Public services touch the majority of people in advanced and developing economies on a daily basis: children require schooling, the elderly need personal care and assistance, rubbish needs collecting, water must be safe to drink and the streets need policing. In short, there is practically no area of our lives that isn't touched in some way by public services. As such, knowledge about strategies to improve their performance is central to the good of society. In this book, a group of leading scholars examine some of the most pressing issues in public administration, political science and public policy by undertaking a systematic review of the research literature on public management and the performance of public agencies. It is an important resource for public management researchers, policy-makers and practitioners who wish to understand the state of the field and the challenges that lie ahead.

Review of the hardback:‘With a line-up of scholars who are at the forefront, theoretically and empirically, in their respective areas of public and performance management research, any researcher or policymaker who seeks to be at the cutting edge of public performance improvement needs to read this volume. Both new empirical investigations and in-depth, systematic reviews, framed by innovative conceptual thinking, are brought to bear on longstanding concerns about how to improve public sector performance, including overcoming goal ambiguity, internal organizational impediments and red tape, and financial and human resources constraints.’

Carolyn J. Heinrich - University of Wisconsin-Madison

Review of the hardback:‘Richard Walker and his colleagues are to be congratulated in having produced what looks likely to become one of the required texts on performance management and public management. It combines a strong theoretical orientation with a list of contributors to be the envy of any book editor.’

Stephen Osborne - University of Edinburgh Business School