Improving Public Management

Since taking office in 1979, Mrs Thatcher's Conservative government has adopted an Efficiency Strategy, to reduce public spending and reform management in government.

Metcalfe and Richards describe and assess the Efficiency Strategy as an exercise in improving public management. They explain how the strategy has gone about improving administrative performance by increasing cost-consciousness in the use of resources and creating flexibility for managing change. They analyse major themes such as decentralization, information systems and budgets as management tools, organization design and the management of interdepartmental relations.