Toward a Definition of Strategic Management for the Public Sector

Bibliographic Data

ID11674024
AuthorsJames E Skok (Pennsylvania State University, corresponding author)
Year1989
Volume19
Issue2
Pages133-147
Publication date1989-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe American Review of Public Administration (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0275-0740 • E-ISSN: 1552-3357
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/027507408901900203
OpenAlexW2152379768
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited13

The literature on strategic management for public policy and administration has developed without adequate theoretical grounding in regard to the nature of competition among public agencies, the arenas within which competition occurs, and the resources used in the competitive interactions. In this article I review relevant literature from business strategy, public policy, and bureaucratic politics to help construct a theoretical paradigm on which to build usable concepts of strategic management for public policy and administration. The author suggests the following vision of public sector strategic management: Agencies compete within a pluralist political universe composed of dynamic public policy subsystems whose members accumulate and use resources to advance the power and policy preferences of their agencies. Competition among public agencies is seen as offensive (pirating) or defensive (turf-protecting) and as intrasubsystem or intersubsystem in nature. The writings of Downs (1967) and Leontiades (1982) are particularly useful in suggesting the development of these concepts. Public policy subsystems are seen as being distributive, redistributive, or regulatory in accordance with the typology developed by Ripley and Franklin (1984) and others. Resources, varying in the degree of liquidity, are seen as growing out of knowledge and political support as suggested by Rourke (1984), Meier (1987), and others. The article concludes that scholars of public policy and administration should concentrate upon further development of empirical concepts to build a usable theory of public sector strategic management

Bureaucracy · Business · Competition (biology · Economic growth · Economics · Economy · New public management · Policy studies · Political science · Politics · Public policy · Public relations · Public sector · Sociology · Typology · Local Government Finance and Decentralization · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Public Administration · Public Policy and Administration Research

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