This book tackles face up a major challenge met by public leaders and managers all over the world: the management of people and competences in the public sector. By providing insights into the Italian experience in improving human resources management over the past years and decades, and highlighting the key role of the national school of administration in it, this book offers a vast range of ideas and experiences greatly valuable to everybody with an interest in these topics. A key reader in public management for scholars and practitioners alike."-Edoardo Ongaro, Full Professor of Public Management, The Open University, UK"This book provides an insightful journey from theory to practice from international to national, from intrinsic public motivation to explicit performance evaluation, from reform to change process, from competences development to actual behaviour. A terrific challenge for intellectual curiosity."