ABSTRACT
Managers need to adapt the way they manage to suit their present context. Public service organizations have a history. It is helpful for managers to understand that history when they are trying to implement changes. Public service organizations have a relationship with the users of their services which is quite different from the relationship between a factory and its customers. Even when we adapt our management thinking to accommodate what is different about public services, we find that the public services are themselves changing in the face of technological, economic, political, legal and social forces. These forces have produced changing forms of ownership, changing forms of organization and changing roles for managers and professionals. This is not new. From their origins in defence, taxation and law enforcement, in most countries public service organizations underwent rapid change after the Second World War. The period 1980-2000 saw changes in patterns of ownership and in forms of organizational structure. It is these developments that we wish to consider in this chapter.
