The new public management

The New Management of British Local Governance. Edited by Gerry Stoker. Macmillan Press in association with the ESRC Local Governance Programme, 1999. Pp.295. £45 hb; £14.99 pb.

Beyond the New Public Management: Changing Ideas and Practices in Governance. Edited by Martin Minogue, Charles Polidano and David Hulme. Edward Elgar, 1998. Pp.325. £59.95.     

The new public personnel and the new public service

The New Public Administration sought a public service whose legitimacy would be based, in part, on its promotion of “social equity.” Since 1968, several personnel changes congruent with the New Public Administration have occurred: traditional managerial authority over public employees has been reduced through collective bargaining and changes in constitutional doctrines; the public service has become more socially representative; establishing a representative bureaucracy has become an important policy goal; more emphasis is now placed on employee participation in the work place; and legal changes regarding public administrators’ liability have promoted an “inner check” on their behavior. At the same time, however, broad systemic changes involving decentralization and the relationship between political officials and career civil servants have tended to undercut the impact of those changes in personnel. The theories of Minnowbrook I, therefore, have proven insufficient as a foundation for a new public service. Grounding the public service's legitimacy in the U.S. Constitution is a more promising alternative and is strongly recommended.

The New Public Administration, like other historical calls for drastic administrative change in the United States, sought to develop a new basis for public administrative legitimacy. Earlier successful movements grounded the legitimacy of the public service in high social standing and leadership, representativeness and close relationship to political parties, or in putative political neutrality and scientific managerial and technical expertise. To these bases, the New Public Administration sought to add “social equity.” As George Frederickson explained, “Administrators are not neutral. They should be committed to both good management and social equity as values, things to be achieved, or rationales. “⁽¹⁾ Social equity was defined as “includ[ing] activities designed to enhance the political power and economic well being of … [disadvantaged] minorities.” It was necessary because “the procedures of representative democracy presently operate in a way that either fails or only very gradually attempts to reverse systematic discrimination against” these groups.⁽²⁾

Like the Federalists, the Jacksonians, and the civil service reformers and progressives before it, the New Public Administration focused upon administrative reform as a means of redistributing political power.⁽³⁾ Also, like these earlier movements, the New Public Administration included a model of a new type of public servant. This article sets forth that new model and considers the extent to which the major changes that have actually taken place in public personnel administration since 1968 are congruent with it. We find that while contemporary public personnel reflects many of the values and concerns advanced by the New Public Administration, substantial changes in the political environment of public administration have frustrated the development of a new public service that would encompass the larger goals and ideals expressed at Minnowbrook I. Building on the trends of the past two decades, this article also speculates about the future. Our conclusion is that ultimately the public service's legitimacy must be grounded in the Constitution. Although its focus is on macro-level political and administrative developments, the broad changes it discusses provide the framework from which many contemporary personnel work-life issues, such as pay equity and flexitime, have emerged.     

Creating a new organizational culture: the key to total quality management in the public sector

Total Quality Management (TQM) as a business strategy has been recognized by managers in the public sector since the late 1980s. While much has been written about the need for TQM and its strategies such as quantitative measurement and statistical analysis, team work and worker participation, few empirical and theoretical studies have been carried out or published on the connection of organizational culture to the implementation of TQM. Many leaders in the field have asserted that significant organizational cultural change will be required to ensure the success of TQM. This paper examines the changes that may be required in the process, and presents a synopsis of the need to (perhaps) reexamine the definition of organizational culture and the perspective of management, public or private, to make the culture of an organization more compatible with desired values.     

Minnowbrook: the search for a new reality

The search for a public administration reality begins with issues of theory as a substitute for reality. These illusions of theoretical construct have not corrupted public administration, in part because of Minnowbrook I. In a time of national crisis the papers of Minnowbrook I set out an ethic and perspective seriously informed by the reality of the 1968 National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (the Kerner Commission) and in 1988, Minnowbrook II is informed by the Commission on the Cities (a twenty year update of the Kerner Commission Report). The Minnowbrook I papers are an example of the whole being more important than the sum of its parts. Both conferences as well as the papers they produced are grounded in reality, in a shared commitment to making democratic self-government work, and in achieving sensible notions of effectiveness, equity, human dignity, and trust free from the corrupting effects of theory.

