Banishing Bureaucracy: The Five Strategies for Reinventing Government [Paperback]

David Osborne (Author), Peter Plastrik (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1998

David Osborne's 1992 bestseller, Reinventing Government, was a landmark book that identified ten principles for creating a more efficient government. This essential sequel goes one step further, focusing on strategic levers for changing public systems and organizations on a permanent basis to achieve dynamic increases in effectiveness, efficiency, adaptability, and capacity to innovate. In an age of disillusionment with public service, Banishing Bureaucracy offers inspiring stories of organizations that really work and provides specific recipes for effective change. Here is a road map by which reinventors can actually make "reinvention" work.

** David Osborne, recognized as the pre-eminent public sector reformer, has an intensive speaking schedule throughout the country.
** Named one of the Best Business Books of 1997 by Soundview Executive Book Summaries.
** Over 200,000 copies of Reinventing Government sold in Plume, with backlist pace of 10,000 per year.
** Reinventing Government was hailed by Business Week as "the new gospel of government," and was embraced by the Clinton-Gore administration as their blueprint for streamlining government.

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Plume; Reprint edition (May 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452279801
• ISBN-13: 978-0452279803
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #616,348 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.