Comparing and Contrasting two Ideal Types of Public Management (original) (raw)
Related papers
International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478) 12(8):327-334, 2023
Over the past decades there has been a remarkable paradigm shift in Public Administration. Traditional Public Administration was in dire need for a change of a New Public Administration (NPA) approach in the 1980s. From early 2000s, the NPA began to be subjected to heavy criticism, which influenced public administration to take complete control of different reforms and approaches regardless of their diversity, complexity, hybrid and contradictory situations rather than offering the perfect approach and reform to the public sector. The New Public Management (NPM) and Post-New Public Management (Post-NPM) paradigms emerged in times whereby the NPA was already experiencing a massive deconstruction and reconfiguration of the public sector management. To scan and understand the remarkable paradigm shift in the field and practice of public administration, this study applies both NPM and Post-NMP to examine different views, principles, values and norms, and reform proposals for South African Public Administration. Methodologically, this study used qualitative research methods with the aid of secondary data to evaluate both the NPM and post-NPM paradigms, criticisms, arguments, challenges, and changes in public policy implementations. Recommendations are provided based on the existing challenges confronting the current public administration in South Africa. This study contributes to literature, new policy proposals and research within public administration.
CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PUBLIC 'MANAGEMENT' AND PUBLIC SECTOR REFORM IN SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa's political transition to democratic rule was the catalyst for ambitious public sector reform efforts, which sought to restructure the organisational and personnel profile of the state. A key aim of this process was to enhance the state's management capacity to steer a far-reaching socioeconomic policy agenda, which drew on the principles and tools of comparative public management practice as it had evolved globally and intellectually. This article examines how South Africa's policy commitment to management reform can be characterised in comparative terms, and twenty years on, assess if and how this commitment has materialised in practice. I will argue that the South African case exhibits a confusing and directionless mix of traditional management control and unconsummated NPM advocacy. Although this is generally consistent with NPM practice in developing countries, I will propose that there are at least three specific elements that lend texture to the South African case, namely, capacity, commitment and capture.
Governance, Restructuring and the New Public Management Reform: South African Perspectives
Journal of Educational and Social Research, 2014
In the last two decades an array of management techniques and practices have been adopted and implemented by most governments to ameliorate public administration. This was principally because most governments got ensnared in huge debts, operational inefficiency, and ineffectiveness in service delivery including lack of accountability from political elites and public servants. These problems emanated from the quaint methods of fiscal management that were implemented and practiced resulting in rampant corruption and feeble public services. This led to widespread disgruntlement and demand for good governance hence the rise of the New Public Management (NPM). Theories like public choice theory and principal-agent theory propelled the rise of the New Public Management (NPM) with its consonant reforms and practices of restructuring. The colonial-independence-globalization theory also gave impetus to the emergence of the NPM theory for most former colonies like South Africa which had colonialism of a special type. Most African countries including South Africa have socio-political and economic conditions different from their Western counterparts because of decades of colonialism and apartheid and therefore experienced NPM uniquely. This paper explores the concepts of governance, restructuring and the NPM in the context of South Africa.
Management in the South African Public Service: A Critical Analysis
Managing is generally perceived as the process of controlling, arranging, planning, staffing, directing and organising as generally defined by many proponents. This process is expected to be a smooth sail in many institutions, especially the government institutions. There is a misconception that managing the public service resources is a simple task as the state is generally perceived as having resources in abundance. However, it has been proven by various authors, philosophers, protagonists, etc. that managing state resources is not a smooth sail, as there are various challenges attached to that activity. The challenges to managing state resources are experienced globally, including advanced and developed states. This is also characteristic of African states including South Africa. The South African public service is also characterised by various challenges and obstacles that should be removed as means of improving public service management. The challenges include a political interface, cultural and traditional values, religious affiliations, physical environments, etc. The aim of this paper is to analyse the process of managing the South African public service. The discussions focus on various environments and factors affecting the management of public service resources, such that the management process is seen to benefit the entire country and all its citizens. The challenges highlighted are also means of inviting more research to obtain solutions to improving the South African public service management. Authors, philosophers, protagonists and various scholars within and outside South Africa have a duty to investigate better ways of improving the South African public service management, such the country becomes capable of competing in the global economic world.
