Making crisis a momentum for change within public services

The public sector is traditionally presented as reluctant to change. Using an adaptive systems framework and following a grounded theorizing approach, I analyze four cases of successful organizational transformation though the management of crises as a momentum for change. Crises help only if they are managed as such a momentum. My conclusion is that organizational dynamics is roughly the same in the private and in the public sector and that appropriate crisis management may lead to a performing organization. I stress the key success factors for a successful management of crisis as a momentum for change: learning is the key point and public managers appear to have a fair ability to learn, but learning needs to be formalized before updating mental maps in public management.