Introduction: Challenges of Public Sector Reform - Giovanni Tria and Giovanni Valotti Part I. Transparency: when the auditor is the society 1. Shedding Light or Obfuscating? Audit in an NPM World - Irvine Lapsley 2. Making Transparency Transparent: An Assessment Model for Local Governments - Maria Cucciniello, Greta Nasi, and Raffaella Saporito Part II. Public service motivation: the other side of the public sector productivity 3 Does Making a Difference Make a Difference? Answers from Research on Public Service Motivation - James L. Perry 4. Public Service Motivation and Job Satisfaction in Various European Countries: A Tale of Caution and Hope - Wouter Vandenabeele, Bram Steijn, Peter Leisink, Francesco Cerase, Isabell Egger-Peitler, Gerhard Hammerschmid, Renate Meyer, and Adrian Ritz 5. Public Service Motivation: The State of the Art - Nicola Bellé and Paola Cantarelli Part III. Leadership and public sector reforms 6. What Can We Learn from Thirty Years of Public Management Reform? - Christopher Pollitt 7. Leadership Competencies and Their Relevance to Italian Government Reform - Montgomery Van Wart 8. Politicians and Administrators: Two Characters in Search of a Role - Mariannunziata Liguori, Mariafrancesca Sicilia, and Ileana Steccolini Part IV. Measuring public sector performance: managing governments by numbers 9. Public Sector Performance: Managing Governments by the Numbers - Geert Bouckaert 10. Strategic Management in Italian Ministries: An Empirical Assessment of Gains from and Gaps in Reforms - Denita Cepiku, Andrea Bonomi Savignon, and Luigi Corvo Part V. international perspectives on public sector reforms 11. The Study of Public Management: Reference Points for a Design Science Approach - Michael Barzelay 12. Government Reform and Innovation: A Comparative Perspective - Elaine Ciulla Kamarck 13. Stakeholders’ Inclusion: Measuring the Performance of Interactive Decisionmaking - Mario Ianniello, Paolo Fedele, and Luca Brusati 14. Public Sector Reforms: State of the Art and Future Challenges - Giovanni Valotti