Leadership of Public Bureaucracies: The Administrator as Conservator

The global revolution in public management has led many reformers to call for public managers to reinvent themselves as public entrepreneurs. Larry D. Terry strongly opposes this view, and in its place presents an original normative theory of administrative leadership that integrates legal, sociological, and constitutional theory. Terry draws on the works of Philip Selznik, Carl J. Friedrich, Chester Barnard and others in advancing his concept of Administrative Conservatorship. He depicts bureaucratic leaders as Conservators of public bureaucracies, vigorously protecting the integrity of the bureaucracy, and when called upon, adapting to change. Filled with illustrative examples, Leadership of Public Bureaucracies is a thoughtful, well-reasoned alternative to public management orthodoxy and the New Public Management.