Public Management in Transition ― The Orchestration of Potentiality

In the debate over how best to manage public administration and welfare institutions, there exists a great tension between calls to control and calls to generate change.Public Management in Transition takes on this tension, providing an overview of important pathways for implementing innovation in public organization and, through it, the management of governments. Following an analysis of large-scale societal changes, chapters explore the effects these changes have on central public administrations, individual welfare institutions, the management of individuals themselves (both as employees and citizens), and finally how these effects might foment transformations of the form of the state. With text boxes highlighting examples, key concepts, and reflection points from the fields of education, health care, social work, ecology, foreign aid, and political science,Public Management in Transition will appeal to academics, practitioners, and students across a range of disciplines.

Niels Akerstrom Andersen is professor of public and political management in the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy at the Copenhagen Business School, whereJustine Gronbak Pors is an assistant professor of welfare management. Andersen is author ofManaging Intensity and Play at Work: Transient Relationships.