The World Bank has recently released its Public Sector Management (PSM) Approach for 2011–20. This commentary reviews the core messages of this document and then indicates how it embodies a convergence between academic research and practice in its approach and analytic framework. It then presents a ‘thought experiment’ about how practitioners might bring scholarship and practice together as suggested by the PSM approach. Nevertheless, effective implementation of the approach will depend on the convergence between the path it lays out for practice and the incentives that World Bank officials face in efforts to improve public sector management in real-world situations.
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