Collaborating to Manage: A Primer for the Public Sector(Public Management and Change series)

"Collaborating to Manage" captures the basic ideas and approaches to public management in an era where government must partner with external organizations as well as other agencies to work together to solve difficult public problems. In this primer, Robert Agranoff examines current and emergent approaches and techniques in intergovernmental grants and regulation management, purchase-of-service contracting, networking, public/nonprofit partnerships and other lateral arrangements in the context of the changing public agency. As he steers the reader through various ways of coping with such organizational richness, Agranoff offers a deeper look at public management in an era of shared public program responsibility within governance. Geared toward professionals working with the new bureaucracy and for students who will pursue careers in the public or non-profit sectors, "Collaborating to Manage" is a student-friendly book that contains many examples of real-world practices, lessons from successful cases, and summaries of key principles for collaborative public management.

Table of Contents:
Preface 1. To Manage Is to Collaborate 2. Intergovernmentalization and Collaborative Public Management 3. Conductive Public Agencies 4. Forging External Agreements 5. Managing Agency Connections 6. Processing Deep Collaboration: Managing in Networks 7. Identifying and Overcoming the Barriers to Collaboration 8. The New Public Organization 9. Conclusion: Collaboration Works! Appendixes A. The Lower Platte River Corridor Alliance B. Lower Platte River Regulatory Study Guide C. Ten Challenges in Contract Management D. Explicit Knowledge Management Activities E. Tacit Knowledge Management Activities F. Twenty-Two Public Values Contributed by Networks G. Alternative Dispute Resolution Processes H. Milestones in Metro School's Development References Index

About the Author :
Robert Agranoff is professor emeritus in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University-Bloomington and is affiliated with the Instituto Universitario Ortega y Gasset in Madrid. He is the author of Managing within Networks and coauthor of Collaborative Public Management, which received the Louis Brownlow Book Award from the National Academy of Public Administration.

Review :
In a single venue and with great elegance, an integrated overview of the unique public management challenges of working with other organizations. In doing so, Agranoff helps answer the question of how to successfully develop collaborations in the complex environment that public managers face. Public Administration Review A good compromise between an organizational theory text geared to students and a practitioner handbook, offering both sound insight and, in its appendixes, instructive cases. Choice