doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9299.2012.02112.x MAKING ENDS MEET: HOW REINVENTION REFORMS COMPLEMENT PUBLIC SERVICE MOTIVATION RANDALL S. DAVIS AND EDMUND C. STAZYK Students of public management often argue that imposing market-based logic on public sector organizations can undermine the altruistic motives of public employees. Focusing on the complex relationships between ‘reinventing government’ reforms, bureaucratic red tape, and public service motivation (PSM), we contend that the effects of reinvention reforms on PSM change as a function of the ability of reforms to cut bureaucratic red tape. A series of structural equation models reveal that the relationships between reinvention reforms, bureaucratic red tape, and PSM are much more complex than previously thought. Contrary to conjectures in the mainstream PSM literature, implementing market-like reforms in public organizations positively influences PSM, if one views the reform as minimizing red tape. INTRODUCTION Attempts to improve the productivity, efficiency, and quality of public organizations are far from new, tracing back at least to the nineteenth century and somewhat later to the scientific management movement (Heinrich 2003). Modern endeavours to reform public organizations are, however, primarily rooted in the New Public Management (NPM) movement and subsequent efforts to ‘reinvent government’ (Osborne and Gaebler 1992; Gore 1993; Osborne 1993; Kettl 2002). While NPM and reinvention have been felt somewhat differently across industrialized countries (Heinrich 2003; Bozeman 2007), several common themes underpin ensuing reforms, including an emphasis on treating citizens as customers, a market-like orientation characterized by increased governmental competition with the private sector, greater governmental flexibility and responsiveness, and a mission-driven, results-oriented focus among public organizations (Osborne and Gaebler 1992; Gore 1993; Osborne 1993; Kettl 2002; Denhardt and Denhardt 2008). Many of these pursuits are ultimately intended to enhance administrative efficiency and concomitantly to improve citizen outcomes. To achieve greater administrative efficiency, countless reforms have been pursued by politicians and public organizations over the past three decades. A small sample includes the introduction (or, in some cases, reintroduction) of financial management systems, benchmarking and performance measurement, performance-related pay, decentralized human resource management systems, and a host of managerial reforms such as Total Quality Management and Management by Objectives. Chief among administrative effi- ciency reforms have been efforts to streamline government by cutting red tape and decentralizing authority to empower and motivate employees in ways that will improve service delivery (e.g. Osborne and Gaebler 1992; Gore 1993). NPM, reinvention, and associated market-oriented reforms, however, have been heavily criticized by many public administration scholars. Critiques often reflect concerns that NPM and reinvention prescriptions: (1) place undue weight on economic efficiency at the cost of other important public values such as equity and fairness (Bozeman 2007); and Randall S. Davis is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, USA. Edmund C. Stazyk is Assistant Professor in the School of Public Affairs, Department of Public Administration & Policy, American University, Washington, DC, USA. Public Administration Vol. 92, No. 4, 2014 (919–936)  2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.