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This article establishes and tests a scheme for studying as well as implementing managing-for-results (MFR) reforms. Previous research on MFR and "reinvention" divides between survey-based research, which has a potential to overstate the level of success in implementing best practices such as strategic planning and outcome measurement, and case-based research, much of which identifies difficulties with the implementation of these reform techniques. This article assesses the extent to which variation in MFR implementation occurs in 24 "reputation leader" municipalities and the likely human dimensions that affect MFR implementation across the study jurisdictions. These include the extent to which employee participation is a part of the reform and employee buy-in is pursued, the presence of sustained and persistent leadership on behalf of the reform, and the establishment and nurturing of a supportive organizational culture underlying reform efforts. This analysis produces a more robust classification and framework for studying and implementing MFR.

This article reviews Deil Wright’s textbook, Understanding Intergovernmental Relations, and assesses its current relevance to its field of coverage. Wright’s last edition of this book was published in 1988. This article, after describing significant lessons from the textbook, summarizes Wright’s related research and commentary from the following two decades, and also analyzes three current intergovernmental topics based on four of Wright’s most important metaphors and historical observations. The 1988 book remains relevant to intergovernmental relations today, though it only tangentially informs the more cross-sectoral turn that the field has taken in recent years.

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