What Government Does: How Political Executives Manage

To understand the challenges of political leadership and how top executives succeed in accomplishing an Administration’s objectives, business-in-government experts Paul R. Lawrence and Mark A. Abramson present the findings of a four-year study of top political appointees in the Obama Administration.

The 42 participants—Deputy Secretaries and agency heads—provide case studies of how each approaches the management challenges and achieves the mission of their organization.

Full of behind-the-scenes insights and practical advice from government political executives on how they face management challenges in real time, What Government Does: How Political Executives Manage offers indispensable insights to current and prospective political appointees and everyone interested in understanding how leaders make government agencies more effective.

The new book, a follow-up to their previous book, Paths to Making a Difference: Leading in Government, presents an insightful framework of what government does. Instead of thinking about government by policy area, the authors present an alternative approach in which government executives are categorized by the type of agency they are managing. The book includes chapters on Deputy Secretaries, producers, regulators, infrastructors, scientists, and collaborators.