Staff Participation and Public Management Reform Some International Comparisons

by Farnham, David; Hondeghem, Annie; Horton, Sylvia

• ISBN13: 9781403935069
• ISBN10: 1403935068
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-09-03
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This book explores the role of civil servants and their trade unions in the public management reform process, framing it in its economic, social, cultural and legal contexts. Building on neo-institutional and stakeholder theories, the book shows how staff and their representative organizations have influenced the formulation and implementation of public management reforms in twelve OECD countries. This study challenges top-down elite theories that have dominated the existing literature, explaining how staff participation practices, both direct and indirect, have impacted on the implementation of reforms in different ways in different countries.

Author Biography

David Farnham is Professor at the University of Portsmouth. Annie Hodgehem is Associate Professor at the Public Management Institute, Catholic University of Leuven. Sylvia Horton is a researcher and teacher in the field of public management at the University of Portsmouth.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables	vii
List of Contributors	viii
Preface	x
Part I Introduction
1 The Contexts of Staff Participation and Public Management Reform	3	(24)
2 Trajectories, Institutions and Stakeholders in Public Management Reform	27	(27)
3 Staff Participation in the Public Services	54	(29)
Part II Country Studies
4 Austria: The Dynamics of Public Management Reform and Staff Participation	83	(17)
Gerhard Hammerschmid and Renate Meyer
5 Belgium: Staff Participation in the Copernic Reform	100	(14)
Myriam Parys and Annie Hondeghem
6 Britain: Staff Participation and Modernization under 'New' Labour	114	(16)
David Farnham, Sylvia Horton and Geoff White
7 The Czech Republic: Staff Participation and Modernization of Central State Administration	130	(13)
Zuzana Dvorakova
8 Finland: Catchall Systems, Developing Practices	143	(13)
Turo Virtanen
9 France: From Direct to Indirect Participation to Where?	156	(12)
Jean Michel Denis and Gilles Jeannot
10 Germany: Limited Reforms and Restricted Participation	168	(16)
David Farnham and Rainer Koch
11 Italy: The Case of the Revenue Agency	184	(15)
Francesco Paolo Cerase
12 The Netherlands: Modernization, Participation and Strategic Choice	199	(15)
Peter Leisink and Bram Steijn
13 New Zealand: Public Management Reform and the Partnership for Quality Agreement	214	(16)
Richard Shaw
14 Switzerland: Staff Participation in Government Agencies Undergoing Change	230	(15)
Yves Emery and David Giauque
15 The United States: Staff Participation in Administrative Reform 1993-2004	245	(18)
James R. Thompson
Part III Conclusion
16 Making Sense of Staff Participation Within Public Management Reform	263	(35)
Appendix A: Questionnaire for the Leuven Project	298	(4)
Appendix B: An Analysis of the Range of Direct Participation Methods Used in 12 Civil Services	302	(2)
Name Index	304	(5)
Subject Index	309