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Unleashing
Change is a hopeful account of the potential for
organizational change and improvement within government. Despite the
mantra that “people resist change,” it is
possible to effect meaningful reform in a large bureaucracy. In Unleashing
Change, public management expert Steven Kelman presents a blueprint
for accomplishing such improvements, based on his experience
orchestrating procurement reform in the 1990s. Kelman focuses on making change happen on the front
lines, not just getting it announced by senior policymakers. He argues
that frequently there will be a constituency for change within
government organizations. The role for leaders is not to force change on
the unwilling but to unleash the willing, and to persist long enough for
the change to become institutionalized.
Drawing on the author’s own personal experience and extensive research
among frontline civil servants, as well as literature in organization
theory and psychology, Unleashing
Change presents an approach for improving agency performance from
soup to nuts—mixing theory with practice. Its analysis is innovative
and empirically rich. Kelman’s conclusions challenge conventional
notions about achieving reform in large organizations and mark a major
advance in theories of organizational change. His lessons will be of
interest not only to scholars interested in improving the performance of
the public sector, but for anyone struggling to manage a large
organization.
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Praise for Unleashing Change “Steve Kelman’s creative research, augmented by his own considerable experience as a reform-minded federal official, gives this book unusual depth and authenticity.”
“Steve Kelman’s Unleashing Change is empirical social science at its best and administrative science at its finest. An analytic tour de force, it is also surprisingly personal and engaging. Kelman not only lays out a potent and thoughtful conceptual framework, but also relates the compelling tale of an academic actually using that framework to great effect. A ‘must’ read.”
“Steve Kelman offers a unique and crucial perspective on this very important instance of the worldwide movement toward ‘debureaucratizing’ government. He brings to the study of organizational change the insightful, informative mix of an experienced executive's observations and a social scientist's analysis of rich survey evidence. Everyone concerned with good government needs to get this book.”
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