Empirical Evidence can Help Inform Debate about Whether a Management Approach Will Improve Government

The great social psychologist Kurt Lewin once said, “There’s nothing so practical as a good theory.” I would add to this aphorism another one: “The plural of anecdote is data.” I recently attended the biannual Public Management Research Conference at Ohio State University’s John Glenn School of Public Affairs, which featured papers by leading researchers in the United States and abroad who work on government management.