David G. Carnevale is a professor emeritus from the University of Oklahoma. He is former international union director for AFSCME-AFL-CIO, operations administrator of the California State Employees Association, and executive director of the Maine State Employees Association. He is author of Trustworthy Government: Leadership and Management Strategies for Building Trust and High Performance, and Organization Development in the Public Sector. Dr Carnevale is a practiced mediator and a Vietnam veteran. Camilla Stivers spent two decades as a staff member in community-based publicly funded organizations. She taught public and nonprofit administration at The Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington, and the Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University, where she held the Albert A. Levin chair in public service and urban studies. She is the author or co-author of six additional books. She is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and a former associate editor of Public Administration Review.
In a time in which work is dominated by advanced technology, performance management, and data fetishism, Carnevale and Stivers remind us of the phenomena residing within the minds, hearts, hands, and mouths of the worker that is rarely fully appreciated or known by others separated from the work. Knowledge and Power in Public Bureaucracies: From Pyramid to Circle lays bare a deep sense of the knowledge and identity crisis facing organizations and presents a path forward by arguing that judgement and wisdom are made virtuous when managers and workers are in partnership. This book has application across many disciplines and is essential for those currently in or thinking about a career in the public sector. Nicholas C. Zingale, Cleveland State University, USA Carnevale and Stivers' Knowledge and Power in Public Bureaucracies: From Pyramid to Circle is of a type along with Scott's Seeing Like a State: Both specify technical/cognitive knowledge (techne) separately from experiential/embodied knowledge (metis). The contribution made by Carnevale and Stivers, however, is to situate these distinct ways of knowing within the bureaucratic hierarchy to explain why management reforms fail. Until management speaks a language identifiable by public servants on the front lines, reforms that attempt to control the front line and make it legible to the C-suite will continue to fail. This book puts to rest, once and for all, the argument that government should run like a business. Sharon Mastracci, University of Utah, USA