About The Book

“Dan Honig is a keen observer of how governments work, and in Mission Driven Bureaucrats he shows how public officials will perform better if they are trusted and given responsibility rather than shackled by endless rules. His conclusions spring from a wealth of real-world experience that will be valuable to practitioners and scholars alike.”—Francis Fukuyama, Stanford University

"We often debate how many bureaucrats we need, but we seldom discuss how it is that bureaucrats come to be motivated to do what needs doing. This important and readable book by Dan Honig reminds us that without motivation, the important jobs never get done. That is why the world desperately needs “mission-driven bureaucrats”. Honig explains who they are and how they can be nurtured. Essential reading for anyone who cares about quality of governance."—Andrés Velasco, former Minister of Finance of Chile and Dean, LSE Policy School

“Dan Honig’s landmark book provides welcome evidence-based optimism that a sense of mission is an impactful motivator and enabler of success. Having experienced the challenges of managing staff from both sides of the table as finance minister in a fragile state and as senior official in the Bretton Woods institutions, I can attest to the great relevance of Mission Driven Bureaucrats to the work of the IMF and other international organizations in supporting institution-building around the world.”—Antoinette Monsio Sayeh, Deputy Managing Director of the IMF and Former Liberian Minister of Finance

“Honig makes a powerful case for why managing for compliance doesn’t work and how the power of empowering management can generate transformational change. This beautifully written and well researched book introduces the reader to eye-opening insights on every page and has a central message that everyone wishing to improve how government works must engage with.”—Adnan Khan, Chief Economist, UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office

“Mission Driven Bureaucrats is a love letter to bureaucrats cunningly disguised as an analysis of organizational management. Honig gives voice to bureaucrats who do the spadework of making our societies work and provides a highly readable yet sharply incisive look at how to build organizations that help bureaucrats—and, hence, our communities—flourish."—Hahrie Han, Professor of Political Science and Director, SNF Agora Institute, Johns Hopkins University

“This is an important book. Every administrator should read it and every citizen should understand its message. With brilliantly chosen examples, telling interviews, and a breathtakingly large set of quantitative data, Honig has crafted what will be for many years the definitive argument for empowering the ‘bureaucrats’ who work for us rather than ringing them around with too many constraining rules.”—Jane Mansbridge, Harvard University 

"Dan Honig is a voice crying out in a wilderness of popular, but fundamentally misguided attempts to make the organizations and agencies of governments work better. Everyone working in and around government will benefit from his views that are both evidence based--and wise. Honig performs the near impossible balancing act of standing on the shoulders of giants, not just of one discipline, but of many academic disciplines and of the unacknowledged giants of practice. Honig lays out a persuasive case for a bold new approach to improving people's lives by empowering bureaucrats to do their job."—Lant Pritchett, Development Economist

“I am thrilled by the publication of Dan Honig’s Mission Driven Bureaucrats: Empowering People To Help Governments Do Better. The book is a welcome addition to our stock of knowledge about what makes a difference in how governments perform. Honig provides readers with the detailed architecture of how successful bureaucracies and the bureaucrats that populate them build the higher purpose that makes a difference for so many. The book is a coherent, accessible, and effective guide to the meaning of mission in the lives of people who make bureaucracies work and those they serve.”—James L. Perry, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University

“Mission Driven Bureaucrats offers a fresh rethink of how governments can enable public sector workers to be more effective. Grounded in extensive engagement with committed public servants in a remarkably wide range of settings and sectors around the world, the analysis frames the author’s own original mixed methods research with a masterful synthesis of cutting-edge social science. The analysis convincingly counterposes ‘management for compliance’ with ‘managing to empower,’ making the case that managers can inspire public servants to serve the public better if they act more as coaches than overseers. Think team-building vs punching the clock—Ted Lasso vs Frederick Taylor.”—Jonathan Fox, American University

“This deeply researched book provides a fresh understanding of why empowerment and motivation can catalyze Mission Driven Bureaucrats to drive broad positive changes via their effects on their peers. Written with verve, its path-breaking findings challenge dominant compliance-based principal-agent models by placing unobservable performance as key to improving public sector bureaucracies to better meet the needs of their citizens.”—Devesh Kapur, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies