A Paradigm Shift Marker in Public Administration - Report Example

New Public Management: A Paradigm Shift Marker in Public Administration Abstract It is a datum of experience that in the scene of human existence, nothing stays static. Similar is the case with the approaches adopted in the public sector business where the previously viable administrative approach has grown obsolete thereby making a way for the modern management concept. The paper delves into the reformative role of the New Public Management and its success in bringing a paradigm shift in the world of Public Administration. After a profound study of the two approaches, the paper points out the distinctiveness of the New Public Management thereby concluding it as the most workable approach in the discipline of Public Administration. New Public Management: A Paradigm Shift Marker in Public Administration: Hughes claimed that the rise of New Public Management marks a 'paradigm shift' in the theory and practice of Public Administration. This claim was based on the reformative features of the former as compared to that of the latter. Dele Olowu views the functional importance of New Public Management in a similar frame of thought. In accordance with his paper ‘New Public Management: An African Reform Paradigm?’, “NPM (New Public Management) has made an important contribution to Public Administration in practically all countries (Olowu: 2002, p.65).” The management paradigm in the public sector emerged as a reform in the field of Public Administration. With the New Public Management, the management approach promises a great deal of amelioration by replacing the traditionally practiced administration approach. Although originated as an offshoot of Public Administration, the new Public Administration provides a greater space for public involvement thereby making it a more successful approach in the public sector. Keeping in mind the greater efficiency of management approach in comparison to the administration approach, various institutions have been shifting to the practice of New Public Management from the traditional Public Administration (Lane: 1994, p.139). Public Administration and New Public Management: Management and Administration are reckoned as few of the most significant units of any business organization. Since the gist of the topic lies in a study of reformative role of public management in the discipline of Public Administration, it is mandatory to build a fundamental understanding of the two concepts before drawing any comparison between them on the basis of which the supremacy of any one concept on the other can be proved. Public Administration: The concept of Public Administration emerged in the first few decades of the twentieth century. It was the urbanization in the American part of the world that stimulated the emergence and later the advancement of Public Administration (Lynn: 1996, p.25). Just like any other theory, the concept of Public Administration is not devoid of certain elements. Miller and Dunn bring into discussion four basic principles of Public Administration concept. The first principle emphasizes the reliability and predictability of public services which means that the governing forces should act under the rule of law with a discrete administrative process which is fair. The principle also focuses on the presence of professional integrity on the part of the government. The second principle involves the issue of transparency which means that all the functions and operations of the organization or governing body should be open to the public and no operations should be out of their reach of knowledge. This principle makes the governing force approachable for scrutiny. Often misperceived as an act of involving public in the organizational set up, this principle does not favour the participation but only provides a controlling command to the concerned parties for the governing body. The third principle is a prolongation of the second principle and focuses on the issue of accountability of the governing force. Stated differently, this principle proposes that the governing body is not the be all and end all in performing its functions but can be held accountable for its decisions. According to Rutgers and Schreurs, the accountability agents can be judicial, legislative or administrative. The fourth and last principle of Public Administration pertains to effectiveness and efficiency of the results of Public Administration. New Public Management: “It (…) challenges the notion of a traditional hierarchical organizational chart where the pyramid places the managers at the top and the workers at the bottom (Miller and Dunn: 2006, p.7).” The New Public Management approach turns the hierarchy of the organization upside down by considering the lower staff that carries the goods and services to the customers as the key to the organizational success. By this, the organization not only encourages them but also increases the productivity of the company. The concept is somehow coalesced with that of delegation of responsibility in the vertical order. The Rise of New Public Management: Emerged in 1980s in the economically advanced countries of the world, the New Public Management reformed the Public Administration approach at a great pace. According to the findings of Hughes, it was in early 1990s that the developing countries started to adopt the approach of New Public Management in the public sector (Samaratunge & Bennington: 2002, p.88). Today it is practiced in the low income countries too. According to Sandford Borins, a Professor of Public Management at the University of Toronto, there are three major factors that served as the impetus for the rise of New Public Management as a paradigm shift in Public Administration. These three factors were economic pressures, high-level political commitment to change, and a set of ideas to shape change. To substantiate the finding, the author provides an instance of the United Kingdom and New Zealand. Both these nations were facing the economic pressure before the adoption of New Public Management. The factor of commitment to change and the availability of innovative and clear ideas in the United Kingdom were prominent under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher who served as the key agent in bringing the reformative shift in the country (2000). The reason behind the tremendous and quick spread of the concerned approach also involved the unique and reformative nature of its principles that entered the public sector in a more mingling fashion (Olowu: 2002, p. 65). Principles of New Public Management: New Public Management is a modern reflection of the Public Management concept. According to Miller and Dunn, the concept of New Public Management emerged as a set of operational principles proposed by Osborne and Gaebler. Their joint writing ‘Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit Is Transforming the Public Sector’ introduced these principles with a view of providing solutions for the inadequate functioning of the government that was fostering the trends against democracy and efficiency. Having its roots associated with the notion of a bonding between individuals and society, the concept also invited the process of outsourcing the public for the better working of a governmental body (2006, p.2). Principles of New Public Management and their role in bringing the paradigm shift: It is through the profound analysis of the New Public