Winner of the 2014 Academy of Management Public-Nonprofit (PNP) Division Best Book Award

Many public services today are delivered by external service providers such as private firms and voluntary organizations. These new ways of working - including contracting, partnering, client co-production, inter-governmental collaboration and volunteering - pose challenges for public management. This major new text assesses the ways in which public sector organizations can improve their services and outcomes by making full use of the alternative ways of getting things done.

JOHN ALFORD is Professor of Public Sector Management at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and at the Australia and New Zealand School of Government.

Introduction
Mapping The Changing Shape of Public Service Delivery
Benefits and Costs: What Government Organizations Seek From External Providers
Motivations and Mechanisms: What External Providers Seek From Government Organizations
Outsourcing and Contracting to Other Organizations
Partnering and Collaboration with other organizations
Calling on Volunteers
Regulatees as Contributors to Social Outcomes
Clients as Co-producers
Managing in Multi-Party Networks of Providers
A Contingency Framework for Decisions about Externalization
Organizational Capabilities for Managing External Provision
Conclusion.