Does private sector experience matter for public managers?

Reform thinking centered on the idea of managerialism, or the idea that better management is the solution for making public organizations perform better and for solving social problems. Public administration reforms have... [ view full abstract ]

Reform thinking centered on the idea of managerialism, or the idea that better management is the solution for making public organizations perform better and for solving social problems. Public administration reforms have propagated the use of private sector management skills in the public sector. This has not only resulted in the transfer of management tools and practices, but also in an increased openness to managers with a private sector background. Hence, bringing in managers with private experience is seen as desirable because of the more advanced knowledge of management tools and skills they were supposed to possess. Despite the attention in political rhetoric for the added value of private experience and abundant biographic story telling about the experiences of private top managers who have switched to public sector roles, broad empirical evidence remains limited and speculation is more prominent than evidence. This paper looks at whether having private sector experience makes public managers different in terms of managerial role perceptions, management instrument use and entrepreneurial attitudes. This paper uses data from the COCOPS Top Public Executive Survey, a survey among central government top managers in 18 European countries.