{"title":"Is the Emperor In His Underwear?","authors":"C. Pollitt","doi":"10.1080/14719030000000009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14719030000000009","url":null,"abstract":"This paper assesses our state of knowledge concerning the ‘New Public Management’ (NPM) reforms which seem to have been launched in so many countries. In the first section it appraises the types of materials available as a basis for such an assessment. It then considers, and rejects, the thesis that, because of the improved performance they bring, these reforms are global in reach and inevitable in nature. Subsequently, the main part of the paper assesses the available evidence with respect to a number of key dimensions of reform impacts. It concludes that, while there is evidence of specific improvements in particular instances, the general case for NPM as a solution to diverse problems of governance in many different countries is far less firmly established than is commonly supposed.","PeriodicalId":109930,"journal":{"name":"Public Management: An International Journal of Research and Theory","volume":"40 4","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2000-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132738474","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Managing and Concluding the Pfi Process for a New High School","authors":"R. Ball, Maryanne Heafey, D. King","doi":"10.1080/14719030000000008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14719030000000008","url":null,"abstract":"This article reports the findings from an in-depth investigation of a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) project to replace a local authority high school. Through a combination of participant observation, semi-structured interviewing and document review, the research seeks to establish whether the belief that the PFI will result in cost-effective innovative design and operation and maintenance cost savings is justified. The findings suggest little evidence of innovation on the part of the private sector. This observation has implications for the comparative cost of the PFI vis-a-vis traditional public sector procurement, given that innovation (on the part of the private sector) is believed to be one of the key drivers of cost savings. In addition the article makes recommendations with regard to best practice in management and completion of PFI projects with reference to issues around consultation, planning, finance and service delivery.","PeriodicalId":109930,"journal":{"name":"Public Management: An International Journal of Research and Theory","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2000-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128665329","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Local Government Management","authors":"John Wilson, A. Doig","doi":"10.1080/14719030000000004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14719030000000004","url":null,"abstract":"In the United Kingdom (UK), the Labour Government is seeking to achieve fundamental change in the way local authorities are led and managed. To this end, it has introduced political and managerial reforms, central to which is the concept of ‘best value’. This new agenda, to which local authorities must respond, builds upon the changes which resulted from the Conservative era 1979–1997. Although Labour has abolished the centrepiece of Conservative policy towards local government, i.e. compulsory competitive tendering (CCT), Labour shares the belief of successive Conservative governments that local authorities must radically improve the way services are delivered. This article considers the nature of the changed local government environment in the UK, including the role, policy and service provision debates which have occurred in local government. It provides a conceptual framework within which to consider the degree of change which has occurred in local authority management. A typology of responses to change and a model by which past and future change may be gauged are suggested.","PeriodicalId":109930,"journal":{"name":"Public Management: An International Journal of Research and Theory","volume":"68 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2000-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121962207","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Decentralization, the New Public Management, and The Changing Role of The Public Sector In Africa","authors":"K. Hope, B. C. Chikulo","doi":"10.1080/14719030000000002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14719030000000002","url":null,"abstract":"The role of the public sector in most countries around the world is changing both with respect to public service delivery and the stimulation of economic progress. That change, which was occasioned by the need for policy reform, has resulted in what is now termed ‘the new public management’, reflecting a movement away from the old values and norms of public sector administration. This article examines and analyses the concept of decentralization and its relevance to the changing role of the public sector, within the context of ‘the new public management’. and with special reference to Africa. The perspective of the article assumes that the new public management provides an appropriate framework for responding to the efficient delivery of public services in Africa.","PeriodicalId":109930,"journal":{"name":"Public Management: An International Journal of Research and Theory","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2000-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133921849","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Measuring the Performance of Voluntary Organizations","authors":"J. Kendall, M. Knapp","doi":"10.1080/14719030000000006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14719030000000006","url":null,"abstract":"In the current political and economic climate, there are rapidly escalating demands from public funders and other stakeholders for indicators which can