Public Services
How has New Public management (NPM) affected the public services?
To what extent has its impact been beneficial?
The development of ‘new public management’ (hereafter NPM) over the past 20 years is one of the most striking international trends in public administration. It is important to mention that the rise of NPM is linked with other four megatrends in that period, namely:
- Attempts to slow down government growth and spending (Dunsire and Hood 1989 cited in Hood 1991, p.3);
- The move towards privatisation and quasi-privatisation (Dunleavy 1989, p.242);
- The development of automation and IT (Hood 1991, p.3);
- The development of international agenda, focusing on general discussions of public management, policy design and so on (Hood 1991, p.3).
The key principle of NPM is that the work of government should be organised in the way market institutions function: be competitive, earn more rather than simply spend, be decentralised, focus on outcomes rather than process and rules, enable ‘customers to make choices’ (Osborne and Gaebler, 1993, p.284). The main objective of this essay is to discuss how the public services were affected by New Public Management and analyze to what extent its impact has been beneficial.
First of all, this essay will briefly look at how the new model of public sector management differentiates against the traditional notion of bureaucracy by exploring the key motivations for emergence of New Public Management, and evaluating the main features of market-based form of public management. Then it will go on to examine how key principles of NPM have been applied to the structure and the way services are managed on the examples of Education, NHS and Social Care.
Next aim of my essay is to critically assess the notion that the market-based and competitive model of public services management will be successfully implemented in “every institution in today’s world from public to private” (Osborne and Gaebler, 1993,
To what extent has its impact been beneficial?
The development of ‘new public management’ (hereafter NPM) over the past 20 years is one of the most striking international trends in public administration. It is important to mention that the rise of NPM is linked with other four megatrends in that period, namely:
- Attempts to slow down government growth and spending (Dunsire and Hood 1989 cited in Hood 1991, p.3);
- The move towards privatisation and quasi-privatisation (Dunleavy 1989, p.242);
- The development of automation and IT (Hood 1991, p.3);
- The development of international agenda, focusing on general discussions of public management, policy design and so on (Hood 1991, p.3).
The key principle of NPM is that the work of government should be organised in the way market institutions function: be competitive, earn more rather than simply spend, be decentralised, focus on outcomes rather than process and rules, enable ‘customers to make choices’ (Osborne and Gaebler, 1993, p.284). The main objective of this essay is to discuss how the public services were affected by New Public Management and analyze to what extent its impact has been beneficial.
First of all, this essay will briefly look at how the new model of public sector management differentiates against the traditional notion of bureaucracy by exploring the key motivations for emergence of New Public Management, and evaluating the main features of market-based form of public management. Then it will go on to examine how key principles of NPM have been applied to the structure and the way services are managed on the examples of Education, NHS and Social Care.
Next aim of my essay is to critically assess the notion that the market-based and competitive model of public services management will be successfully implemented in “every institution in today’s world from public to private” (Osborne and Gaebler, 1993,