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. The book 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, the 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.
List of Tables and Figures
Notes on Contributors
Preface
COST
1 Introduction: Reforming Public Sector Organizations by Koen Verhoest 1
Part I Proliferation and Specialization
2 The Structural Anatomy of the Norwegian State: Increased Specialization or a Pendulum Shift? by John-Erik Agotnes 21
3 The Agency Landscape in Hungary, 2002-2006 by Gyorgy Hajnal 44
4 Specialization and Fragmentation in Regulatory Regimes by Joery Matthys 66
Part II Autonomy and Control
5 Policy and Management Autonomy of Federal Agencies in Germany by Tobias Bach 89
6 Explaining Autonomy in Public Agencies: The Case of Hong Kong by Wai-Hang Yee 111
7 Determinants of Result-based Control in Italian Agencies by Edoardo Ongaro 133
Part III Performance and Results
8 The Long-run Performance of Decentralized Agencies in Quebec by Nicole Thibodeau 157
9 Comparing Impacts of Modes of Governance by Marieke van Genugten 177
10 Are Regulatory Agencies Delivering What They Promise? by Martino Maggetti 195
11 Performance of Public Sector Organizations: Do Managerial Tools Matter? by Andrew Sulle 211
Part IV Post-NPM and Whole-of-Government: Increased Complexity
12 Post-NPM Responses to Disaggregation Through Coordinating Horizontally and Integrating Governance by John Halligan 235
13 Increased Complexity in Public Organizations - the Challenges of Combining NPM and Post-NPM by Per Laegreid
