bs2032 public sector management

BS2032 Public Sector Management

6:New Public Management

BS2032 Public Sector Management6:New Public Management

The New Right

• Was born from the experiences of the 1970’s in which we appeared to have ‘stagflation’ (stagnation+inflation)

• Argued that the growth of the public sector destroyed the disciplines of the market, led to inflation and economic decline


New Right Thinking

• Trust in the primacy of the market - ‘what could not be sold would be reformed’

• A belief in monetarist economic policies

• Privatise where possible i.e. ‘steering rather than rowing’

• Reduce public expenditure


‘New’ Public Management

• Adopt efficiency tools used by the private sector (used in Raynor scrutinies, Management Information Systems)

• Set specific performance targets and budgets

• Privatise to increase competition at national level

• Resort to Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT) at local level


New Public Management in Action

• Use of ‘quasi-markets’ e.g. in higher education, health

• Decentralisation e.g. through targets and contracts for service (refuse collection), LMS

• Emphasis on quality mechanisms (through Charters of various kinds)

• Emphasis on user/consumer responsiveness


‘Contracting out’

• Services would cost less and be provided more efficiently by the private sector

• Citizen’s Charters would safeguard the public interest

• ‘Care in the community’ indicated a partnership with the private sector


‘Contracting out’

• Job losses, worsening conditions of work (workers hired back at lower rates)

• Loss of accountability

• Search for profit would lower quality of service and increase risks of fraud and corruption

• Replaced by New Labour policy of ‘Best Value’


The logic of managerialism

• First are the ‘easier’ privatisation of the utilities (gas, water, electricity, telecommunications)

• Health, education, civil service itself became difficult because of strong public attachments

• Quality becomes a key word trying to link productivity with cost control


Neo-Taylorism

• Early approaches in setting targets, controlling costs etc, resemble Taylorism

• Control of targets was accompanied by de-control of employment relationships e.g. through contracting out principles

• But did this make services more efficient ?


The Quality dilemma

• How to achieve better/more reliable services at lower cost

• How to increase choice, consumer responsiveness in provision of service

• How to handle the ‘trade-off’ between these two values when the public demands better services but with no increases in taxation


The dilemma resolved ?

• Give control of services to those with most voice (deny service to those with little voice)

• Can service providers use quantitative indicators to disguise lack of ‘real’ quality ?

• ‘Arms-length’ approaches allows governments to take credit but to avoid blame


Assessment of New Public Management [1]

• Presentation and ‘consumer-care’ of many public services now much more self-evident

• It is possible to point to evidence that public services are more ‘productive’ e.g. better results in schools, more treated in hospitals

• Greater responsibility for services at local level


Assessment of New Public Management [2]

• Prominence given to competition as much to do with driving down unit costs as promoting quality

• Changes are predominantly manager-led rather than user-led (I.e. users respond to what managers have delivered)

• Does NPM only deliver to significant pressure groups (I.e. middle class voters)?

bs2032 public sector management

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