International Review of Administrative Sciences 79(3) 486–504 ! The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0020852313489945 ras.sagepub.com International Review of Administrative Sciences Article Public sector leadership: new perspectives for research and practice Davide Christian Orazi The University of Melbourne, Australia Alex Turrini Bocconi University, Italy Giovanni Valotti Bocconi University, Italy Abstract In this article, we aim to portray the state of the art in public sector leadership in order to recommend directions for research and training practice. To this end, we review the scattered strands of literature on public sector leadership (PSL) and classify them in a single framework. The results of the study suggest that public sector leadership is emerging as a distinctive and autonomous domain in public administration/public man- agement studies, although the debate is still underdeveloped compared to business administration studies. Leadership skills truly do matter in improving the performance of public sector organizations, and it is highly likely that the optimum leadership style is an integrated one: Public sector leaders should behave mainly as transformational leaders, moderately leveraging transactional relationships with their followers and heav- ily leveraging the importance of preserving integrity and ethics in the fulfillment of tasks. Points for practitioners This study on public leadership suggests that administrative leaders in the public sector behave differently from their counterparts in the business world, and as a result there is a great need for leadership development programs which focus on these differences instead of merely mimicking programs designed for leaders in the private sector. Keywords change management, leadership, modernization, public sector reform Corresponding author: Alex Turrini, Bocconi University, Via Roentgen, 1, Milan 20135, Italy. Email: alex.turrini@unibocconi.it at The University of Melbourne Libraries on March 5, 2015 ras.sagepub.com Downloaded from