Public sector innovation for the managerial and the post-managerial era: Promises and realities in a globalizing public administration

This article¹ deals with the fuzzy concept of organizational innovation in public sector domains. While it is not the first attempt to bring organizational innovation into the realm of public administration, the article provides a broader understanding of innovation in modern bureaucracies and points to some empirical efforts that may accelerate post-public managerial reforms. This understanding builds on a system approach and on existing knowledge about innovation-its characteristics, antecedents, and consequences as they have been previously encountered in the private business arena. We suggest that this knowledge should be treated as another key element of New Public Management (NPM) doctrine and the reinventing government paradigm that have dominated discussions in this discipline in recent years. The article presents a clearer perception of the innovation process, its unique meaning for modern bureaucracies, and its potential evolution into reform-seeking governance. We conclude that innovative bureaucracy is not necessarily a self-defeating concept. Bridging the gap between the promise and the realities of innovation has never been an easy task. Turning ideals into realities is still a major challenge facing public administration reform, now and for the foreseeable future.