New public management is a significant departure from the traditional
public administration approach to the delivery of government services.
"How policymakers should guide, manage, and oversee public
bureaucracies is a question that lies at the heart of contemporary
debates about government and public administration." The traditional
public administration approach emphasizes centralized and bureaucratic
delivery of services with little concern for how effectively the
citizen end customer receives services and an emphasis on achieving
low costs through competitive bidding without considering quality and
performance.
New public management seeks to inject the performance-oriented culture
of the private sector into the public sector by enacting structural
reforms. "In short, this new paradigm is characterized by following
nine main trends: 1) devolving authority, providing flexibility; 2)
ensuring performance, control, accountability; 3) developing
competition and choice, market-type mechanisms; 4) providing
responsive services, client orientation; 5) improving the management
of human resources; 6) optimising information technology; 7) improving
the quality of regulation; 8) strengthening the steering functions at
the centre; 9) private sector style management." Fundamentally, the
new public management approach is not about having government stop
providing certain services, but employing new approaches to provide
services better.
Important characteristics of new public management that differentiate
it from traditional public administration are its emphasis on the
importance of the citizen as a customer and accountability for
results. Decentralization of service delivery to promote a more
entrepreneurial culture is often an important aspect in structural and
organizational design. "...[A]lternative service delivery mechanisms,
including quasi-markets with public and private service providers
competing for resources from policymakers and donors" are often
employed to inject the vigor of the private marketplace into the
delivery of public services.
Where hierarchical bureaucracies and entrenched existing service
providers have been disregarded, new public management has often
delivered benefits. When targets are clearly defined,
"...policy-making is seen to be more focused, more rigorous, and
sometimes even more adventurous...." Furthermore, new public
management separates purchasing from policy-making, thereby
facilitating the introduction of "...contract-like arrangements to
provide performance incentives."
Public administration is far more concerned with centralized adherence
to procedures and purchasing services at the lowest apparent cost
without significant regard to quality and effectiveness. In many
cases, procedures are designed with little or no concern for their
impact on citizens when they attempt to engage with the bureaucracy to
obtain services.
By attempting to model the delivery of public services on the
considerably more dynamic private sector, new public management is a
significant departure from the traditional public administration
approach. Viewing the citizen receiving services as a customer
meriting the organization's primary focus, decentralizing authority,
and introducing competition and performance incentives into contracts
in the governmental purchasing process strongly differentiates new
public management from public abministration.
Sincerely,
Wonko
Sources:
"The New Public Management" The University Of California Press
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/8969.html
"Implications of New Public Management Theory in the Research
Services" By Aare Kasemets, 66th IFLA Council and General Conference
(May 23, 2000) http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla66/papers/073-98e.htm
"The New Public Management & its Legacy" By Nick Manning, The World
Bank Group (October 3, 2000)
http://www1.worldbank.org/publicsector/civilservice/debate1.htm
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