This major text for students of public sector management combines well-developed management theory with research from a range of countries including Germany, Holland, Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden and the UK. The comparative focus highlights common problems and common factors in successful management across these countries.

The author integrates three traditionally separate concepts in public sector management, arguing for the development of a different kind of management than that appropriate for private enterprise:

• The notion of differential information between providers and clients in service delivery
• The notion of a core public service
• The notion of professionalism in service delivery

Public services managers who are concerned to improve their management practice or students who are seeking to understand how the particular characteristics of core public services management shape management practice, will particularly welcome this text.