Management concept that its role in bringing a shift for Public Administration can be judged. It is therefore mandatory to study the key principles of New Public Management concept and see the concept’s prospects of revolutionary shift in the light of the ten principles proposed by Osborne and Gaebler. Some of the most important principles pertaining to the reformative role of New Public Management in Public Administration are discussed below, One important principle rejects the idea of the government as a solitary authoritative body and fosters the idea of a community based government that values and emphasizes on the interest of the governed public. The government in this regard has to process the delegation of responsibility towards the citizens that is to empower them in governing themselves on their own. This notion was a revolution in the policies regarding administration that carried on the process of monitoring through a single authority with little if any rights given to the citizens to be a part of the governing decision. Today many organizations are encouraging both vertical and horizontal discharge of responsibility which implies the value the company gives to the staff thereby motivating them for increasing performance. The third principle of New Public Management introduces the concept of competition. The philosophy behind this principle is that competition helps in bringing up better performance and innovative ideas for the provision of public services. In this way everyone puts ones very best and the best performances are provided. The fourth principle by Osborne and Gaebler is mission oriented and focuses on the activities that are directly coalesced with the mission of the organization. Therefore, the redundant policies and laws should be made obsolete which means that the focus of the performance is narrowed down to the specific policies that are primary in bringing the lucrative results. The fifth principle is also mission focussed and profit oriented. It considers the success of organizations in terms of profitability rather than the other features like organizational set up, resources and staff. This is because the ultimate aim of any organization is the success which is greatly marked by the profit that organization has made through a particular amount of time. The sixth principle of this approach is humanitarian and sees the consumers of the product of the business company as the customers. The difference between consumers and customers is that the former does not have a choice which the latter has in terms of selecting the product of any company in the market competition. One of the principles by these two authors that truly reflect the public oriented approach of New Public Management is that more and more people should be aimed to participate in making decisions about the goods and the ways in which they are provided. In this way the consumers become a part of the administrative force thereby enhancing the revolutionary shift in the field of Public Administration. Comparative analysis of Public Administration and New Public Management: To prove any particular approach as a reform to any other approach, it is mandatory to point out the distinguishing features of the new approach. The goal of both the Public Administration and the New Public Management is the attention drawn towards the public and to make the administrative and management functions more efficient by giving importance to the public on which the success of any business organization heavily depends. But at the same time the approach of public orientation in both cases is different. One key aspect that generally serves as the contrastive characteristic between the two approaches is the ability of empowering public by involving them in the process of decision making. Jan-Erik Lane in ‘Will Public Management drive our Public Administration?’ provides a contrastive table between the concepts of management and administration in the public sector. The first difference pointed out by the writer is that of rules and objectives. While the Public Administration focuses on a predefined set of rules, New Public Management encourages flexibility and adaptation to reach ones objective so that the rules can be altered. This feature of New Public Management avoids digression in achieving the ultimate goal of the organizations thereby providing a reform in administrative approach. The second difference drawn by Lane is the administrative due process versus managerial efficiency. Similarly, the feature of innovation invited by New Public Management through competition also marked as a key feature in making it a revolutionary shift from the traditional formalism (Lane: 1994, p.144). Ferlie et al. identified four distinctive models of New Public Management. One of these models clearly relates to the success and reformative function of the approach in comparison to the traditional administrative approach previously practiced in the public sector organizations. According to Ferlie ‘The efficiency drive’ model of New Public Management focuses on the increased performance on the basis of greater customer focus and a shift of power from professionals to management (O'Donnell, Allan & Peetz: 1999, p. 3). In comparison to the traditional administrative approach which paid little if any importance to the customers, the New Public Management approach marked a revolutionary reform in public sector. Conclusion: “Shifting control way the top and center has the affect of empowering organizations, employees and communities to engage in the deciding of the things that governments do and the outcomes that they achieve (Miller and Dunn: 2006, p.8).” Analyzing the features of Public Administration and New Public Management approach in the public sector organization, the reformative function of the former approach cannot be denied. Although the two terms are often reckoned as overlapping, there are some distinctive features of the New Public Management which makes it more viable and preferable for the implementation in the modern world scenarios where the traditional approaches with focus on single authoritative body have grown obsolete. In the contemporary world the governing bodies and organizations have realized the importance of public and many consider the new management approach as the only way of satisfying the public thereby ensuring their success which heavily depends on the response from the public. References: Borins, Sandford (2000). New Public Management, North American Style. University of Toronto [Internet]. Available from [Accessed 15 August 2008] Lane, Jan-Erik (1994). Will Public Management drive out Public Administration? Asian Journal of Public Administration. Vol. 16 (2). pp. 139 – 151. Lynn Jr, Laurence E. (1996). Public Management as Art, Science and Profession. Chatham, NJ. Chatham House Publishers Miller, David Y. & Dunn, William N (2006). A critical theory of New Public Management. United Nations Public Administration Network [Internet]. Available from [Accessed 15 August 2008] O'Donnell, Michael, Allan, Cemeron & Peetz, David (1999). The New Public Management and Workplace change in Australia. [Accessed 15 August 2008] Olowu, Dele (2002). New Public Management: An African Reform Paradigm? Africa Development. Vol. 27 (3 & 4). pp. 1- 16. Samaratunge, Ramanie & Bennington, Lynne (2002). New Public Management: Challenge for Sri Lanka. Asian Journal of Public Administration. Vol. 24 (1). Pp. 87 – 109. Read More