Financial Delegation system in the Context of New Public Management: Evidence from an Australian Public Sector Organization

This paper contributes to the study of financial management in public sector organization in the context of New Public Management (NPM). It deploys an earnest attempt to explore the financial delegation system in the context of NPM initiatives in Australia. A government department in the Australian Capital Territory has been adopted as the field for investigation. The nature of the present research is explorative and the focus of this research is to study in depth of a particular phenomena. Qualitative research methodology was chosen to obtain a better understanding of the phenomena. Case-based research method was used in developing a fuller understanding of the relative role of financial delegation system in the management of organisational performance. In this study, data collection involved a triangulation approach and the three sources were archival records, interviews and observation. As financial delegation system is socially constructed, Giddens’ structuration theory was adopted in this research to obtain a better understanding of human actions and to explore how these control devices are implicated in the wider social context through time. Empirical evidence from the field supported that the selected researched organisation has adopted a wide range of financial delegation mechanisms within the organization. The research also demonstrated that the implementation of financial delegation system in the selected organization is the function of NPM in the key areas of financial management. These findings are consistent with the view that NPM promotes a culture of performance in Australian public sector.