Introduction: Is public management different from private sector management?

Management is a major field of study in economics and the social sciences. It forms an integral part of business administration as well as in organisational analysis. During the post-Second World War period thousands of articles and books have been published in this area under the labels of “Strategy”, “Organisational Behaviour” or “Culture and Leadership in Organisation”. Given such an effort to understand how private firms operate, their goals, structures and results, one cannot avoid the question of the relevance of management for the analysis of the public sector and how government functions.