Chapter 14: Realities of Public Sector Consultation: Information Age Challenges in Government¹

This chapter examines the context and practice of public sector consultation. Numerous questions quickly emerge when thinking about interventions in the public sector as compared with the private sectors: How do federal, state, and municipal settings differ? What impact has the information revolution had on public agencies and the role of external consultants? What key institutional variables are likely to impinge on the consulting engagement? What makes a successful public sector consultant? In exploring, both directly and indirectly, this public sector mosaic, we seek to discredit the often-heard beliefs that (1) successful private sector consultants can easily transfer their services to the public sector, (2) the public sector is a less sophisticated environment than the private sector, and (3) successful public sector consultation is limited by the existence of an “impenetrable” bureaucracy.