Reforming Organizational Structures

Abstract

This chapter addresses reforms to the structure of government - or the structure of the administrative apparatus as a whole - and only to a lesser extent the reform of structures within public organizations. Government structures have traditionally been some of the most frequently studied topics within public administration research. This was especially the case in the early days of the discipline, when the 'science of administration' sought a 'one best way' of organizing and did so by studying organizational structures, the division of work and coordination within organizations. New Public Management (NPM) ideas, with their focus on structural disaggregation, placed organizational structures firmly back on the research agenda. It describes the principles and ideas behind such dis-aggregation and reaggregation. The chapter discusses a number of disaggregation trends, such as agencification, outsourcing and privatization. It discusses more recent trends of reaggregation, with a particular focus on centralization, mergers and renationalization.

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