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The private sector's revelation: How to introduce commercial management concepts in the new public management?
New Public Management (NPM) is a management method used to run public service organizations, which has won the attention of government agencies around the world, especially in industrialized countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States.In the 1980s, the term was first proposed by scholars in the UK and Australia, aiming to make public services more "commercial" and improve efficiency through private sector management models.
Under the framework of the new public administration, citizens are regarded as “customers” and public waiters are regarded as public managers.
NPM advocates try to use a decentralized service delivery model to give local agencies more freedom in providing plans or services.In some cases, NPM reforms using e-government have concentrated procedures or services in a central location to reduce costs.Some governments have even adopted a quasi-market structure that has to compete with the private sector, especially in the UK's healthcare sector.The core themes of these reforms include financial control, value enrichment, efficiency improvement, goal setting and continuous performance monitoring.
For example, some reforms in NPM have begun to use private companies to provide former public services and have senior management withdrawn from collective agreements in favor of short-term contracts and individual reward programs.This approach allows public institutions to refer to corporate governance models and adopt the form of a board of directors for strategic guidance.Over time, the NPM approach has been used by more and more countries to reform the public sector and its policies, and promoters of these reforms believe it is a way to achieve more efficient and effective outcomes.
Public managers under the new public management have greater freedom of decision making and can provide customers with a range of choices, including even the right to completely abandon the service delivery system.
In the NPM operation model, public managers’ motivations rely more on incentive mechanisms, such as paying for performance, and often establish clear performance goals that are evaluated through key performance indicators.This is very different from the traditional public management model, which relies primarily on regulations, legislation and administrative procedures to guide decision-making and policy formulation.
Evolution process
New public management was first carried out policy reforms under the leadership of the Thatcher government in the UK, covering a number of areas, including organizational methods, public expenditure plans and financial management.The subsequent John Major administration promoted this on this basis and implemented a number of reforms such as the "Next" plan and the National Citizen Charter.This series of public management changes has also been inspired in other countries, forming a new public management trend around the world.
In the 1990s, new public management became the "gold standard" of administrative reform.
The impact of globalization
NPM reforms initially implemented in English-speaking countries have inspired similar reforms around the world that are adapted under specific circumstances in different countries to address their own unique challenges.For example, when European countries implemented NPM, Germany's reforms were mainly due to dissatisfaction with the traditional bureaucracy, while the Netherlands' reforms were due to the demand for fiscal policy strategies.In Africa, reform is driven mainly by problems such as bureaucratic corruption and governance dysfunction.
At present, especially in developing countries, NPM still has great promotion potential and is closely related to the country's ability to participate in the global economy.Although NPM was once born in the context of improving public sector efficiency and reducing costs, the areas that countries focus on in specific reforms vary.
For example, in South Africa and Zambia, independent tax agencies were mainly created to promote accountability.
The Problems and Future of New Public Management
Although new public administration achieved significant influence in the 1990s, over time, scholars began to question its disconnect with citizen needs.Scholars such as Patrick Dunleavy believe that with the advancement of science and technology, NPM is gradually being replaced by new methods such as new public services and governance in the digital age, which pays more attention to the convenience and accuracy brought by informatization and technology.
These new examples not only challenge the traditional NPM concept, but also emphasize the democracy of public administration and its interaction with citizens.Should contemporary countries continue to rely on traditional NPM, or should they enter a new era of governance with the democratization of science and technology?