What can we possibly say that would in any pertinent way bridge the gap of time that would persuasively relate 1968 to the present day? The kindest comment would seem to be that, thus far at least, compared to 1968, we enjoy a degree of relative tranquility. Consider for a moment the sequence of spasmodic convulsions which relentlessly shocked virtually all segments of our society in 1968 with such numbing intensity that even the gentle September solitude of the Adirondacks could only soothe but not erase the emotional impulses that were generated by those who attended the 1968 Minnowbrook Conference in upstate New York.

To mention just a few of the traumatic events of that fateful year one might begin in February when the Kerner Commission report was released. The tone of the report was as bleak as its temper; America faced a domestic crisis situation of major proportions. In March, the political system was given a severe jolt when Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not seek reelection as President in the November 1968 general election. This set into motion multiple political machinations within the Democratic party, all of which seemed to blur into a surrealistic nightmare as a result of the assassinations of, first, Martin Luther King in April, and then, Robert F. Kennedy in June. But the real shock waves were yet to come. Hardly thirty days had passed following the assassination of Robert Kennedy when the nation and the world were hit with the debacle of the Democratic Convention in Chicago, the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, and the release of the Papal encyclical, Humane Vitae.

It was within this context that a group of conferees gathered together at Minnowbrook in September to discuss and reflect on, figuratively speaking, what it meant to be a democrat in a global society in which the party of Jefferson, the followers of Marx, and the apostles of Christ all seemed to embrace the “Iron Law of Oligarchy” as a categorical imperative of the first magnitude. Whatever the original intention of those who planned the 1968 Minnowbrook conference, the tone and temper which surfaced at the onset, and never receded, were a seemingly unconscious testimonial to the German sociologist, Robert Michaels. Writing in the last 1920s, Michaels argued that,

It is organization which gives birth to the domination of the elected over the electors, of the mandatories over the mandators, of the delegates over the delegators. Who says organization says oligarchy.⁽¹⁾

Michaels concluded that all existing organizations, when faced with the demands for bold, aggressive innovations, must respond with defensive, even reactionary decisions to retain their power. “That which is oppresses that which ought to be.” But this time-worn trope is much too simplistic to explain the complex intricacies of the current public policy process and organizational behavior. Certainly no one was more aware of this than the conferees at Minnowbrook in 1968, as well as anyone else who has followed the ebb and flow of our political and policy systems to the present day.     

The democratic polity's search for the knowledgeable public administrator: an argumentative essay

Today public administrators, as many others, desire to be known as professionals or those knowledgeable enough to carry out their tasks without outside interference. By examining their claims to have expertise to carry out their public tasks, we provide a critical evaluation of the professionalism of public administrators. Our argument is that public administrators may not have sufficient knowledge to carry out their public tasks without the knowledge (help) of others. Suggesting that public administrators need to have more “public” knowledge of the public interest, we suggest ways that they can become more knowledgeable and more compatible with the tenets of political democracy.     

Review of public budgeting and financial management

User charge is an alternative option to privatizing public service provision. But its use as a policy instrument, compared with that of asset sales or contracting out, for instance, is less researched and documented. This paper tries to fill the gap. By contrasting the experiences of employing user charge for two public services in Hong Kong with diametrically opposing results, this paper offers preliminary conclusions on several lessons, which governments, in their drive toward improved efficiency, can learn in commercializing their trading activities. Implications to public policy making are also suggested. These include: the user-pays principle has to be applied equitably, the public service market has to remain depoliticized, the management has to be transformed to behave more entrepreneurially, and the users have to be educated.     

Local public management reforms in Germany

This article, part of a sequence of comparative articles on local government reforms in The Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany, describes and analyses the recent public management reforms at the local level of Germany. After an overview about the constitutional framework of local self government and the reform waves of the last decades, the paper concentrates on the 'new steering model' as the German variant of NPM. The article shows the short history of this reform movement, describes the main elements of the reform concept and explains some of the causes, forces and actors of implementation. It goes on to discuss the present status of implementation, explains several shortcomings of the concept, and presents the – very limited – empirical evidence of achieved results. Finally, the paper draws some conclusions from a comparative view on the similarities and differences of local management reforms in Germany and the two other countries.     

