Sharing natural resource management responsibility: Examining the New Zealand rock lobster co-management experience

Co-management, in which government and resource users share responsibility for managing a natural resource, is attracting considerable attention in both public policy and common pool resource research. However, little is understood about how this approach arises in a mature regulatory setting, or about its strengths and weaknesses. This study uses the experience of the New Zealand rock lobster (Jasus edwardsii and Sagmariasus verreauxi) industry to illustrate what co-management is and how it develops. This is followed by an assessment of co-management in this regime. Development of co-management is an evolutionary process that requires commitment from both government and industry. Strengthened property rights and management expertise provide the incentives and tools to develop a robust co-management regime. However the characteristics of the property rights bundle must be carefully matched to the regime’s biological, social, and regulatory setting.     

Reforming the public sector for leaner government and improved performance: The New Zealand experience

Over the 10 year period from 1984 to 1994 New Zealand has gone through an intense period of restructuring, both of the public sector and of the wider economy. In the process New Zealand has been transformed from a highly protected and regulated economy with a range of intrusive and expensive interventions, to an open and deregulated economy with an efficient and leaned down public sector. The article presents the “New Zealand experience” in restructuring, not necessarily as an example to be copied but as a benchmark to be used in examining the most appropriate restructuring to apply in other circumstances. The stages in the reform are described and the three key success factors set out. One of the key factors is the establishment of a set of clear principles which are then applied with determination. The principles developed in the New Zealand context are set out. The article examines the restructuring of the science sector in New Zealand as one case study; in part because of the author's personal involvement but also because it is a particularly complete example. Areas where work remains to be done are identified including the reforms in education and health and the need for collective action across government. Finally lessons to emerge from the New Zealand experience are discussed. These include especially putting time into fully understanding market characteristics before a market oriented reform is started, carrying reforms through to their conclusion rather than stopping partway, and establishing clear principles to guide the reform process.     

Public management reform and lessons from experience in New Zealand

This article is edited from a speech delivered to the University of Victoria, Wellington—IPMN Workshop on the theme lessons from experience in New Zealand. The author articulates a number of lessons that have been learned, and identifies some lessons that should have been learned. Scott writes from the perspective of having been directly and centrally involved in the development and implementation of what has been characterized as “the New Zealand model” of public management for more than twenty years, a record of service that continues to date. The views expressed also benefit from extensive consulting by the author for governments around the world. Among the lessons learned are (a) the need for clarity of roles, responsibilities and accountability in the implementation of management reform, (b) the importance of matching decision capacity to responsibility, (c) the significance of ministerial commitment and clarity on expectations, (d) the advantages gained from structural innovations within the New Zealand cabinet, (e) the need to analyze disasters carefully for what they teach, (f) approaches to embrace and foibles to avoid in implementing performance specification, (g) problems caused by confusion over ownership and improper assessment of organizational capability, (h) the fact that actually doing strategic management in the public sector is hugely complicated, (i) that it is time to put an end to the notion that there is an “extreme model” of public management in application in New Zealand, and (j) that public management, government and governance innovations in New Zealand are no longer novel compared to those advanced in other nations. With respect to lessons not learned satisfactorily, many are simply the dark shadow of positive lessons, i.e., having not understood or implemented the successes achieved in some parts of New Zealand government into others. The author concludes with an admonition to avoid jumping too quickly, in response to post-electoral rhetoric, to the conclusion that past reforms in have to be modified quickly and radically, and that the New Zealand Model has failed.     

Agile: A New Way of Governing

The evolving concept of “agile” has fundamentally changed core aspects of software design, project management, and business operations. The agile approach could also reshape government, public management, and governance in general. In this Viewpoint essay, the authors introduce the modern agile movement, reflect on how it can benefit public administrators, and describe several challenges that managers will face when they are expected to make their organizations more flexible and responsive.     

New Zealand

European Journal of Political Research -     

New Zealand

European Journal of Political Research -     

New Zealand

European Journal of Political Research -