Abstract
We present the first empirical assessment of the U.K. Labour government's program of public management reform. This reform program is based on rational planning, devolution and delegation, flexibility and incentives, and enhanced choice. Measures of these variables are tested against external and internal indicators of organizational performance. The setting for the study is upper tier English local governments, and data are drawn from a multiple informant survey of 117 authorities. The statistical results indicate that planning, organizational flexibility, and user choice are associated with higher performance. Conclusions are drawn for the theory and practice of public management reform. © 2006 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 371-393 |
| Number of pages | 23 |
| Journal | Journal of Policy Analysis and Management |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Mar 2006 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the ESRC/EPSRC Advanced Institute of Management Research under grant numbers 331-25-0006 and 331-25-0004, respectively; the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (England), who funded the research that this paper is based on; faculty at Georgia State University (Department of Public Administration and Urban Studies) and the University of Georgia at Athens (Department of Public Administration and Policy) for their valuable comments; and the JPAM referees. Interpretation of results rests with the authors.