Reform as Process

Building an effective civil service is crucial for public service delivery and good governance, but reforming bureaucratic institutions is notoriously difficult. Reform as Process takes a fresh perspective on this challenge by documenting and analysing the implementation of more than one hundred reforms initiated by six African countries over the last thirty years.

Martin J. Williams shows that these efforts largely fell short of their goals because they typically approached organisational change as a matter of changing formal structures and processes through one-off projects. Some did yield positive changes, however, when they were able to create opportunities for civil servants to discuss performance and how to improve it. Drawing on this evidence, Williams develops a new theory of how systemic reforms can lead to meaningful change—not by trying to force it through top-down interventions but by catalysing an ongoing and decentralised process of continuous improvement.

Reform as Process makes theoretical and empirical contributions to research on organisational performance, civil service reform, and public service delivery, and it shares practical insights and strategies to help reformers around the world achieve meaningful change in their organisations.