Between rhetoric and reality: implementing management reform in the European Commission

Despite inauspicious circumstances, the European Commission embarked on an ambitious programme of management reform in 2000, and in 2003 the reform Progress Review claimed that it had been implemented. There is now a substantial body of literature examining the theory and practice of public management reform under different conditions. Using these models and an implementation matrix differentiating between types of reform action, this article analyses these claims. The findings suggest a considerable gap exists between reform rhetoric and the reality of its application.