A Systematic Review of Structure, Culture, and Demography of New Public Management (NPM) in the Developing Countries

Antony Wafula Wanyonyi

doi:10.7176/dcs/9-12-06

Abstract

The paper assesses the effectiveness of NPM and its impacts with key consideration to culture, structure, and demography of developing nations. It blends the literature with cases and publications from the global organizations such as World Bank, United Nations, and International Monetary Fund (IMF). The study analyses the NPM reforms in Kenya which include budgeting, institutionalization and financial reporting, use of information systems, and changes in the management public finance. Increased transparency and accountability, public expenditures, and creation of agency problems are identified as the main impact of NPM on public governance. The literature also reveals that effective judicial system; efficient and control-oriented administrative system; and state capacity are some of the preconditions for NPM model. Onto to the factors affecting NPM implementation in the developing nations; it was found that limited resources, dispositions, the professional society, bureaucratic structure are the primary players. The article recommends institutionalization of code of ethics, balancing politics and bureaucracies, effective law enforcement, and implementation of NPM principles in phases as strategies to eliminate risk of failure. It then concludes that with increased pressure from the international donors, developing countries will continue adopting NPM framework into their public administrative systems. Keywords: NPM, public sector, institutionalization, bureaucracy, transparency and accountability, performance-based budgeting, organizational structure and culture. DOI : 10.7176/DCS/9-12-06 Publication date: December 31 st 2019

Highlights

A universal organization culture and structure across public institutions allows for benchmarking, performance measurement, and a unified change process
It is clear that reforms in the public sector rely heavily on a political champion
Regulations to control and regulate operations in public administration; most of these rules especially in developing countries are not put into practice

Summary

Introduction

The Australian and New Zealand governments soon followed and the success stories made the changes to be a center of focus for other countries (Groot & Budding, 2008) It was not until earlier 1990s that Owen Hughes and Christopher Hood defined and coined NPM model with specific features and elements. Ashraf & Uddin (2016); Lapsley (2008) and Diefenbach (2009) discuss four key NPM change mechanisms that have been supported by other studies: Introduction of general managers; entrepreneurship in the public sector; structural Reforms and introduction of performance measures. This is an indication that when NPM elements are well adopted, they are more likely to benefit the government and the public

NPM Model In Practice

Findings

Conclusions and Recommendations