Governance of Public Sector Organizations: Proliferation, Autonomy and Performance

`Governance of Public Sector Organizations presents intriguing results from an international data collection effort. The volume offers a comprehensive analysis of contemporary institutional developments in central government, particularly the role of executive agencies in governance. Drawing on an international network of senior scholars, this book is theoretically rich, conceptually clear, and methodologically innovative. It is a significant contribution to our knowledge of the executive agencies.'---Jon Pierre, Professor of Political Science, Department of Government, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

`Global reform of governmental bureaucracies during the past 20 years or so has left academics and practitioners alike with a multitude of new question, to which many old answers are no longer relevant. This book - at once comprehensive yet sharply focused in its scope - is an invaluable contribution to the search for new answers. It deserves to be widely read.'---Robert Gregory, Professor of Political Science, School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Governance of Public Sector Organizations examines recent changes in central governmental administration in contemporary democracies by focusing on organizational forms and their effects. There is a considerable need for such knowledge in a period when governments are constantly restructuring their administration. This book studies and explains how New Public Management(NPM) and post-NPM reforms affect the organizational proliferation and specialization, as well as the autonomy and control of central agencies. New empirical data sheds light on the effects of these changes on organizational performance. This edited collection describes how `whole-of-government' initiatives with emphasis on reassertion of the centre and horizontal coordination supplement NPM reforms, producing increased layering and complexity in government organizations.

The contributors to this volume examine agencies in Australia, Canada, and UK, Hong Kong, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy and Hungary. By combining survey, mapping and case study methodologies, they show that structural, cultural, task-related and historical features interact in shaping organizational reforms.

Per Laegreid is Professor at the University of Bergen, Norway. He has published extensively on public sector reform and institutional change from a comparative perspective. His recent books include Organization Theory and the Public Sector, Transcending New Public Management, and Autonomy and Regulation. He has published articles in Public Administration, Public Administration Review, and Governance.
Koen Verhoest is Associate Professor and Research Manager at the Public Management Institute, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. His research interests include organization, control and marketization of public tasks. He has published articles in Governance, Public Administration and Development, International Review of Administrative Sciences and Public Organization Review.