The New Public Service


Book Description

This widely praised work provides a framework for the many voices calling for the reaffirmation of democratic values, citizenship, and service in the public interest. The expanded edition includes an all-new chapter that addresses the practical issues of applying these ideals in actual, real-life situations. "The New Public Service, Expanded Edition" is organized around a set of seven core principles: serve citizens, not customers; seek the public interest; value citizenship and public service above entrepreneurship; think strategically, act democratically; recognize that accountability isn't simple; serve, rather than steer; and value people, not just productivity. The book asks us to think carefully and critically about what public service is, why it is important, and what values ought to guide what we do and how we do it. It celebrates what is distinctive, important and meaningful about public service and considers how we might better live up to those ideals and values. All students and serious practitioners in public administration and public policy should read this book. While debates about public policy issues will surely continue, this compact, clearly written volume provides an important framework for public service based on and fully integrated with citizen discourse and the public interest.




The New Public Service, Expanded Edition


Book Description

Provides a framework for the many voices calling for the reaffirmation of democratic values, citizenship, and service in the public interest. This edition includes a chapter that addresses the practical issues of applying these ideals in actual, real-life situations.




The New Public Governance


Book Description

Despite predictions that 'new public management' would establish itself as the new paradigm of Public Administration and Management, recent academic research has highlighted concerns about the intra-organizational focus and limitations of this approach. This book represents a comprehensive analysis of the state of the art of public management, examining and framing the debate in this important area. The New Public Governance? sets out to explore this emergent field of research and to present a framework with which to understand it. Divided into five parts, the book examines: Theoretical underpinnings of the concept of governance, especially competing perspectives from Europe and the US Governance of inter-organizational partnerships and contractual relationships Governance of policy networks Lessons learned and future directions Under the steely editorship of Stephen Osborne and with contributions from leading academics including Owen Hughes, John M. Bryson, Don Kettl, Guy Peters and Carsten Greve, this book will be of particular interest to researchers and students of public administration, public management, public policy and public services management.




The New Public Service


Book Description

According to Paul C. Light's controversial new book, The New Public Service, this January's 4.8 percent federal pay increase will do little to compensate for what potential employees think is currently missing from federal careers. Talented Americans are not saying "show me the money" but "show me the job." And federal jobs just do not show well. All job offers being equal, Light argues that the pay increase would matter. But all offers are not equal. Light's research on what graduates of the top public policy and administration graduate programs want indicates that the federal government is usually so far behind its private and nonprofit competitors that pay never comes into play. Light argues that the federal government is losing the talent war on three fronts. First, its hiring system for recruiting talent, top to bottom, underwhelms at almost every task it undertakes. Second, its annual performance appraisal system is so inflated that federal employees are not only all above average, they are well on their way to outstanding. Third and most importantly, the federal government is so clogged with needless layers and convoluted career paths that it cannot deliver the kind of challenging work that talented Americans expect. None of these problems would matter, Light argues, if the government-centered public service was still looking for work. Unfortunately, as Light's book demonstrates, federal careers were designed for a workforce that has not punched since the 1960s, and certainly not for one that grew up in an era of corporate downsizing and mergers. The government-centered public service is mostly a thing of the past, replaced by a multisectored public service in which employees switch jobs and sectors with ease. Light concludes his book by offering the federal government a simple choice: It can either ignore the new public service and troll further and further down the class lists for new recruits, while hoping that a tiny pay in




Public Service Values


Book Description

Public service values are too rarely discussed in public administration courses and scholarship, despite recent research demonstrating the importance of these values in the daily decision making processes of public service professionals. A discussion of these very tenets and their relevance to core public functions, as well as which areas might elicit value conflicts for public professionals, is central to any comprehensive understanding of budget and finance, human resource management, and strategic planning in the public sector. Public Service Values is written specifically for graduate and undergraduate courses in public administration, wherever a discussion of public service ideals might enrich the learning experience and offer students a better understanding of daily practice. Exploring the meaning and application of specific values, such as Neutrality, Efficiency, Accountability, Public Service, and Public Interest, provides students and future professionals with a ‘workplace toolkit’ for the ethical delivery of public services. Well-grounded in scholarly literature and with a relentless focus on the public service professional, Public Service Values highlights the importance of values in professional life and encourages a more self-aware and reflective public practice. Case studies to stimulate reflection are interwoven throughout the book and application to practice is cemented in a final section devoted to value themes in professional life as well as a chapter dedicated to holding oneself accountable. The result is a book that challenges us to embrace the necessity of public service values in our public affairs curricula and that asks the important questions current public service professionals should make a habit of routinely applying in their daily decision making.




