PUBLIC MANAGEMENT OR PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION?

Abstract: The debate over managerialism has been the most controversial issue in Australian public administration journals in recent years. Although most articles have been critical, there have been responses in favour of the changes by senior public servants. One unfortunate consequence of this debate has been the appearance of a gap between academic public administration and public service practice.
This paper argues that, from several angles, the work now carried out by public services is management rather than administration. It argues that managerialism is a long-overdue reform to a model which has outlived its usefulness. The traditional model of public administration was an irrelevance for many years; it was never efficient or effective and deserved to be replaced. However, public management does not necessarily mean the widespread and uncritical adoption of practices from the private sector. What it should mean is that a distinctive public management needs to be developed. This should take account of the differences between the sectors, but still recognise that the work being done by public servants is now managerial rather than administrative.     

THE PUBLIC SERVANT

To the ignorance of most Australians, the nature of the Commonwealth public Service has changed a lot over recent years. Whether the change is for the better or worse is a matter of opinion. The first essential is that the public should be aware of what has happened.     

PUBLIC PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATION

In 1960 a newcomer to public personnel administration in Australia would have been presented with two treatises and told that these were the alpha and omega of the subject. The first edition of R. N. Spann's Public Administration in Australia appeared in 1959, while the Boyer Report, the Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Public Service Recruitment , of which R. S. Parker was co-author, was also published in that year. The newcomer would have found in these works not only an introduction to the then generally accepted ideas about personnel management in Australian public services, but also a critical assessment of those prevailing ideas, a critique which reveals the authors' beliefs and which influenced the succeeding generation of practitioners.