Project management and job satisfaction in the public sector

The article addresses the question of the impact of project management on employee job satisfaction. After noting that the literature generally does not provide much information on the subject, the results of a study conducted in Garland Texas are presented. The Garland data, based on an analysis of twenty-two matched-pairs of employees (a group who had served on project teams were matched with a similarly-situated group who had not), indicated that project management does change employee opinions about management practices. Indeed, in terms of decision-making processes, goal-setting, interaction and upward communication processes, there were significant differences between the two groups. The study concludes that part of this effect may be similar to a “Hawthorne Effect”.     

City management,public administration and the American enlightenment

As the cost and size of government continues to escalate, there is a growing concern over increasing the efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of public services. Productivity bargaining as one tool has Cained the attention of a small but growing number of public officials who see this technique as one rational method of resolving the conflicting pressures generated by the demand for government services on the one hand and limited resources on the other. The experience of one large metropolitan area with productivity bargaining is reviewed at some length.     

In search of identity: Public administration education in taiwan

Education program plays an important part in transmitting public administration knowledge to future administrators. What constitutes the “core” knowledge is presumably determined by societal expectations. Using Public Administration education in Taiwan as an example, this study finds that there exists a “crisis of identity” which concerns the proper role of administrators -- generalists vs. specialists. Public Administration education program in Taiwan, oriented toward a liberal arts education, has failed, according to some, to provide well trained and qualified students for the public services. The current education programs have resulted in a disjointed process in which the diffusion of public administration knowledge is discontinuous.     

The Brazilian military after the Cold War: In search of a mission

What purpose should Brazil’s armed forces serve in upcoming years? Democratization, the end of the Cold War, and Brazil’s economic crisis have prompted an unprecedented debate over this question by narrowing the range of tasks that the Brazilian military can pursue. This article investigates civilian and military support for various possible military roles and analyzes their compatibility with civilian control. It argues that the political weakness of the current government, the economic crisis, and growing social unrest militate against an expansion of the military’s conventional external defense mission and in favor of non-combatant domestic functions. This has begun to occur despite military enthusiasm for the former and military reservations about the latter. The military’s adoption of multiple domestic assignments in a country with a tradition of military interventionism poses risks to civilian control.     

Teaching public administration,public management and policy analysis: some international comparisons

This article compares the design and content of domestic and foreign programs for teaching public administration and management. At the Master's level, curriculum designers, irrespective of location, emphasize organization theory, personnel, policy analysis, and microeconomics. However, domestic programs place much more emphasis on research methods and budget management. International programs place more emphasis on public law and management information systems. At this time, neither domestic nor international programs report much required training in leadership, bargaining, or institutional design.     

The information-based organization: new dimensions for the public manager

Public management education should reflect the tremendous organizational changes brought about by information technologies and their applications. Increasing penetration of information technologies and the need for well-considered approaches to use those technologies will pose new opportunities and obstacles for public managers. This paper describes three key skill areas for curriculum consideration: information technology management, information management, and human resource management.     

Local and regional public management reforms in Switzerland

Public management reforms at the local (community) and regional (canton) level in Switzerland almost all embrace elements of the new public management. In addition, in Switzerland, the merging of small communities as well as new developments such as electronic government are becoming apparent. The new public management model has been adapted for Swiss needs according to the perception of decision makers on problems that require solution in a Swiss context. NPM has developed, therefore, into rather different models in practice, aimed at the solution of these diverse problems. Foreign examples, such as the Dutch Tilburg Model and the German Neues Steuerungsmodell , played a major role at the start of this process, but have continuously lost their influence as actual models to be emulated. The most outstanding peculiarities of the Swiss reforms are an early and subsequent outcome focus together with the strong influence of direct democracy.     

Partnerships in public management: rural enterprise alliances

This paper addresses public management implications of a certain form of network: the rural enterprise alliance, a formal nonmetropolitan partnership among producers, distributors, labor unions, employer associations, credit institutions, and government agencies. Six alliances are examined as examples of “postmodern” public organizing, as it fits into emergent “bottom up” approaches to economic development. Organizing locally for global competition is bringing on more decentralized, flexible, yet comprehensive public management approaches, emphasizing demand programming, self-management, incentives and information, leverage and engagement, and de-differentiated structuring. Public managers must increasingly deal with challenges like those related to the emergence of alliances.