Thompson, James R.

The reivention game - Malden, MA : Blackwell Publishers, may/june 1996

The national performance review (NPR)can be analyzed in terms fo its ostensible purpose of making government "work better and cost less," or it can be looked at in terms of the tactical opportunities it presents to actors in multiple arenas. Tactical maneuvers relating to NPR re apparent in the political strategies of the Clinton administration, in the attempted shift in power from the legislative to the executive branch of of government, and in the role of the central staff agencies in the executive branch. The authors present the have been established in federal agencies and into the organizational politics that accompany these attempts at innovation. Their findings show the extent to which the outcomes of organizational change processes are a function of the self-interested behaviors of individuals and they confirm the value of political models for understanding organizational change processes.