Abstract
This chapter addresses the main changes in the governance of public sector organizations by focusing on administrative reforms. The main finding is that there is a loose coupling between administrative doctrines and actual changes. There is no convergence to one European reform trend. A special focus is on contribution of EGPA-related research on the governance of public sector organizations. A core argument is that the reform process has been a combination of robustness and flexibility producing hybrid organizational forms that combine Old Public Administration, New Public Management (NPM), and post-NPM reforms. A major future challenge is to get more reliable comparative data over time and across countries about the effects of different administrative reforms.
This chapter is partly based on Werner Jann, Per Lægreid, and Koen Verhoest. 2010. Governance of Public Sector Organizations, in: G. Bouckaert and W. van de Donk (eds.), The European Group for Public Administration (1975–2010). Perspectives for the Future. Bruylant, Brussels, pp. 292–296.
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Lægreid, P., Verhoest, K. (2019). Reform Waves and the Structure of Government. In: Ongaro, E. (eds) Public Administration in Europe. Governance and Public Management. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92856-2_16
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