on the issues of quality management, improving service delivery, job reorganization and worker empowerment.

The performance of the public services, from education and policing to health and recycling, is a matter of concern in many countries. Issues of public service efficiency, cost, and effectiveness have moved to the forefront of political debate. This book applies the latest thinking from Management and Organization Studies to the performance of public organizations in order to evaluate the merits of different mechanisms for driving improvement in the public sector. Research in Management and Organization Studies on the private sector has identified a number of 'drivers' of improved performance, including innovation, organizational culture, leadership, and strategic planning. Many of these 'private sector' characteristics have emerged within public sector organisations in recent years. However, public managers face additional pressures, whether from regulators, constrained resources, or political interference. This book takes each of these drivers in turn and assesses whether they lead to improvement in public services. Written for students and researchers of Public Management, this book will also be of interest to public managers and consultants.

This is an excellent new contribution to current academic and policy debates, and will be of great interest internationally to all students, researchers, public sector managers and policy makers. The improvement of public services has become a key priority for all the main political parties in the UK. Recent years have witnessed large, real terms increases in spending on public services and a plethora of new initiatives designed to drive up standards in the Heath Service, schools, the police and local government. As part of this broader picture the Government has launched major reforms that it hopes will transform local authority performance. Councils have had to develop new ways of delivering services. They have been under pressure to achieve 'stretch targets' and to work in partnership with other local agencies to provide more 'joined up' services. More recently ministers have also stepped up the pressure on them to achieve major efficiency savings through better procurement and working practices. To date relatively little has been written about these developments. This book fills this gap by bringing togther authoritative analysis of current reforms ythrough speically commisioned chapters by leading researchers, policy makers and practitioners who have been closely involved in the development and implementation of these policies. This book was previously published as a special issue of Local Government Studies.

Public agencies at the federal, state, and local levels are realizing just how important it is to assess and improve their current performance and to convey information on their achievements and opportunities to staff, leaders, and decision makers as well as externally to constituents. Organizational Assessment and Improvement in the Public Sector

This book argues that if public services are to be 'reformed' or 'improved', achieving the best possible quality of service is essential. It starts from the premise that citizens and users are the key 'stakeholders'. They need to be consulted and involved at every stage. Within inevitable resource constraints, it is their needs, balanced with those of society, which must be met. Service providers need to change their culture and behaviour to make this happen. This book presents a straightforward and comprehensive model for understanding quality and putting it into practice. Existing quality philosophies and approaches are examined. Overviews of recent policy on quality in central and local government, in the health service, and in public service partnerships are included. Finally, five practitioners present practical 'vignettes' of citizen involvement, local partnerships, and quality improvement in health, housing and local government. Providing Quality in the Public Sector is essential reading for students and practitioners in the fields of public policy, local government, health, housing and the voluntary sector.

Now in paperback in an Enlarged Edition, this volume explores the lessons of one of the most comprehensive attempts to improve public management. Metcalfe and Richards describe and assess Thatcher's Efficiency Strategy as an exercise in improving public management. They explain how the strategy has gone about improving administrative performance by increasing cost-consciousness in the use of resources and creating flexibility for managing change. They analyze major themes such as: decentralization, information systems and budgets as management tools, organization design, and the management of interdepartmental relations.