Administrative Modernization in Germany — A Big Qualitative Jump in Small Steps

Klages, Helmut and Löffler, Elke (1995). Administrative Modernization in Germany — A Big Qualitative Jump in Small Steps. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 61(3) pp. 373–383.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/002085239506100305

Abstract

What is an article with the title ‘Administrative Modernization’ doing in a volume on re-engineering of the public sector? Are there only semantic differences between the two terms? If not, does administrative modernization have to be understood as a change process that is contrary to re-engineering?In the following it will be shown that it is impossible to write an empirical article on re-engineering in the German public administration because re-engineering in the sense used by Michael Hammer and James Champy (1993) does not take place in the German public sector. The term ‘re-engineering’ is debated in the private sector but is not yet common in the public sector of the Federal Republic.What is an article with the title ‘Administrative Modernization’ doing in a volume on re-engineering of the public sector? Are there only semantic differences between the two terms? If not, does administrative modernization have to be understood as a change process that is contrary to re-engineering?In the following it will be shown that it is impossible to write an empirical article on re-engineering in the German public administration because re-engineering in the sense used by Michael Hammer and James Champy (1993) does not take place in the German public sector. The term ‘re-engineering’ is debated in the private sector but is not yet common in the public sector of the Federal Republic.

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