The impact of planning on organizational performance in the public sector has been widely debated but has never previously been tested empirically. We develop a statistical model of planning effects that contains five explanatory variables: the extent of organizational analysis, the extent of...

A framework for the explication of the theoretical basis of public management reforms is developed. The framework is applied to the Best Value regime in UK local government. The implicit assumptions of policy makers are that the Best Value regime will generate service improvements through...

<title>Abstract</title> This article tests the independent effects of strategy formulation and strategy content on organizational performance. The formulation variables include rational planning, logical instrumentalism and strategy process absence, and the strategy content variables are prospecting, defending...

This article empirically tests the effects of exchange relationships between managers and public sector employees working in seven local government departments. Social exchange theory is used as a framework for predicting three outcomes of Human Resource Management (HRM) practice: employee...

<title>Abstract</title> We review ninety-two studies of public service performance, and analyse in detail those that model the impact of management on both administrative and survey measures of performance. Our review indicates that administrative data typically reflect the performance judgements of government...

<title>Abstract</title> In this article we argue that public management scholars share a purpose that goes beyond scientific understanding of managerial and organizational behaviour and outcomes. A widespread, if seldom explicitly articulated, assumption in the field is that public management research can...

In this article we develop and apply three normative criteria for evaluating the equity of the spatial distribution of local government finance. These are: service needs, as indicated by the characteristics of local population; rights, as measured by contributions to national and local taxes;...