looking at public administrati... free essay sample

looking at public administration one of the biggest theories is New Public Management (NPM). This new model was used by former british prime minister Margaret Thatcher, NPM is used by governments around the planet and really is one of the more influential organization theories. NPM was made to counter deficit and debt problems of governments, the distrust of the government , and globalization which led to the decline of a new economic order (Inwood, 2012). There are many things that are appealing about new public management; it ensures the bureaucracy does not grow to powerful, downsizing of the government to lighten financial deficits, and being a result oriented is also key to NPM. One of the biggest attraction to NPM has to do with the lack of confidence in state bureaucracy due to its overall weaknesses and failures. Although these allegations against state bureaucracy were always there in the past, the intensity of such anti-bureaucratic rhetoric was significantly increased during the 1980s and 1990s by the market-friendly ruling parties in advanced capitalist nations (Haque, 2009). It was a goal of governments to make the public service more business like and blame public service. NPM caught on further and built wide support by usinWhen g catchy slogans and images to mask reality (Zavattaro, 2014). Relentlessly being under fire, the change to a NPM system was inevitable. the tarnished image of the public service was reinforced further as most governments began to hold the expansive public sector responsible for causing budget deficits and fiscal crisis, and introduced market-driven policies and structural reforms in line with the NPM model. (Haque, 2009). When NPM was first coming out politicians would blame public servants for worsening socio economic problems to make themselves look good to the public, along with the change in political ideology, after reviewing the states role and with the increase of the influence of the private sector (Gal, 2014). The focus was on making the public services more like the private sector by remaking public services views that of business management views; to be more competitive, productive, efficient, creative and customer-friendly. (Haque, 2009).Traditional Bureaucracy worked well in the early 1900s, but in a world where information manipulates economy and instant communication from around the world, it is often criticized for being too big and too slow (Inwood, 2006). Bureaucracy is meant to control workers from the top of a hierarchy, but sending messages down to the bottom and back up to the top takes too long and it ends up delaying reactions to any situation.Another concern was that the public servants had grown too powerful, even more so than politicians. While the state bureaucracy is important, they should not have more power then our elected officials, while our government got so complex the public service was working against a countrys leadership (Inwood, 2012). The governments ov er emphasis on following rules, rather than setting goals based of what is needed, NPM is geared toward market competition based on businesslike values rather than democratic values (Zavattaro, 2014). When changing the public service to follow a more business like model, it is no surprise one of the main goals for NPM is to have better cost management. While politicians focus on goals service production and delivery in the public sector should be like a market; this would increased efficiency and lower costs to the government, and the taxpayer. Downsizing government was the goal for the public service when it comes to NPM, reducing the budget and cutting cost due to rising debts or government deficits was important when NPM first came out and still is a concern. NPM suggests that the activities of public sector organizations should be marketized, i.e. that organizations should define products and services which are sold to customers. (Verbeteen, 2011). The idea is commercialization of public service, privatization, deregulation and contracting out. Rivalry due to competition is a to lower costs, offer better quality and starts to treat citizens as customers giving them more choice that was lacking before. (Inwood, 2012). Responsibility,accountability and ?exibility are also key parts of NPM. With one of NPM main focuses being on cost management, responsibility plays a big role in ensuring individual responsibility, human resource responsibility, as well as being responsible for maintaining a budget. ensuring that every person does their job, every customer is happy and that you dont go over budget is vital. Since everyone is responsible for their actions in NPM, it makes everybody accountable for what they are doing (Mader, Mields Volmberg, 2007). NPM tries to replace controlling the process with controlling results. Being accountable is an added benefit of the NPM, instead of the state bureaucracy measuring own input, the risk of losing a contract based on lack of output will make those do the job work harder and smarter. The Flexibility of NPM is another reason people are attracted to NPM, it gives managers the ability to quickly respond to customer needs, as well as encouraging managers to be creative and take more risks. ?exibility in work performance and objectives while at the same time personal responsibility, performance and motivation are increased (Mader, Mields Volmberg, 2007).international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund would disseminate NPM ideas across the developing world. NPM became a key component in the structural adjustment programs promoted by these organizations. (Curran Verger, 2013). the influence of these institutions also played a role in the spread of NPM, believing the more macro-economic stability prescriptions to be effective. Though it is usually a economic or financial crisis that would bring forth reforms, some social democratic governments in scandinavian countries have adopted NPM ideas that originally came as a way to try to modernize public education, public health or the pension system, bring about more choice for those who need it (Curran Verger, 2013). Another reason NPM spread like it did was its intent to include all citizens. government ought to be community-owned and that the role of government is to empower citizens and communities to exercise self-governance. (Miller Dunn 2006). Instead of having citizens as just recipients of public services they can engaged in the process of deciding what those services look like. NPM should get the active participation of the biggest number of people and institutions in the decision-making proce ss. This local community decides how and what services are being delivered (Miller Dunn 2006)