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This article is a contribution to the debate raised in the special issue of the International Review of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IIAS) (Volume 79(3)) devoted to the World Bank’s approach to public sector management for 2011–2020. We offer a methodological framework for action that builds on the definitions we have chosen of three key concepts used by several authors: ‘administrative reform’, the ‘real world’ and the ‘performance’ of administrations. The proposed model suggests an inductive-style methodological approach, taking into account the challenges that the World Bank has set itself to secure the successful implementation of its strategy. Points for practitioners The success of administrative reforms very much depends on the consideration given to the different mechanisms that regulate the actual workflow in public services. The article shows how this flow is characterised by multiple methods of regulation whose nature and configuration vary from one administration to another, and offers a way of managing reforms that duly takes this into account. The focus is on the professionalism of the practitioners in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]