capture the achievements and impacts of the voluntary sector. Having clarified the context of these demands, the primary aim of this article is to develop criteria for measuring the ‘performance’ of voluntary organizations. This is undertaken by marrying relevant international theoretical literature suggestive of their roles and contributions with a ‘production of welfare’ approach, which has a proven track record in the evaluation of human services. Eight domains of performance are suggested (economy, effectiveness, efficiency; choice/pluralism; equity; participation; innovation and advocacy), embracing twenty-two separate indicator sets.","PeriodicalId":109930,"journal":{"name":"Public Management: An International Journal of Research and Theory","volume":"368 ","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2000-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"120877515","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Best Value For All?","authors":"Steve Marlin, J. Hartley","doi":"10.1080/14719030000000003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14719030000000003","url":null,"abstract":"The Best Value regime, which is being introduced in the UK from April 2000, is rooted in the ‘new public management’ paradigm but also seeks to move beyond it. Like compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) which preceded it, the Best Value framework stresses the role of markets and performance management systems in the provision of public services. However, it appears to offer more scope for local flexibility, and has therefore enjoyed a much higher level of support among local policy makers. There is though evidence that many in local government have not yet grasped the scale of the improvements in local services that ministers are expecting, and the extent to which this will require changes in existing structures and processes. The result is likely to be an increasingly differentiated pattern of service provision and, in an era of ‘evidence policy making’, researchers are likely to be called upon to develop methodologies which allow evaluation of the alternative models of service provision that begin to emerge.","PeriodicalId":109930,"journal":{"name":"Public Management: An International Journal of Research and Theory","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2000-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115015808","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Between Fragmentation and Coordination","authors":"S. Montin","doi":"10.1080/14719030000000001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14719030000000001","url":null,"abstract":"The article describes recent development in the Swedish local government system. This is made through four different ‘organizing perspectives’. Three organizing perspectives challenge the model of local popular government. The functional challenge focuses on the market orientation, which means that nearly all sorts of public activities should be put on the market according ti the belief that competition is the most important motor of public economy. The communitarian challenge focuses on the social and political order of user and citizen organizations in relation to the municipal organization, which can be viewed in terms of the relation between small-scale democracy and the large-scale democracy. Finally, the idea of governance structures focuses on how to mobilize and integrate different types of resources across borders within the public sector and between public and private institutions. By using the different organizing perspectives it is shown that the development of local politics and democracy is driven by different ideas. Experiences from reforms, which are related to these ideas, are presented. The article concludes by pointing out some important challenges for future development of local democracy in Sweden.","PeriodicalId":109930,"journal":{"name":"Public Management: An International Journal of Research and Theory","volume":"81 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2000-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126272759","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Making Government Volunteering Policies More Effective","authors":"J. Brudney, A. Williamson","doi":"10.1080/14719030000000005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14719030000000005","url":null,"abstract":"Faced with declining civic trust on the one hand and increasing fiscal stringency on the other, many governments have issued policies to encourage volunteering, or to mandate departments and agencies to recruit and involve volunteers in their work. Little research has been undertaken to follow up on these initiatives. This article reports the results of a study comparing two health and social service trusts in Northern lreland with respect to their response to governmental policies to incorporate volunteers into the provision of health and social service care. The study examines the priority accorded by the trusts to the implementation of these policies; the support they give to volunteer administration and management and the missing links in this process. A central theme of the study is the role played by the volunteer co-ordinator in promoting and sustaining a volunteer programme in the trust. The article first examines the policy context for volunteering in Northern lreland and indicates how policy was implemented in the health and social service trusts. The article then turns to the research design and methodology used in the study. Following a presentation of the findings, the article concludes with a discussion of the findings and their Implications for research and practice in the implementation of statutory volunteer policy.","PeriodicalId":109930,"journal":{"name":"Public Management: An International Journal of Research and Theory","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2000-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129490992","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}