Public Service Logic


Book Description

This book is based upon and extends the theoretical and empirical work of the author over the last decade. It integrates material deriving from his previous conceptual and empirical work in this field, together with new empirical evidence from emerging research. Public Service Logic challenges the product-dominant assumptions of the New Public Management (NPM) about the nature and management of public service delivery. Whilst the NPM has led to some important developments in public management, it has also had significant limitations and weaknesses. The book presents an alternative to this, as a framework for the future delivery and reform of public services globally. It draws upon the extant literature in the field of service management to argue for a Public Service Logic (PSL) for the delivery of public services. This situates public service delivery within the vibrant and influential field of service-dominant research and theory. It argues that effective public service management requires both that these services are understood as services not as products and that, consequently, public service management requires a focus on value creation as its over-arching rationale. The book presents a major new framework of value creation for public service delivery as a basis for public service reform, explores the role of service managers and staff and of citizens and service users in this value creation process, and evaluates the implications of this new framework for both the strategic and operational management of public service delivery, their performance management and the development and innovation of new forms of public services. It will be of interest to researchers and students in the fields of public management and public administration, as well as to policy makers and public service managers.




The Next Public Administration


Book Description

Written by two of the leading scholars in the field, this book explores public administration in the past, present and future, critically reviewing the modernization of public management reform. It reasserts public administration as an integral component of democratic governance and fostering a state-citizen relationship. Wide-ranging in scope, The Next Public Administration: Extends basic public administration to consider issues associated with management, governance and democracy Covers core public administration concepts and their evolution through time Draws on an international spread of examples, bringing theoretical discussions to life Includes lists of further reading Essential reading for students of public management and public administration.




Foundations of Public Service


Book Description

Designed to serve as a basic text for an introductory course in Public Administration, this innovative work provides students with an understanding of the basic management functions that are covered in all standard textbooks with two important differences. First, it is written to address the needs of both the experienced practitioner and the entry-level public servant. Case examples bridge the content-rich environment of practitioners with the basic principles of public administration sought by pre-service students. Second, the discussion of basic management practices is grounded in the political and ethical tensions inherent in the American constitutional form of governance. This reflects the authors' belief that public administration operates as an integral part of the country's political traditions, and thereby helps define the political culture. The book provides a framework for understanding American political traditions and how they inform public administration as a political practice. Key Changes in the Second Edition include: A new introductory chapter that explains what the authors mean by a constitutional approach and why that is important. An expanded discussion of the role of civil society in promoting the common good. A new section in chapter 5 on New Public Governance. Updated exhibits that incorporate up-to-date census data and revenue figures (chapter 10). A new section in chapter 14 that recognises the importance of maintaining accountability in contract and networked systems of governance. Significantly rewritten chapters to add emphasis on the relevance of the chapter material to nonprofit organisations. A significantly revised bibliography which incorporates new bodies of research that have appeared since the first edition.




The New Public Management


Book Description

How policymakers should guide, manage, and oversee public bureaucracies is a question that lies at the heart of contemporary debates about government and public administration. This text calls for public management to become a vibrant field of public policy.




Why Public Service Matters


Book Description

Why Public Service Matters conveys the importance, purpose, and nobility of a career as a civil servant in the United States. It does so, however, with an unflinching eye on the realpolitik that drives public administration in America's "compensatory state" and on the pitfalls of reformers' focus on bureaucratic, rather than democratic, administration. The book links the nation's ability to handle contemporary policy problems with the strategic, tactical, and normative quality of public management. In doing so, it offers newcomers a rare, concise, and accessible overview of the field. Readers will gain an appreciation for the challenges, choices, and opportunities facing public managers as they help advance a sense of common purpose informed by democratic constitutional values in twenty-first century America.