Search results

New public management (NPM) has transformed the public sector auditing context, although in quite different ways. Further, investigations into NPM’s impact on public sector auditors and audit institutions have been largely unconnected, with the exception of the critical examination of performance audits. We investigate the question of how public sector auditors’ roles and activities have changed as a result of NPM and later reforms.

We examine and synthesise public sector audit research examining reforms since the year 2000. The research presented considers changes to external and internal public sector audits as well as the development of public sector audit institutions – known as supreme audit institutions (SAIs).

Considerable changes have occurred. Many were influenced by NPM, but others have evolved from the eco-system of accounting, auditing and public sector management. External auditors have responded to an increase in demand for accountability. Additional management and governance techniques have been introduced from the private sector, such as internal auditing and audit committees. NPM has also led to conflicting trends, particularly when governments introduced competition to public sector auditing by contracting out but then chose to centralise to improve accountability. There is also greater international influence now through bodies like the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) and similar regional bodies.

NPM reforms and the eco-system have impacted public sector auditing. Sustainability reporting is emerging as an area requiring more auditing attention; auditors also need to continue to develop better ways to communicate with citizens. Further, research into auditing in non-Western nations and emerging technologies is also required, especially where it provides learnings around more valuable audit practices. Empirical evidence is required of the strengths and weaknesses of SAIs’ structural variety.

This paper aims to examine the complexity of administrative reform and its implications.

This paper is based on an extensive review of the literature.

The most conspicuous fashion might be new public management (NPM) and its successor, post-NPM. However, recent reforms which involve complexity created the challenge of “rational calculation” in terms of an understanding of administrative reform. The authors observe that the measure of coordination in a response to fragmentation increases complexity and the rationale behind that reform is based on the instrumental rationality. This hinders real meaning of administrative reform, thereby failing to provide lessons for the future administration. Whether market-based reform or neo-Weberian model of reform, the thing should be considered is the condition under which the reform works.

This paper reaffirms the importance of the political-bureaucratic system which has multi-functional nature and competing institutional values when the different recipes for reform are imported into different context and a compatibility test by leaders.

Compared with the worldwide reform trend of transcending new public management (NPM) during the past two decades, China's service-oriented government (SOG) reforms are a relatively different reform approach. After building an SOG was politically identified in 2004, China launched three rounds of SOG reforms in 2008, 2013 and 2018. The purpose of this article is to examine what is meant by China's SOG approach and analyze the reasons behind its emergence. In particular, it explores how this approach might be interpreted in NPM, and particularly post-NPM terms.

The main theoretical basis of the paper is three theoretical perspectives from organizational theory – the instrumental, cultural and myth perspectives, but more specifically, the concepts complexity and hybridity. The empirical examples are selected from the SOG reforms of 2008, 2013 and 2018. The data used are a combination of public documents and scholarly secondary literature.

This paper discusses the SOG approach in China as a response to the negative effects of NPM-related reforms and informed by the western post-NPM reforms. It contends that China's SOG is a complex and hybrid approach in which NPM and post-NPM elements coexist and their balance is different from the west.

Few authors have considered China's SOG approach in NPM and post-NPM terms. This paper contributes not only to a wider understanding of the ongoing SOG reform process in China, but also to the understanding of the relevance of public administration theories in a comparative perspective.

One of the insights gained from studying reforms in public organisations is that the political-administrative system is in a state of flux. Views of how to tackle problems and what the goals, solutions and consequences should be are changing when preconditions and constraints are changing. One important observation is that there is a mismatch between the way the public administration is organised in contemporary democracies and the wicked issues that the public sector organisations are set to handle. Big problems and tasks are seldom following organisational borders but are cutting across administrative levels, sectors and units, creating a lot of challenges for political and administrative leaders. Thus, there is a need for new steering mechanisms focusing on broad social outcomes to handle this challenge.

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the empirical results of NPM evaluations in Switzerland. A number of evaluation studies are available to perform this task. Second, we compare the results of NPM reforms in Switzerland with those from abroad. For the purposes of the comparison we use the Pollitt and Bouckaert (2000) overview of the results of NPM projects in ten countries. We devote the third part of the chapter to methodological considerations for evaluation of public management reform.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of new public management (NPM) as a major strategy for democratic police reform in transitioning, developing and post‐conflict nations.

The paper reviews the literature and history of the use of NPM in the public sector and policing in Western nations and considers its use in programs of police reform.

The review identifies that NPM can be used as a strategy in police reform and is able to be used in conjunction with policing approaches such as community‐oriented policing. However, the adoption of NPM must be culturally specific and implemented within local capability constraints.

Police reform, transparency and accountability are an important concern for all post‐conflict and transitioning police agencies; therefore, the findings of this research are useful for implementation or planning of police reform and restructuring programs.

With its focus on police management accountability in post‐conflict or transitioning nations, this article expands research on strategies of democratic police reform and capacity development.

