Public management, focused on government and non-profit administration, contends that private and public project management are similar. Therefore, government officials can learn from the management methods used in the private sector. One significant aspect of public management is government performance auditing, which enables comparisons among numerous government administrations. Ecological and social indicators, comparable to the management assessment method known as value reporting in the private sector, are used to conduct the comparison.

The complexities within public management are underlined by the fact that government projects are often larger in scale than private sector projects and have a strong, direct effect upon the public. The lack of competition for governments, as opposed to the anti-monopoly laws faced by companies, also affects how public projects are managed.

Begun by the George W. Bush administration, No Child Left Behind is a a valuable case study within public management. A federally funded program, it is run by the Department of Education with the goal of improving the public education system in the United States. Its jurisdiction encompasses public schools all across the country. In addition, it not only affects the education of the children, but also the lives of working parents. Due to the immensity of the project and its impact, management is an intricately complex process.

Public administration, the study of how public agencies are managed, often overlaps with public management. Unlike the latter, the former views government management of projects to be completely different from that of private management due to the emphasis it lays upon the social good. In the United States, a movement known as the New Public Administration (NPM) entails applying market mechanisms to traditional public management practices. Relying heavily on appraisals of efficiency and effectiveness, government agencies are incorporating systems of user-pay basis, increasing competition by allowing companies to bid for contracts, developing result-oriented budgets, and offering incentives to public servants to improve work performance.

The most innovative facet of NPM is that it attempts to develop solutions to management issues based on market theories rather than simple administrative rules and regulations. The movement has become popular as international pressures have increased for more efficient and effective government. New Zealand serves as a good example of a national government improving by putting NPM theories into practice.

While proponents of NPM believe it is a way to positively redefine public management, critics consider it an exaggeration of the value market principles, especially privatization, have for the public sector. One of the strongest critics of NPM, Henry Mintzberg, believes the movement to be lopsided, with public sector managers learning solely from private management techniques. He believes that established and valuable government management practices must be retained and studied. Furthermore, Mintzberg concludes that privatization should be curtailed, as it cannot be the solution to all problems within public management. National institutions, such as the American Society for Public Administration in the United States and the Ecole Nationale d’Administration in France, study trends and issues regarding public management as it continues to evolve.