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Public managers contribute critical performance leadership addressing key challenges of countries and jurisdictions on matters of public health, climate adaptation, economic development, and more. This includes advancing policy frameworks, specifying operational targets and strategies, ensuring long-term execution and capabilities, and more. Political leadership alone is insufficient in these matters, yet managers’ contributions appear to have been steadily eroded in past decades. This essay argues that new research directions are needed in public performance research. It offers theory- and practice-based strategies to strengthen public managers’ performance leadership and overcome barriers. It also advances suggestions for examining increased performance accountability and performance-oriented cultures for strengthening senior public managers’ performance leadership. It argues for diversity in research methods and settings when studying senior public managers.
Evan M. Berman (Wed,) studied this question.