experience of how businesses can operate in a competitive market place, yet still form relationships and networks with a variety of different stakeholders and constituencies. This can be contrasted with Mick Moore's chapter, which explores some of the issues arising from recent changes in the way the public sector works with partners and service providers. He highlights the increasing importance of competition in these relationships, and the way competition has shaped the dynamics of, what is commonly referred to as, New Public Management. Paul Taylor's chapter reviewing the implications of the reform process in the United Nations system also highlights the impact of new ways of working in public sector organizations. He concludes by suggesting that the reforms have not just resulted in new working arrangements, but how different actors and interest groups within the United Nations have had to learn new ways of negotiating and co-ordinating their activities.
Different approaches to health delivery in sub-Saharan Africa are well contrasted in the two chapters by Joseph Hanlon and Dorcas Robinson. Hanlon's chapter assesses the impact of competition on health delivery in Mozambique, and the way the con¯icting priorities and requirements of different donors and development agencies have impacted on the development of health provision in post-civil war Mozambique. In particular, he highlights the way different organizational agendas compromised the development of local health services and how managers spent less time considering health issues in the face of the political and bureaucratic demands of donors. He concluded that for many Mozambican decision makers managing and increasing aid became an end itself. Dorcas's chapter focuses instead on attempts by the Tanzanian Ministry of Health to co-ordinate the work of the large number of agencies and NGOs involved in both health sector reform and health service delivery in Tanzania. Clearly there are issues about the role of regulation in state-driven co-ordination, and to what extent can state bureaucracies play a more facilitative co-ordinating role. There are also issues about what are the functions of the state in coordinating health delivery in a complex inter-organizational environment, and how can the state build on existing relationships in ways that encourage collaboration rather than resistance.
If there was a criticism of this volume it is to do with the title, the lack of operational advice on how to manage such relationships, and the failure to draw on the mainstream management research into joint ventures, strategic alliances and other types of inter-organisational relationships. Managing Development is an ambitious title for a book primarily concerned with inter-organizational relationships and the dynamics of different forms of partnership relationship. It could be seen as somewhat misleading, as there is little operational detail about the management of these relationships or how managers in development agencies implement new forms of partnerships. In general, the analysis is strong on models, frameworks, and broader strategic issues, but there is little relevant analysis on how to operationalise such relationships. There needs to be more analysis on the crosscultural issues arising; the mechanics of communication, shared decision making and organisational learning, as well as effective team building. Similarly, there needs to be more analysis on how to handle the power imbalances between donors and their partners. There is also a wealth of literature on how to manage business partnerships, joint ventures, strategic alliances which could have been drawn on, and would have added to the overall quality of the analysis offered.
Despite these reservations this is a well-constructed and timely collection of chapters that is a useful addition to the literature. In particular, it highlights the complexity of such relationships, and the political skills needed to balance the demands of all the different stakeholders and constituencies.