Banishing Bureaucracy: The Five Strategies For Reinventing Government [Hardcover]

David Osborne (Author), Peter Plastrik (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 1997

If you want to help your city save more without cutting service levels, as Indianapolis did; if you need to do more with half the staff, as New Zealand’s state-owned enterprises did; if you want to double the effectiveness of your organization, as the U.S. tactical Air Command did—read this book.In the pages of Banishing Bureaucracy, David Osborne, coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Reinventing Government, and Peter Plastrik, one of the most respected innovators to come out of state government in the past decade, provide a road map by which reinventors and political thinkers of all persuasions can actually make “reinvention” work.Reinvention is not just another word for reform, nor is it synonymous with downsizing, or privatization, or simply cutting waste and fraud. It is about something much deeper, something tantamount to changing the very “DNA” of public organizations so that they habitually innovate, continually improving their performance without having to be pushed from outside. It is about building an entrepreneurially minded public sector with a built-in drive to improve—what some would call a self-renewing system.Obviously, this is complex work that requires careful strategy, and that is just what Banishing Bureaucracy provides. David Osborne and Peter Plastrik lay out what they call the “Five Cs” for successfully reinventing public organizations:The Core Strategy, to help them create clarity of purpose.The Consequences Strategy, to introduce consequences for their performance.The Customer Strategy, to make them accountable to their customers.The Control Strategy, to empower organizations and their employers to innovate.The Culture Strategy, to change the habits, hearts, and minds of public employees.Drawing on a rich base of American and international case-studies, Banishing Bureaucracy delivers the battle-tested, strategic thinking that has proved itself around the globe, in every area of government—from national to local, from defense to day care.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Osborne, a consultant to local, state and foreign governments, virtually started a national movement with his 1992 bestseller, Reinventing Government (coauthored with Ted Gaebler). Expanding on that handbook's prescriptions for decentralizing authority, benchmarking performance and competitive public-versus-private bidding on government services, he and Plastrik, a Michigan public-sector consultant, have produced an immensely useful manual for transforming unresponsive government bureaucracies-local, state or national-into entrepreneurial systems open to innovation and change. They amplify their five core strategies-clarifying purpose; creating incentives through markets and competition; improving accountability via customer involvement; redistributing power through the hierarchy; nurturing a new culture-with a wealth of case material ranging from Indianapolis's saving of more than $100 million over seven years to Margaret Thatcher's overhaul of Britain's education, health care, unions and public agencies to kindred programs in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. More ambitiously, the authors set forth a heady vision of community empowerment, whereby citizens organize as residents, neighborhood associations, nonprofits and business groups to run schools, housing developments and planning functions.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In this volume, Osborne, coauthor of Reinventing Government (Addison-Wesley, 1992), and Plastrik, a Michigan political strategist, assess the "reinvention" movement and recommend five strategies to institutionalize the process. Using examples from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, they recommend clarifying organizational purposes, creating consequences for organizational performance, becoming customer-driven, empowering workers and communities, and developing an "entrepreneurial culture." The authors also respond to the growing criticism of the "reinvention" movement, acknowledging that the term has often been misunderstood and misapplied. Like Reinventing Government, this volume will fuel the debate over government reform. Essential for specialists in public administration, government officials, and informed lay readers.?William L. Waugh, Georgia State Univ., Atlanta
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 397 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1St Edition edition (January 8, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201626322
• ISBN-13: 978-0201626322
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #392,675 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Uphill Battle, June 30, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Banishing Bureaucracy: The Five Strategies For Reinventing Government (Hardcover)

For those who live in "Uphill Battle" and who are weary of attempts to improve or change it -- or who have given up entirely and become skeptical and disillusioned -- Banishing Bureaucracy is not pie-in-the-sky theories and generalities. Every precept of reinventing is richly illustrated from the real-life battles of actual people in state, local and national governments. The book focuses on strategies and steps that were used to reinvent government under some very rough circumstances. While the book cautions that there are no set formulas when one tackles the bureaucracy beast, there are five strategies which work. If you think reinventing is a worn-out cliché, no longer applicable to the reality of government, get a copy of Banishing Bureaucracy and look at the transformation of government that is going on behind the scenes. Largely ignored by the media, it should be of profound interest to those seeking good ideas and better government.

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Book, January 15, 2012

By 

Michael A. Carter "room divider review" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Banishing Bureaucracy: The Five Strategies For Reinventing Government (Hardcover)

This book is a classic for those interested in government performance and ways to improve; classic storys and examples to follow, or not to follow.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dilbert in Government, December 18, 1999

By 

Sarah Morrill (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Banishing Bureaucracy: The Five Strategies for Reinventing Government (Paperback)

If you work in a school or another government institution, and if every Dilbert cartoon is one you want to cut out and post, then read this book.

Working in an absurd environment is funny on the surface but it also can be deeply depressing. This books shows us how we can do something about it.

This is a handbook for fighting the good fight for the return of a little sanity in the government workplace.