Management Analysis in Public Organizations: History, Concepts, and Techniques

As public organizations seek ways to provide better services and products at lower costs, they are turning more and more to management analysis (MA). This, the first comprehensive guide to the field, will help analysts, managers, and administrators understand how MA can improve output, productivity, and bottom line performance. This volume explains in detail the quantitative and qualitative approaches that management analysts employ in problem solving and enumerates MA's contributions to improving organization's decision making. It also makes clear that the relationship between the analyst and administrator is a collaborative one, and that to achieve excellence each must understand the other's methods of operation, viewpoints, and goals.

Written by practicing management analysts with extensive experience who also teach MA, the book opens with a discussion of MA theory and its many applications, drawing on government regulations and the literature in the field as well as original research. The authors' discussion of the history and development of MA, including current trends, helps the reader understand the nature and direction of the field. The volume also treats the core areas of the practicing management analyst including organization structure, management studies, computers and automation, and productivity, as well as emerging specialities such as policy analysis, program evaluation, and rigorous analytical studies. Because of the growing market for management analysis in private and public sectors, one chapter is devoted to MA services provided by private firms. The realistic approach resulting from the authors' experiences as analysts is supplemented by original empirical research on the conduct and acceptance of studies and evaluations for management, as well as annotated and selected bibliographies. With its focus on the future of MA, the book will be useful not only to other analysts and their clients, but also to the students and teachers of public administration.