Creating opportunities for change : approaches to managing development programs

This study, focusing on management at the program level (rather than, as has recently been the trend, at the project level), contends that program management has its own particular dynamics. As programs are systems of activities where central units provide direction and support and actual delivery is carried out by other units, program managers face a broader set of questions than if they were managing autonomous projects. They have such varied tasks as bringing together different sets of constituencies with different aims, working with policymakers to reshape broad goals and translate them into feasible programs, designing organizations for service delivery and administration, and even mobilizing resources to support their program. This book presents a basic management framework and then explores six approaches within that framework that have been influential in development literature: goal-directed analysis, organized anarchy, bureaucratic process, institutional analysis, social learning, and political influence. The report outlines the initial assumptions of each of these approaches and describes how each has been extended and developed in practice. A concluding chapter compares the approaches and considers their implications for managing development programs. Includes extensive notes and a 30-page bibliography.