Public managers’ contribution to public service performance

This chapter describes how public managers contribute to public service performance. First, the chapter investigates three critical contextual factors for how public leadership can make a difference to organizational performance: managerial autonomy, capacity, and ability. Second, three leadership strategies are introduced which have been positively related to organizational performance in the public sector: goal-oriented, relational, and non-leader-centered leadership. Third, a new concept with particular relevance for public management is presented-reputation management-and this points to the relevance of considering the nexus between reputation and performance. It is argued that an organization’s reputation and performance may be more or less aligned. However, more importantly, an organization’s reputation per se also provides an important but less studied contextual factor of relevance for public managers’ ability to improve organizational performance. Finally, the chapter discusses how to develop leadership skills that increase public managers’ ability to contribute to public service performance.