MANAGING CHANGE AND INNOVATION IN PUBLIC SERVICE ORGANISATIONS ‐ Edited by Stephen P. Osborne and Kerry Brown
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.2006.00612_6.x |
| Published date | 01 August 2006 |
| Date | 01 August 2006 |
| Author | Jennifer Law |
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© Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2006 Public Administration Vol. 84, No. 3, 2006 (783–810)
MANAGING CHANGE AND INNOVATION IN PUBLIC
SERVICE ORGANISATIONS
Stephen P. Osborne and Kerry Brown
Routledge, 2005, 262 pp., £18.99 (pb) ISBN: 0415328985
This book, the fi rst in a Masters in Public Management series, is one of those
designed to be used as part of a taught Masters, MBA or MPA, work-based
or self-directed learning. It aims to provide a critical approach, combining
theory with practice, that educates the reader, rather than solely teaching a
set of skills. There is no doubt that there is a market for this type of book
since the number of these courses, for both part-time and full-time students,
provided by UK universities has recently grown. However, despite the
increase in student numbers, there has been a distinct lack of texts that
provide a balance between the management and organizational behaviour
literature and the public sector context. There are a number of excellent
books on public management (see, for example, Flynn 2001; Pollitt 2003 ),
but these tend not to draw very much on the vast management literature.
Instead, they focus on subjects such as the New Public Management, com-
petition, managing performance, collaboration, and accountability. While
these are signifi cant issues, public managers also need to engage with topics
which have traditionally been researched by management academics, such
as strategy, change and innovation. This book is therefore much needed,
both in terms of its approach (drawing on a combination of private and pub-
lic sector management literature) and its focus (change and innovation).
To consider both change and innovation is a useful approach since, as the
authors state, they are over-lapping phenomena. The book is structured so
that the fi rst three chapters focus on the changing environment of public
service organizations and the need for change and innovation. In doing so,
they also draw on ideas from strategic management such as PEST and SWOT
analysis. Other ways through which the need for change in public organiz-
ations is increasingly identifi ed are performance management and external
inspection, and it would have been helpful to see these elaborated here in
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