REINVENTING EXCELLENCE OR HOW BESTSELLERS THWART THE SEARCH FOR LESSONS TO TRANSFORM THE PUBLIC SECTOR |
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| Authors: | R.A.W. RHODES |
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| Affiliation: | R.A.W. Rhodes is Professor of Politics at the University of York. He would like to thank Grant Jordan (Aberdeen), Bill Jenkins (Kent) and Janice McMillan (Robert Gordon) for their comments on the first draft. |
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| Abstract: | What makes a best-seller in the study of public management? In the 1980s there was Tom Peters and Robert Waterman (1982), In Search of Excellence. In the 1990s there is David Osborne and Ted Gaebler (1992), Reinventing Government. Throughout this period managing the public sector remained a live issue, many books of great interest and merit were published on the topic, but none had an equivalent impact. Earlier contributions to this symposium have discussed the practical application and strengths and weakness of Reinventing Government. This article discusses two other books both of which could make an important contribution to improving public sector management: Gareth Morgan (1993), Imginization and Robert E. Lane (1991), The Market Experience. The discussion has two objectives: to show the relevance of each book and to identify the distinguishing characteristics of a best-seller. |
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