1) New public management emerged in the 1980s as a response to criticisms of large and inefficient public sectors. It advocates applying private sector management techniques like competition, performance measurement, and decentralization to the public sector to increase efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
2) The key theories underpinning new public management are public choice theory, which views bureaucrats as self-interested rather than serving the public good, principal-agent theory regarding accountability, and transaction cost theory about outsourcing services.
3) New public management emphasizes professional management, performance targets, output controls, organizational restructuring, contracting out services, and greater efficiency; however, it has also been criticized for potentially undermining accountability and ethical standards.
1) New public management emerged in the 1980s as a response to criticisms of large and inefficient public sectors. It advocates applying private sector management techniques like competition, performance measurement, and decentralization to the public sector to increase efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
2) The key theories underpinning new public management are public choice theory, which views bureaucrats as self-interested rather than serving the public good, principal-agent theory regarding accountability, and transaction cost theory about outsourcing services.
3) New public management emphasizes professional management, performance targets, output controls, organizational restructuring, contracting out services, and greater efficiency; however, it has also been criticized for potentially undermining accountability and ethical standards.
1) New public management emerged in the 1980s as a response to criticisms of large and inefficient public sectors. It advocates applying private sector management techniques like competition, performance measurement, and decentralization to the public sector to increase efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
2) The key theories underpinning new public management are public choice theory, which views bureaucrats as self-interested rather than serving the public good, principal-agent theory regarding accountability, and transaction cost theory about outsourcing services.
3) New public management emphasizes professional management, performance targets, output controls, organizational restructuring, contracting out services, and greater efficiency; however, it has also been criticized for potentially undermining accountability and ethical standards.
public management. Explain the features and emerge of new public management. New public management New Public Management is a term coined by Hood (1991) for the policy to modernize the public sector and render it more effective. The basic idea of NPM is that market-oriented management of the public sector will lead to greater costefficiency for governments, without having negative side-effects on other Objectives and considerations. In the early 1980s, Garson and Overman defined it as an interdisciplinary study of the generic aspects of administration...a blend of the planning, organizing, and controlling functions of management with the management of human, financial, physical, information and political resources. 1. Private sector change and attack on the public sectors During the past three decades, there has been an unprecedented wave of reforms in developed industrial economies, whose political leaders were under pressure to keep down levels of public taxation and expenditure, while maintaining high levels of welfare and other public services (Manning, 1996). There were three main aspects of the attack on government a). The scale of public sectors (the arguments was that government handling scale is simply too large, consuming too many scarce resources), b). The scope of the government (arguments was that government involves itself in too many activities), c). The methods of the government (arguments were that bureaucracy is a highly unpopular form of social organization). In the early 1980s, there were wide-ranging attack on the size and capability of the public sector. 2. Economic theories and changing situation Several theories have provided the theoretical underpinnings of NPM and have helped shape NPM ideas, in particular 1. public choice theory 2. principal/agent theory and 3. transaction cost theory 1. Public choice theory Public choice is a sub-branch of economic thought concerned with the application of microeconomics to political and social areas. The key assumption of public choice is
a comprehensive view of rationality. Instead of being motivated by the public
interest, bureaucrats, like anyone else, are assumed to be motivated by their own selfish interest. Public choice, provided alternatives, the most obvious being to allow competition and choice and to return as many activities as possible to the private sector (Hughes, 2003:11) 2. Principal/agent theory The economic theory of principal and agent has also been applied to the public sector, especially concerning its accountability. The theory was developed for the private sector to explain the divergence often found between the goals of managers (agents) in private firms and shareholders (principals). 3. Transaction cost theory The other key economic theory in the managerial changes. As set out by Williamson (1986), this challenges the notion that transactions are without cost and specifies the circumstances where a firm may prefer market-testing or contracting to inhouse provision. There are some transactions sectors for example constructing roads and highways, transportation, public-private partnership etc, which would be less costly if contracted out to reduce administrative costs and provide some competition 3. Technological change Technological change affects the management of government. Technological change has many facets which includes, as well as creation of new products, quality improvement and efficiency gains for existing products. Cars, lighting, computers, software - these and in fact nearly all products have been improving in quality while their manufacturing costs remain constant or decreasing; the economy is improving. Besides these General perspectivea) To the achievement of results and the personal responsibility of managers. b) To make organizations, personnel, and employment terms and conditions more flexible. c) organizational and personal objectives are to be set clearly and this enables measurement of their achievement d) Senior staffs are more likely to be politically committed to the government of the day rather than being non-partisan or neutral. e) Government functions are more likely to face market tests.
