Strategic Management in Public and Private Organizations: Implications of Distinctive Contexts and Constraints

Abstract

Public and private sector strategic managers operate in different contexts that generate distinctive constraints on their behaviors and choices. Key constraints on public sector managers are identified in five propositions. Implications for the evaluation of public sector management and for the behavior of public managers are drawn. It is argued that application of private sector models to the public sector is problematic; that general models of strategic management are needed.