Innovating in the German strongPublic Sectorstrong.pdfVIP

The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal, Volume 14(2), 2009, article 4. Innovating in the German Public Sector: How a Think Tank Frames the Debate on NPM Rick Vogel and Jetta Frost University of Hamburg Department of Business and Economics Chair of Organization and Management Von-Melle-Park 5 20146 Hamburg Germany E-mail: Rick.Vogel@wiso.uni-hamburg.de E-mail: Jetta.Frost@wiso.uni-hamburg.de The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal, Volume 14(2), 2009, article 4. Innovating in German Public Sector: How a Think Tank Frames the Debate on NPM Rick Vogel and Jetta Frost Preface Innovations in the public sector don‟t sell themselves, particularly as bureaucracy is often criticized for being overly resistant to change. Neither the attributes of the innovation, nor the characteristics of those who adopt it, provide sufficient explanation for whether an innovation is adopted or not. Rather, the innovation becomes widespread only after being articulated and advocated by someone who strives to persuade potential adopters. Rick Vogel and Jetta Frost analyze this process of persuasion by means of a case study on the German public sector in which a think tank was and continues to be the leading reform promoter. The focal innovation is a model of managerial control in accordance with guiding principles of New Public Management. The authors refer to the process (by which the think tank has championed this model) as framing and trace accordant frames – i.e., interpretive stances towards underlying problems and appropriate solutions – by means of an in-depth textual analysis of reports, s