Richard F. Callahan

There are lessons to be learned in the matter of public management in Iraq and Afghanistan, especially in the importance of the management cultures in which decisions are made. This review is of four books, by different authors, sharing their journalist approach. Four shared themes emerge from these works: the importance of training, organizational culture, strategy, and governance. The authors develop an awareness of the inter-connectivity of the leadership and management cultures of the military and civilians, with significant implications for future public management research. Each of the four books in this review offers contributions that extend the knowledge and practice of public management and public policy, providing hard-learned lessons that can be cross walked into teaching, practice, and research.

This study relates end-user satisfaction to three design features of public agencies that provide services. The research connects the discussion on public participation in administrative processes with a core consideration of public administration: the design features of public organizations. The study seeks to move from the descriptive literature to an empirically grounded survey methodology that examines end-user satisfaction across varied levels of government. Based on a sample of 2,816 end users of 17 public sector organizations, the study tests for associations between organizational performance features and service satisfaction. The findings correlate user satisfaction with three design characteristics of public agencies: agency dependence on user satisfaction for future funding, a clearly identifiable end-user focus by the agency, and the ability of the user to exercise choice in her or his future use of the agency’s services. These findings provide a methodology for survey of public preferences that connects agency performance with public agency design.