Dilulio, John D. Jr. creator text xu| 1998 continuing ng p.1147-168 Does public management matter? Under what, if any, conditions does how public organizations are led, structured, and coordinated affect the quality of citizens' lives? This exploratory essay recommends an approach to public management studies that is directed at answering these questions and "recovering" the public management variable. Using examples from the recent literature on schools, prisons, and armies, and drawing on various theoretical literatures, it is argued that the future of public management studies should lie in efforts to specify what ends given public organizations ought to achieve and how best to achieve them. - Reproduced Public administration International Journal of Public Administration 180718