A review of papers on public sector accounting in emerging economies, as published in the Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies' (JAEE) first decade.

A reflection on the issues covered and achievements made in the reviewed papers in the context of extant knowledge in this domain.

A majority of the research in JAEE is dominated by accounting reforms inspired by New Public Management (NPM). Performance management, budgeting and accrual accounting are the main topics in the reviewed research. NPM claims, which can range from usability and use of a new accounting repertoire to desirable impacts on efficiency and service delivery, are often not fulfilled. Many papers attempt to explain failing accounting innovations by the local context in which they are embedded, including political instability, poor governance and a lack of capabilities.

The paper reviews research in a niche journal, but the findings are related to wider public sector accounting literature.

Public sector practitioners, but also researchers, need to move away from a focus on public sector reforms due to contextual circumstances leading to built-in failures and concentrate instead on understanding how the accounting repertoire works in practice, including routes for improvements therein.

An original framework for analysing public sector accounting research in emerging economies is proposed, which, among others, distinguishes between various ambition levels for achieving NPM reforms.

The purpose of this paper was to examine the relationship between image, service satisfaction and public opinion towards reforms in public organizations and postulate a more detailed relationship among them. The concept “New Public Management” (NPM) was initially suggested in the literature sometime around the early 1990s (Aucoin, 1990; Hood, 1991). NPM-style reforms raised the flag of responsiveness to citizens and improved public satisfaction with the assumption that organizational image would also be positively affected by such reforms. Image, satisfaction and support in public sector reforms are, therefore, the major focus of this study.

The focus is on a major reform in the Israel electricity industry and data were collected from 500 respondents by telephone interviews.

The findings support the authors ' hypotheses concerning the major role of image and satisfaction in forming attitudes towards NPM-style reforms. However, beyond conventional direct effects, the authors point to the mediating effect of organizational image on the relationship between satisfaction and support for reforms.

First, other factors not included in the model may influence support for NPM-style reforms in public organizations. Second, the study focused on a single organization in one country only and a very specific culture. Finally, the study is cross-sectional and may suffer from common-method and common-source biases and for this reason, should be replicated to allow better generalization and firmer implications.

The findings about the preponderance of organizational image over service satisfaction can contribute to policymakers in their efforts to increase support for reforms among the public. The results demonstrate the strong relationship between organizational image and public opinion towards reform and the secondary effect of service satisfaction.

The centrality of organizational image as a core social focus for citizens as clients and for policymakers is highlighted in the discussion. It is maintained that NPM-style reforms in the social arena, and beyond, are predominantly affected by image. Therefore, there is a need to better understand how image affects social and economic reforms and attitudes towards those reforms and what may be the social consequences of such attitudes by citizens and by policymakers’ decisions.

The originality of this study is fourfold: a unique model of image, satisfaction and attitudes towards NPM-style reforms not been studied thus far is in its current form; exploring interrelations of citizens’ satisfaction, image of the public sector and calls for reforms and change in the market-like environment of the public sphere; a telephone survey of opinions towards a specific NPM-style reform; and a focus on a major public sector organization in Israel going through reform.

The purpose of this article is to discuss the idea that new public management (NPM) would be passé.

The article is based on a review of existing theories.

The article argues that NPM has two dimensions, namely the minimization of the role of government vis-à-vis society and the improvement of the internal performance of the public sector. Whereas the first dimension is indeed more and more disputed nowadays this does not imply this also goes for the second dimension. The conclusion of this article calls for explanatory empirical research in order to explain the increasing variance in reforms among countries, by investigating which factors are determinative for decisions by governments to turn one way or the other.

It is far from certain which way the public sector is heading in the so-called post-NPM era. Some countries are still implementing NPM-kind of reforms, either by downsizing or by introducing performance management. Other countries have chosen alternative paths. All this implies an increased variance between countries in the direction public sector reforms take. It requires quite different support from administrative sciences compared to the one-size-fits-all recommendations for public sector reforms – in conformity with the maxims of NPM – as witnessed in the past decades.

The article contributes to the discussion about the role of NPM today. It presents original conclusions about diverging developments based on the unique comprehensive literature review on the topic.

This paper examines whether public sector reforms in a developing country is consistent with the principles of new public management (NPM). It examines whether Indonesian public sector reforms from the late 1990s to 2015, specifically the adoption of accrual accounting, are motivated by NPM philosophy. Reviewing and analysing Government regulations and reports, the study finds that the reforms are an attempt to implement NPM, specifically in relation to five financial management aspects (i.e. market-oriented, budgeting, performance management, financial reporting and auditing systems). However, the reforms are inconsistent with the NPM philosophy of efficiency and effectiveness in public service provisions. By requiring the use of the existing system, the reforms actually created inefficiency. This research is novel in investigating the gap between 'ideal concepts' and examining practices in an emerging country context.