Public Sector Reform. An International Perspective 2001

Citation

Oliver, S. (2002), "Public Sector Reform. An International Perspective 2001", Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 192-192. https://doi.org/10.1108/ccij.2002.7.3.192.1

As this journal went to press, there were complaints from British unions about what they see as the privatisation of Britain’s public services by stealth. After an evening spent with the British Prime Minister, the leader of Britain’s biggest public union, Unison, Dave Prentis was recently quoted as saying, “I can’t say anything was resolved” and warned of two years of conflict between Government and unions based on the British Government’s reform agenda for the public services. Martin Taylor, Institute for Public Policy Research Commission on Public/Private Partnerships (PPPs), added, “The crucial ingredient the private sector possesses and the public sector needs is management. Money is a secondary issue”.

If what he means by that is private involvement without privatisation, this book suggests a timely entrant by the publisher and authors.

It is an assertive, optimistic book that aims to understand the way change in numerous countries which, while giving the appearance of having similar economic and political systems, are reforming their public sector organisations as they “review their processes, analyse their goals and re‐evaluate their organisational structures in terms of efficient delivery of needed services” (p. xix). A total of 12 chapters and 17 co‐authors, including the editor, have concerned themselves with the “move away from traditional public sector administration models” to address reform.

The book centres around two themes, namely a new public management (NPM) model and change theory. NPM (sic) is explained as “changes to input, concentration on output, increased managerial accountability and a reduction in the scope of government agencies” (p. xxii). Four NPM models are proposed focusing on efficiency, a search for excellence, public service orientation, downsizing and decentralisation. These are linked to Dunphy and Stace’s (1992) change approach to participatory evolution, charismatic transformation, forced evolution, and dictatorial transformation.

There is an overview of public sector reform in the OECD as well as national public sector reform in the USA, Australia, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and Demark. There are a number of sectorial case studies, e.g. Gareth Parry, looking at reform of higher education in the UK, which shows that “in the face of new managerialism, academic establishments … remain capable of demonstrating a ‘contrafunctionlism’ in their professional and scholarly activities” (p.128).

The book addresses a number of high profile issues, such as electronic service delivery and renewed interest in public sector ethics and values. The authors clearly believe that market driven NPM as a concept is here to stay, even if there is no paradigm or model (p. 195). While recognising the diminuition of market ideology and the interest in new models of corporate governance, the book relies heavily on core organisational theory rather than empiricism and avoids the theory topic of globalisation.

The NPM paradigm appears to exclude operational public affairs tools and techniques from corporate communication. Given the fundamental importance of this variable to the whole international debate on public sector reform in terms of intelligence and knowledge management as it relates to corporate governance, it will be interesting to see if the structural perspective taken with this book will include process issues in the next edition.