This major new text on the theory and practice of public management moves away from descriptive accounts of its evolution to provide a systematic treatment of the key paradigms of public management today. It examines their competing outlooks, values, tools and assumptions and - using a wide range of examples from different areas of management around the world - their implications for practice. The text sets out three contrasting 'logics' for management - performance, professionalism and politics - and shows how public managers act on the interplay between these for effective results. Relating all three logics to a wide range of diverse contexts - from police services to healthcare, social services to educational providers - the text shows how managers can simultaneously perform to a high standard, act professionally through their work, and cope with internal and external politics. Incorporating the latest theories and practices, this comprehensive book will appeal to readers around the world wanting to understand, and contribute to, public management today.

Health care support workers (HSWs) play a fundamental role in international health care systems, and yet they remain largely invisible. Despite this, the number of HSWs is growing fast as governments strive to combat illness and address social care issues in a world of finite resources. This original collection analyses the global experience of HSWs in the UK, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Portugal, Sweden and The Netherlands. Leading academics examine issues including the interface of HSWs with the health professions, regulatory practice risks, employment challenges and the dilemmas of an ageing population. Crucial future policy recommendations are also made for a world becoming increasingly dependent on HSWs.

There are now many people involved in 'making policy', but there is not a great deal written about how they do it. Most of the books on policy tend to refer obliquely, if at all, to the actual practice of policy work, and offer little guidance to policy workers or students of policy. 'Policy work' seems to be something that you learn on the job. This book addresses directly the nature of policy work. It blends academic and experiential knowledge of the policy process in describing, analysing and evaluating what modern policy workers do in particular situations, and why is that the appropriate thing to do, how it contributes to the policy process, what impact it has, and what can we learn from this about the skills and knowledge required for policy work in complex modern societies.