Best Practice Research and Postbureaucratic Reform

In: Journal of public administration research and theory, Band 4, Heft 1, S. 67-83

Abstract

Best practice research (BPR) is the method of choice for contemporary postbureaucratic reform theorists. Public management researchers increasingly examine "best practices" to advocate postbureaucratic principles of customer-driven, value-focused, entrepreneurial, market-oriented government. While BPR & postbureaucratic theory may be an innovative new paradigm in public management research & theory, numerous practical & scientific challenges remain. As a methodology, BPR is theoretically self-validating, noncumulative, limited in scope, & politically skewed. BPR demonstrates the unique problems that arise when research & reform in public management become too closely linked. BPR has been successful in advancing the cause of postbureaucratic reform but cannot be responsible for evaluating the consequences of those reforms. The methodology of "reforms as experiments" is more suited for this task. 39 References. AA