Features of New Public management
1. Professional management 2. Target base performance 3. Emphasis on output controls 4. Desegregation of the public sector units 5. Provision of contracts and tendering 6. A stress on private sector styles of management practice 7. A stress on greater discipline and parsimony in resource use 8. Flexibilities in staffing 9. Relationship with the politician 10.Relationship with the public These are explained belowProfessional management Professional management refers to administering the organization where the top management positions and even the lower management position are held by professional people whose who have professional qualifications, administrative and technical skills and also the good amount of experience in managing business affairs. It is the practice of invest financial professionals money or monitor securities and returns on behalf of individual investors, investment companies, or institutions. This is expected to contribute to the sufficient accountable administration (Ehsan and Naz, 2003:72). Target base performance Government organizations can arrange target performance, may be for individual employees, for departments or groups, or for all employees. This requires goals to be defined by the organization and then performance targets to be set, later defined as performance i n d i c a t o r s ( Ehsan and Naz, 2003). A key element of managing performance of the government is to set challenging but achievable targets against meaningful performance indicators. The achievement of these targets is a key element in an organization's duty to continually improve their services and to deliver their aims, objectives and priorities (Komur, 2010). Emphasis on output controls
Control-systems are mechanisms for adjusting course if performance falls outside
acceptable boundaries ( Davidson and Griffin, 2006), allowing adaptation to change. Control-systems i n c l u d e procedures for monitoring, directing, evaluating and compensating employees, and influencing behaviors with the objective of having the best impact on both firms and employees (Anderson and Oliver, 1987). Output-control induces compelling individual motivation in those non-producers receive n o c o m p e n s a t i o n (Anderson a n d O l i v e r , 1987). The output-control system i n t h e p u b l i cs e c t o r involves objective measuring of results with little direction, creating a semi-autonomous relationship with management. Emphasis on output controls means resources are directed to areas according to measured performance, because of the need to stress results rather than procedures. Desegregation of the public sector units This involves the breaking up of large entities into corporatized units around products, funded separately and dealing with one another on an arms-length 3 bases. Provision of contracts and tendering This involves the move to term contracts and public tendering procedures and is justified as using rivalry as the key to lower costs and better standards. These are supplied, service or public works contracts, into which the state, municipalities or federations of municipalities, and other contracting authorities, as defined in the procurement legislation, enter with external suppliers. Open competition is to be awarded by the public sector to private based on either the most economically advantageous tender or the lowest price. A stress on private sector styles of management practice Private sector style of management practice involves a move away from militarystyle to uphold service ethic and flexibility in hiring and rewards, and outlining some common business practices such as setting strategies and mission, preparing interest of shareholder and select a transparent fashion these that could encourage effectiveness and innovation in the public sectors. A stress on greater discipline and parsimony in resource use This means as cutting direct cost, raising labor discipline means everything from showing up to work on time not falling asleep on the job to carrying out supervisors instruction and improving job performance, limiting compliance cost including t h e value of taxpayer time and resources to business and is typically justified by the need to cheek resources demands of public sector and do more with less (Hughes, 2003: 53) Criticism of NPM Model
Holmes and Shand (1995) described NPM as a good managerial approach,
contending that a good managerial approach is result-oriented (efficiency, effectiveness and service quality). However, a number of criticisms have been leveled at NPM 1. Savoie (2002) and Singh (2003), who argue that NPM is basically flawed because private sector management practices are rarely adopted into government operations, 2. NPM is inappropriate for the public sector as it has more complex objectives, more intricate accountabilities and a more turbulent political environment than the private sector. 3. Cheung and Lee (1995) noted that NPM ideas have limitations in terms of using private techniques for the public sector. They argue that in the public sector there is not the same degree of freedom as there is in the private sector. 4. It is argued by Hughes (2003) that perhaps the new managerialism offers greater transparency so that unethical or corrupt behavior can be detected more easily; the greater stress on measurable performance may impose its own kind of behavioral standard. 5. NPM can undermine ethical standards and lead to corruption that increased managerial autonomy has brought blurred accountability and higher risk for public managers to become corrupt. 6. NPM reform model originated in a small group of rich countries, the model may not be directly transferred from them to poorer non-Western countries because of contrasting environmental features such as political culture and practice (Minogue, 2001a). 7. Polidano (1999) argued that the NPM does not suit developing countries since governments in these countries may lack the necessary expertise and have unreliable information systems. 8. Caiden and Sundaram (2004) noted along the same line that developing countries have lacked the resources and management capacity to adopt rather sophisticated NPM reforms. 9. The NPM principle of decentralization has diffused from rich countries into developing countries, governments in developing countries often retain centralized decision making. 10.Leading public managers still have authority to make all decisions within their organization. This centralized decision making can generate its own pressure for arbitrary action and corruption (World Bank, 1997).
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