Agency reform has become a transnational fashion in public management. Through comparative analysis this book examines and explains the official rhetoric of agency reform across consensus and adversarial political cultures. Grid Group Cultural Theory and the New Rhetoric are used to trace the trajectory of talk about agency reform in The Netherlands, Sweden and Australia. The empirical findings identify durable national styles of speaking that mediate the agency idea within different political cultures over time. Convergence in talk could only be found when financial actors presented reforms in the consensus cultures. They have spread an individualist management story to these more egalitarian political cultures. The book also examines the nature and causes of change in public management talk and it uses the findings to reflect upon what counts as credible public management knowledge.
- ISBN10 0230289703
- ISBN13 9780230289703
- Publish Date 29 April 2010
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Palgrave Macmillan
- Format eBook
- Pages 208
- Language English