THE NEED FOR SOUTH AFRICAN PUBLIC SERVICE MANAGEMENT REFORM
Abstract The need for South Africa’s public service reformation has never been inevitable as before. This is informed by the Country’s failure to meet the global demands in public service that highlight the benefits of economic development. The South African public service management has been tarnished by many negative activities such as cadre deployment. The academics have been severely dealt a blow by not gaining recognition and the platform to scientifically manage the public service in a manner that would benefit the country and ultimately contribute to economic development. Some public service managers have been indicated to have no basic academic skills and academic qualifications that justify their appointment. That has become a major problem to the South African public management, which has often failed the auditory procedures culminating into placement of departments under administrations across the country. Almost every national auditory report points to the flaws incurred by departments in relation to misuse of funds. Subsequently, almost every auditor general points to the problem of non-deployment of qualified skilful managers in departments to ensure proper handling of state funds and proper service delivery procedures that satisfy the needs of both the governments and the citizens. The escalation of service delivery protests and riots in the country, also attest to failure to deploy skilful personnel in strategic positions. On the same token, echoes are made from all angles on the necessity of deploying skilful personnel in government departments, to ensure successful service delivery processes. Consequently, when academically skilful administrators are employed there is a need to bestow trust and confidence upon them. This paper seeks to unfold the required need for the South African government to reform the public service by skilling the public managers and ensuring that the processes of recruitment and selection into the public service management is scientific, sound and properly controlled. The paper also seeks to outline the international practices in appointment of skilful scientifically academic fit public service managers into the public service and how this benefits the outside world in relation to economic development. Key words; public service management, skills, management reforms, economic benefits
Public administration in South Africa
Administratio Publica, 2008
This article is an overview of the state of the academic field of Public Administration in South Africa. The major argument is that there has been a lack of a knowledge-based approach to the discipline in both the apartheid and democratic South Africa. The evolution of the discipline from apartheid days through to the present is traced. During apartheid the administrative processes approach was the dominant academic paradigm. This approach was narrowly focused and did not engage with the governance problems of apartheid. In democratic South Africa the administrative processes approach has largely been replaced by approaches influenced by New Public Management (NPM). While the discipline is more legitimate, as a knowledge-based discipline it has not really advanced. There has been a shift away from social sciences towards a management and business-type approach in the discipline. Traditional academic concerns with knowledge are being supplanted by a narrow focus on skills and techniques. This has had detrimental effects on both teaching and research. The article concludes by arguing for a more knowledge-based approach to the discipline.
The Concept "New Public Management" and the South African Public Service Environments
The concept New Public Management (NPM) has been widely practiced for some time to date. Advanced countries have evolved to utilising newly developed concepts in public management and administration to improve services provided by states. The New Public Management has been seen to thrive in specialised environments that are conducive for effective and successful implementation of the concept. Environments such as political, religious, economical and social and others are expected to accommodate the New Public Management practices that are adjusted to the new public management environment of the 21 st Century. It is noteworthy that in some states there are challenges in implementing the New Public Management, owing to volatile environments that are not conducive to accommodate advanced and newly developed concepts in the public management.
2012
The old school or ‘traditional’ model of public administration is under siege. For almost a century, it seemed to epitomize the summum of modern public management, bolstering the capacity and ability to impose order, grow and deliver services on a large scale for those states that came to adopt its precepts. Yet, with the waning of the twentieth century, traditional public management (OPM) has come under fire from both left and right, in advanced economies and in the developing contexts of the glibly stated ‘global South’. Too cumbersome and inflexible to address the increasingly diverse and fast-changing needs of modern economic and social systems, prone to stagnation, inefficiency or, even worse, corruption – OPM has been branded in need of serious reform and subjected to various processes of restructuring and change.