Why is It So Difficult to Reform Public Administration? Government of the Future: Getting from Here to There (original) (raw)
Public Administration Reforms: Is it a Global Regulation
It is commonly observed that the state has been in a restructuring process for over two decades. Liberal policies have been the sole criterion to decide what the state should do, to what extent and how it should be done. Widespread public sector reforms have occurred in compliance with this process and it can be asserted that there has been a global reform wave. This article examines the public sector reform experience of some countries. It explores, firstly, the pressures and incentives that have led to reform attempts in different cases. Thereafter, it tries to define differences and con-vergences between the methods, and targets of reforms. It also discusses the outcomes of reform attempts. Consequently, it seems that a reform attempt, which embraces most principles of new public management, is welcomed at an almost global level at least as a discourse. However, the outcomes of reforms are so problematic that it raises the following question: " Why, how and in whose benefit should public administration reform be made? "
In a work context generally characterized by low management autonomy, but rather high goal ambiguity and politicization (exceptions here are the Netherlands, Norway and the UK), executives clearly perceive factors limiting a full adoption of a managerial logic and performance management concepts: in fact managerial ideas and instruments such as clear targets, measurement and use of performance information are only moderately implemented across in European public administrations. The tide of typical, 'structural' NPM reforms (such as privatization, contracting out or agencification) has by now subsided, replaced by reform trends more closely connected to a networkoriented understanding of government: transparent, open and/or e-government, as well as collaboration and cooperation among different public sector actors. The ongoing fiscal crisis might account for other important trends, such as public sector downsizing, stronger focus on outcomes and results, and the reduction of internal bureaucracy. Overall, countries such as the UK, Estonia, Norway and the Netherlands appear to be more active, while Spain, France, Austria and Hungary are hesitant with regard to implementing management tools. Concerning the overall impact of public administration reforms, executives make a predominantly positive assessment in Norway, Netherlands, Estonia, Hungary and to a lesser extent in Germany; reforms are judged rather critically by executives in Spain and in the other survey countries (UK, France and, to a lesser extent, Italy and Austria), the assessment is mixed. Considering potential success factors, aiming at service improvements (as opposed to solely cost-cutting), and higher public involvement seems to positively influence the overall perception of reforms. At policy field level moderate improvement is seen in relation to managerial aspects such as cost and efficiency, service quality and innovation, but also concerning transparency and openness, fair treatment of citizens and ethical behavior among public servants. On the contrary, slight deteriorations are associated to issues of staff motivation, attractiveness of the public sector as an employer, social cohesion and especially citizen trust in government. Despite fears in this direction, we discover no clear evidence of negative impacts on internal cohesion dimensions as a result of reforms: in countries with more pronounced performance management we tend to find even somewhat higher levels of social capital and trust and work satisfaction, but also relatively lower organizational commitment, indicating the need for more detailed analysis. Executives in the employment and health sectors, also under the survey's focus, assess reforms rather similarly to their counterparts in central government, with the exception that management instruments are generally regarded as more relevant. Also, in both sectors we find that reforms assessed as more demanding are also considered more successful. Exceptionally, in health, we find a greater importance of downsizing than in central government and employment. While considerable variation can be identified between countries regarding reform intensity, those types of reform trends which are regarded as important are strikingly similar-which might indicate a shared sense of purpose across Europe with regards to public management reforms.
This study deals with the Need for Future Managerial Reforms (NFMR) in public administration as perceived by university professors from around the globe. We explore and validate a new NFMR scale based on traditional principles of the New Public Management (NPM) doctrine (e.g. downsizing government, debureaucratization, decentralization, managerialism, and privatization). We also propose a global professional selection (GPS) approach to the study of need for future managerial reforms, validating it with a theoretical model, eight propositions, and four hypotheses. According to the model, managerial quality, satisfaction with public services, trust in public services and NFMR are mutually related but should be considered within the cultural dimensions of each nation. Using data from a sample of 2995 faculty members in 191 major universities from 45 nations, we demonstrate the validity of the NFMR scale and of several direct and indirect hypotheses based on the theoretical model, as well as the advantage of the GPS-controlled mediating model over a simple mediating model. The findings are discussed theoretically and practically, with their implications for the study of future NPM-style reforms and the recent trends in modern governance.
Less for Better: Effects of restructuring public administration on organizational effectiveness
Over time many changes have taken place in the environment, technology, and dynamics of public administration. Currently, following the economic crisis, a number of reforms were introduced to reduce the size of government as well as downsize and privatize public enterprises which resulted in the layoff of a large number of public servants. In this sense, the government considers that building an effective, responsive and adapted administrative system can be realized through restructuring process, both in terms of organizational and functioning. On this premise, the paper discusses the restructuring process of public administration carried out in Romania, particularly the reducing of employees' number from public administration, looking at the effects of that on functioning and effectiveness of public organizations. Therefore, the main goal of the analysis is to show if less public employees means better results. Taking into consideration the aim of the paper, the research methodology is based on a case study as research strategy, and uses the triangulation method to obtain confirmation of findings through convergence of different perspective. Regarding the qualitative research, the author use theoretical framework, legal analyses, systematic and analytical collecting data from official written sources, and macroeconomic indicators for quantitative aspects.
