ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the transition in public management from confidence in scientific management and hierarchical systems to an awareness of the multiplicity and interconnectedness of stakeholders in public service delivery and the growing reliance on collaborative efforts to deliver these services. It presents a description of Frederick Taylor's concept of scientific management followed by a discussion of how collaborative strategies have refocused management thinking. The chapter also describes the management skills required in the transition from silos to networks and from hierarchy to heterarchy. Scientific management was a predominant theme in much of the public management literature for the first half of the twentieth century. Beginning in the 1960s, public management research began to expand its focus from individual to collaborative efforts. A practical justification for the increase in collaboration is the desire to improve the effectiveness and performance of programs by encouraging public and nonprofit leaders to identify new ways of providing services.
