Reform as Process : Implementing Change in Public Bureaucracies / Martin J. Williams.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Williams, Martin J., Author.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

New York, NY Columbia University Press, [2026]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Building an effective civil service is crucial for public service delivery and good governance, but reforming bureaucratic institutions is notoriously difficult. This book takes a fresh perspective on this challenge by documenting and analyzing the implementation of more than one hundred reforms initiated by six African countries over the last thirty years.Martin J. Williams shows that these efforts largely fell short of their goals because they typically approached organizational change as a matter of changing formal structures and processes through one-off projects. Some did yield positive changes, however, when they were able to create opportunities for civil servants to discuss performance and how to improve it. Drawing on this evidence, Williams develops a new theory of how systemic reforms can lead to meaningful change-not by trying to force it through top-down interventions but by catalyzing an ongoing and decentralized process of continuous improvement.Reform as Process makes theoretical and empirical contributions to research on organizational performance, civil service reform, and public service delivery, and it shares practical insights and strategies to help reformers around the world achieve meaningful change in their organizations.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Part I Setting the Scene

Part II Understanding Patterns of Reform

Part III Reform as Process

Appendix

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

This eBook is made available Open Access under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed January 21 2026)

ISBN:

0-231-56502-X

9780231565028