Administrative Reform in Public Management: Paradigms, Principles, Paradoxes and Pendulums
Governance, 1990
The universal administrative reform movement in public management of the past two decades, as illustrated in the three articles on administrative reform in Britain, Australia and New Zealand which follow this article, has obviously been driven in large part by the requirement that governments respond to the fiscal stresses brought about by changes in the international economic system on the one hand and by the unrelenting demands for government services and regulations in national political systems on the other. These stresses have led to the paramountcy of policy responses aimed at budgetary restraint and at downsizing the public services of governments, as well asvarious measures to privatize government operations and to deregulate private economic enterprises.
Changing public service organizations: current perspectives and future prospects
British Journal of Management, 2003
As governments and public service organizations across the globe engage in strategies of institutional and organizational change, it is timely to examine current developments and a future research agenda for public governance and management. This article commences with reflections on the state of the field, based on an analysis of papers published in the British Journal of Management over the last decade. While there was some variation apparent across the set, the 'typical' article was found to be influenced by the discipline of organizational behaviour, set within the health-care sector, using case-study methods within field-based studies, and investigating shifts in roles and relationships and the management of change. It has also in the past been UK-centric, though the journal editorial policy and our own article call for a stronger international and comparative focus in the future. The second section introduces the principle themes addressed in the other articles comprising this special issue on public service organizations. The third section explores a possible research agenda for the future, arguing for the significance of public sector research for the understanding of management more generally, and for examining the interface between private and public organizations (an increasingly common phenomenon). We suggest the need to set public services research in policy and political contexts, and suggest this may reveal organizational processes of wide interest. We call for a wider set of disciplines to engage in public management research, and to engage in moving the agenda from the study of efficiency to effectiveness as defined by a variety of stakeholders. We address the issue of how far public management researchers should become directly engaged with the world of policy and suggest that whether researchers engage in Mode 1 or Mode 2 research, their work would benefit from a stronger theoretical base.
Public Sector and Globalization: Towards New public Management
IAU International Journal of Social Sciences, 2018
Running public service organizations that is used in government and public service institutions and agencies, at both sub-national and national levels is a major area of research in public policy in the era of globalization. Thus, the aim of this paper is to probe relationships between new public management and the process of globalization. It argues that the emergence of NPM is the consequence of parallel processes that could be summarized under the rubric of globalization. The core of these developments could be seen the victory of economics over politics, the introduction of market forces and flexibility into the public sector, and decentralization. Having discussed NPM practically and conceptually the paper concludes that structuration is a useful method of analyzing the interaction between globalization and the implementation of NPM, by assuming that there is a persistent process of interaction between structure and agent and that structures themselves ever-changing.
THE CHANGING NATURE OF PUBLIC SECTOR MANAGEMENT AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGERS AND PROFESSIONALS
Public Sector Management (PSM) has witnessed changes over the past decades: from Traditional Public Administration to New Public Management (NPM) or managerialism and Governance. Moving from traditional administration with emphasis on career, tenure, neutrality of the public servant and a structure of hierarchical authority, to the New Public Management with emphasis on privatization and commercialization and other private sector concepts, the implementation of the notion of business and competition in managerialism intensified the idea of customer orientation in public service delivery. The introduction of some aspects of a market type mechanism signified innovating forms like contracting out, and agentification. Similarly, the movement into and the introduction of the governance concept expanded the role of Civil Society organizations or Non-Governmental organizations (NGOs), in public sector management, accountability and service delivery. It is argued that this changing nature of public sector management no doubt has implications for leadership in the public sector. Managers and professionals have to adapt to these new changes. The paper, a conceptual one, traces the changing nature of Public Sector Management and discusses the implications on managers and professionals concentrating on the assumptions of self-sufficiency of the service; direct control; accountability regimes; uniformity of the sector; legal and procedural performance as well as democracy and the role of administration in policy making and implementation.
Public Sector Organization: Where next?
IDS Bulletin, 1992
This article is about the three major neo-liberal innovations in public sector organization of the 1980s: 'regulatory' agencies to eliminate deviant behaviour generated by market failure; the mechanisms for contracting out or buying in goods and services; and the restructuring of public action into programmes of 'service delivery' to citizens. These have been inserted into public sectors all over the world during the last decade, with effects varying with context and substantive content of public action. The aim here is to discuss the organizational properties of these mechanisms, the range of practical problems they pose for public employees and some ways in which these might now be fruitfully thought about. The stress throughout is not on how things must necessarily work out, but on the dynamics of choice, what choices can and should be made.
Investigating the Outcomes of Organisational Restructuring: A Case Study of Oman's Public Sector
International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology , 2023
The Omani authorities started to implement Oman vision 2040 after the new era. The government began reorganising and structuring several ministries as a reflection of the new cost reduction policies and resisting global financial catastrophe. The research shows the outcomes of the Omani organisation restructuring in their departments, the relationship between corporate restructuring and employees satisfaction, and the Omani government workers' perception of the current governmental restricting. The research provides a recent reaction to this restructuring and fills the gap of the absence of data and information on the consequences of the Omani governmental reorganisation. Quantitative data is used to analyse through an online questionnaire as a research instrument with the help of secondary data to show the outcomes of this restructuring. The sample is taken from one of the restructured departments; nonprobability sampling is used with the help of the judgmental sampling technique. The research reveals weak Omani media coverage of the plans for the restructuring, the increase in early retirement among The Omani public sector workers, management conflicts inside the merged departments, and the decrease in the number of new employments in the Omani public sector and the remain of the traditional formal management style after the renewal of the government structure.