IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/pubmgr/v6y2004i2p189-210.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Explicit reforms, implicit theories and public service improvement

Author

Listed:
  • George Boyne
  • Steve Martin
  • Richard Walker

Abstract

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 changes in organizational structures, processes, culture and strategy content. Empirical evidence on the relationship between these variables and organizational performance is critically reviewed, and policy makers' implicit ‘theories in use’ are made explicit in the form of a simple additive model of public service improvement. In practice the actual pattern of change is likely to be mediative, reciprocal and contingent on local organizational circumstances. However, theorizing public management reforms in this way is valuable because it provides a basis for evaluating the logic of programme design, predicting effectiveness and generating testable models of the relationship between public policies, organizational changes and public service improvement.

Suggested Citation

  • George Boyne & Steve Martin & Richard Walker, 2004. "Explicit reforms, implicit theories and public service improvement," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(2), pages 189-210, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:pubmgr:v:6:y:2004:i:2:p:189-210
    DOI: 10.1080/1471903042000189092
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/1471903042000189092
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/1471903042000189092?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rhys Andrews & George A. Boyne & Jennifer Law & Richard M. Walker, 2012. "Strategic Management and Public Service Performance," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-34943-8, March.
    2. Antonio Barretta, 2005. "The difficulties presented by cost comparison for health care trusts," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(4), pages 589-613, December.
    3. Hosang Jung & Chi-Guhn Lee & Chelsea White, 2015. "Socially responsible service operations management: an overview," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 230(1), pages 1-16, July.
    4. García-Unanue, Jorge & Gallardo, Leonor & Felipe, José Luis, 2012. "La factura deportiva. Diseño e implantación de un modelo de cálculo de costes para los servicios deportivos municipales/The Sport Bill. Design and Implementation of a Costing Model for Municipal Sport," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 30, pages 599-618, Agosto.
    5. Richard M. Walker & George A. Boyne, 2006. "Public management reform and organizational performance: An empirical assessment of the U.K. Labour government's public service improvement strategy," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(2), pages 371-393.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:pubmgr:v:6:y:2004:i:2:p:189-210. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RPXM20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.