Book Review: Improving Public Management
| Author | Maurice Kogan |
| Published date | 01 March 1991 |
| Date | 01 March 1991 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/014473949101100116 |
| Published By | Sage Publications, Inc. |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Book
Reviews
'practitioners'
who
might
wish
to
reflect
critically
upon
the
nature
of
managerialism
rather
than
reading
another
gung-ho
'how
to'
management
text.
The
neo-Taylorist
management
model
introduced
under
Thatcher
and
Reagan
Pollitt
rightly
criticises
as
narrow
and
mechanistic
- a
case
of
'stunted
growth'
he
calls
it
in
one
of
his
chapter
headings.
The
emphasis
has
been
on
economy
and
efficiency
in
narrowly-conceived
financial
terms:
waste,
cost-minimisation,
productivity,
'value
for
money'.
A
concern
for
effectiveness
in
terms
of
outcomes
achieved
or
for
the
quality
of
services
has
been
lacking.
Obviously
the
wider
context
of
economic
crisis,
cutbacks
and
retrenchment
and
the
ideological
hostility
of
right-wing
governments
to
public
services
have
been
important
factors
in
conditioning
this
skewed
approach.
Too
often
the
private
sector
business
model
has
been
assumed
to
be
appropriate
and
superior.
The
constitutional
and
political
implications
of
managerialism
have
been
down
played
or
ignored
by
its
proponents.
Values
such
as
accountability,
fairness,
justice,
representation,
participation
and
integrity
have
been
off
the
agenda
or
else
treated
as
regrettable
constraints.
Managerialism
is
fundamentally
anti-political,
seeing
government
in
terms
of
a
business
whose
aim
should
be
to
get
things
done
rather
than
acknowledging
the
inevitable
and
desirable
interplay
of
politics
in
decisions
about
the
scope
and
operations
of
public
services.
Professor
Pollitt's
book
deserves
the
widest
readership.
One
hopes
that
it
will
even
get
through
to
those
benighted
souls
responsible
for
axing
public
administration
departments!
It
is
a
fairly
expensive
hardback
-
a
cheaper
paperback
would
get
it
onto
many
students'
bookshelves.
Department
of
Politics
University
of
Leeds
KEVIN
THEAKSTON
Improving
Public
Management
by
LES
METCALFE
and
SUE
RICHARDS.
(London,
Sage,
1990,
pp.254,
£10.90.)
This
is
a
sure-footed
account
of
issues
in
public
management
at
the
centre
which
builds
well
upon
developments
in
both
theory
and
empirical
experience.
It
thus
represents
a
great
advance
over
the
generation
of
books
in
the
1970s
that
were
largely
prescriptive,
normative
and
definitional.
In
particular,
Metcalfe
and
Richards
exploit
well
documented
cases
of
efficiency
strategies
mounted
in
the
1980s
by
central
government.
The
authors'
main
purpose
is
to
examine
the
development
of
the
Efficiency
Strategy
and
to
make
proposals
for
the
future.
They
generally
approve
of
the
strategy
which
'shows
signs
of
taking
root
and
bearing
fruit';
savings
in
expenditure
can
be
demonstrated.
The
Efficiency
Unit
wisely
relied
upon
departments
to
appoint
their
own
scrutineers
and
thus
accept
ownership
for
self-evaluation
and
change.
From
the
experience
built
up
within
the
Departments
there
is
hope
of
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