Drawing on his extensive practical experience as an international civil servant in a number of organizations, Davies writes in a lively and readable manner about all aspects of administrative policy and its related implications. Divided into two parts - Top down and Bottom up - this is a work that fills a well defined gap in organizational knowledge in a rigorous and accessible way.

Michael Davies was an international civil servant for 33 years, working in various administrative capacities for the World Bank, the International Civil Service Commission, the Food and Agriculture Organization and latterly as Chief of the Compensation and Benefits Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). In 1998, he was assigned from IDB to the World Bank to provide high-level external advice on compensation reform. He has been a consultant to organizations of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research; the Bank for International Settlements, the World Health Organization, the OPEC Fund for International Development and IDB. He initiated the first consultative forum for personnel specialists of the International Financial Institutions and was a founding board member of the Association for Human Resources Management in International Organizations

Contents: The environment. Top Down: Basic organizational structures; Administrative governance; Senior management; Budget; Financial control; Managing staff; Administrative and managerial reform. Bottom Up: Personnel strategies; Compensation; Benefits and allowances; Expatriation; Financial accounts; Procurement and contracting; General services; Information technology and communications; Co-ordination and beyond; Bibliography; Index.