Creating Public Value: Strategic Management in Government

A seminal figure in the field of public management, Mark H. Moore presents his summation of fifteen years of research, observation, and teaching about what public sector executives should do to improve the performance of public enterprises. Useful for both practicing public executives and those who teach them, this book explicates some of the richest of several hundred cases used at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and illuminates their broader lessons for government managers. Moore addresses four questions that have long bedeviled public administration: What should citizens and their representatives expect and demand from public executives? What sources can public managers consult to learn what is valuable for them to produce? How should public managers cope with inconsistent and fickle political mandates? How can public managers find room to innovate? Moore’s answers respond to the well-understood difficulties of managing public enterprises in modern society by recommending specific, concrete changes in the practices of individual public managers: how they envision what is valuable to produce, how they engage their political overseers, and how they deliver services and fulfill obligations to clients. Following Moore’s cases, we witness dilemmas faced by a cross-section of public managers: William Ruckelshaus and the Environmental Protection Agency; Jerome Miller and the Department of Youth Services; Miles Mahoney and the Park Plaza Redevelopment Project; David Sencer and the swine flu scare; Lee Brown and the Houston Police Department; Harry Spence and the Boston Housing Authority. Their work, together with Moore’s analysis, reveals how public managers can achieve their true goal of producing public value.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction Purposes Sources and Methods Tests 1. Managerial Imagination The Town Librarian and the Latchkey Children Public Managers and Public Management An Alternative Approach to Public Administration PART I ENVISIONING PUBLIC VALUE 2. Defining Public Value The Aim of Managerial Work Different Standards for Reckoning Public Value Municipal Sanitation: An Example Toward a Managerial View of Public Value 3. Organizational Strategy in the Public Sector William Ruckeishaus and the Environmental Protection Agency Jerome Miller and the Department of Youth Services Managerial Discretion and Leadership in the Public Sector Defining Mission and Goals in the Private Sector Defining Mission and Goals in the Public Sector The Mission of the EPA: Pollution Abatement The Mission of DYS: Humanizing the Treatment of Children The Managerial Utility of Mission Statements Evaluative Criteria for Organizational Strategies PART II BUILDING SUPPORT AND LEGITIMACY 4. Mobilizing Support, Legitimacy, and Coproduction: The Functions of Political Management Miles Mahoney and Park Plaza David Sencer and the Threat of Swine flu Political Management: A Key Managerial Function Who Is Important in Political Management Combining Diverse Interests and Values The Dynamics of the Authorizing Environment The Challenge of Political Management 5. Advocacy, Negotiation, and Leadership: The Techniques of Political Management Mahoney's Initiatives Sencer's Initiatives Evaluation The Ethics and Techniques of Political Management Entrepreneurial Advocacy Managing Policy Development Negotiation Public Deliberation, Social Learning, and Leadership Public Sector Marketing and Strategic Communication Helping to Define and Produce Public Value PART III DELIVERING PUBLIC VALUE 6. Reengineering Public Sector Production: The Function of Operational Management Harry Spence and the Boston Housing Authority Lee Brown and the Houston Police Department The Function of Operational Management Defining Organizational Mission and Product Redesigning Production Processes Using Administrative Systems to Influence Operations Innovating and Capitalizing From Diagnosis to Intervention 7. Implementing Strategy: The Techniques of Operational Management Spence: Rehabilitating Public Housing in Boston Brown: Exploring the Frontiers of Policing Reengineering Organizations: What Strategic Managers Think and Do Acting in a Stream Conclusion: Acting for a Divided, Uncertain Society Ethical Challenges of Public Leadership Psychological Challenges of Public Leadership Notes Index