, even if no negative presumptions were made about the efficiency of public employees. Indeed, concern is felt that the very pressure to improve efficiency in public management might undermine an expected standard of public service. Thus, for example, a British Parliamentary select committee dealing with public administration recommended the establishment of a public service academy for midlevel civil servants (Select Committee on Public Administration, 2002, p. 9).
What, however, does actual examination indicate about differences between public and private management, and the presumed greater difficulties of the former? One study (Boyne, 2002) considered a variety of widely argued differences between public and private management. These differences can be distinguished as external differences, resulting from the environment in which public agencies operate, and internal differences, resulting from the structure of public agencies.
Four chief external differences are con
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