128 5: Th eories of Public Management
During this time, however, advances in management theory were made in
other fi elds. Importantly, such theories as group, role, and communication theo-
ries were developed and tested between the 1950s and 1970s. Th e development of
new public management practice (if not good social science) returned to public
administration with the doctrines of New Public Management. Empirical tests
of the doctrines show the limits of NPM but its tenants can be found widely in
government agencies.
Another theoretical area that public administration has borrowed from is
leadership. Viewing leadership as public management has become increasingly
popular and represents the most interesting resurgence of management in public
administration. A set of commonly accepted leadership theories has been devel-
oped, and most of them rely on elements of earlier management theories or even
other public administration theories. Perhaps leadership theory can be seen as a
synthesis of solid, well-developed theories of management and public administra-
tion, and thus advance the fi eld by combining disjointed parts.
Finally, theories of public management need to better address contracting.
Contracting out is steadily increasing, and the traditional principal-agent model
is insuffi cient to understand the nature of managing the relationships between
government agencies and third-party contractors. Instead, network management
theories are needed to understand managing by contract, including the gover-
nance implications of this trend.