This paper employs a case study approach (Stake,
1995) to investigate three organisational settings in the
Italian central government: the Ministry of Interior, Ministry
of Economics and Finance (hereinafter Ministry of
Economics) and Ministry of Transport. A comparative
methodology was used to gain a broader understanding
of the process of translating NPM-inspired public sector
reforms. The three cases represent a spectrum of central
government settings, differing in size, function, and
organisational stability. Background information1 is given
in Table 1. On average, approximately 3% of employees in
the studied ministries are classified as “dirigenti” (hereinafter:
managers). This rank means they are responsible
for ministerial organisational units and subject to formal
systems of performance appraisal and reward. The Ministry
of Interior has a higher than average proportion of managers
(approximately 8%) due to the presence of “prefetti”,
a special category of public managers that coordinate the