Managing Publicly

Joseph Garcea is a professor of political Studies at the University of
Saskatchewan.

All students of public management and all public managers should read
this book. Its three major sections address key issues related to the
nature, styles, strategies, culture, and environment of public
management. Combining observations of and interviews with federal public
servants in three agencies (Parks Canada, the RCMP, and the Department
of Justice), Part 1 examines the role of public managers. Part 2
consists of a focus group discussion involving senior public managers
and academics. Part 3 comprises four short commentaries by academics on
various aspects of public management.

A central goal of the book is to provide some theoretical perspectives
on public management. Key to this discussion are “job frames,” which
are produced by a combination of the nature of what must be managed, the
personalities or preferences of the managers, and the pressures or
parameters provided by the environment or context in which management
takes place.

Some other topics of special interest to students and practitioners of
public management include the expanding scope of interorganizational
context of public management, the nature and effects of the new public
management, the role of deputy ministers, the changing socioeconomic
context of public management, and the nature and effects of
organizational culture on public management.