TY  - JOUR
AB  - Examines the move towards a commercialized, economically driven, health
sector in New Zealand. Reforms involve extensive organizational
rearrangements and the creation of profit‐driven businesses in place of
public hospitals. These institutional rearrangements involve the
fabrication of new ways of accounting. Attempts to understand the
processes involved in the development of information technologies before
they become accepted “facts” of organizational life. The fabrication of
new technologies cannot be understood as an autonomous sphere of
activity, but has to be understood as part of a complex series of
political, economic and organizational contexts. Accountants are viewed
not as mere technicians reporting on what is, but as active agents
contributing to change. Accounting often acts as an arbiter in social
conflict. Nowhere is this more evident than in the way it is being
called upon to assist in the implementation of clause 25 of the Health
and Disability Services Bill, which requires hospitals in New Zealand to
act as competitive profit motivated commercial enterprises while at the
same time meeting unspecified social obligations. The creation of a
pseudo‐market for health services presents a challenge not only for
accountants, but for all New Zealand citizens. The outcomes of the
radical reforms are uncertain and some fear that the massive
restructuring is in the form of an experiment. It is based on an
ideology lacking empirical support. In the end it may be shown to have
been impractical in the New Zealand context.
VL  - 7
IS  - 3
SN  - 0951-3574
DO  - 10.1108/09513579410064123
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/09513579410064123
AU  - Lawrence Stewart
AU  - Alam Manzurul
AU  - Lowe Tony
PY  - 1994
Y1  - 1994/01/01
TI  - The Great Experiment: Financial Management Reform in the NZ Health Sector
T2  - Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal
PB  - MCB UP Ltd
SP  - 68
EP  - 95
Y2  - 2024/04/20
ER  -