Does New Public Management Practices Lead to Effective Public Welfare Responses in Pakistan

Abstract

Abstract. New Public Management is used to regulate government policies meant to enhance performance of public sector that ultimately facilitates general public interest and improve their living standards. New Public Management is inevitable as under this approach modern governments are inclined to bring reforms in an effort to improve efficiency and effectiveness of public sector by adopting private sector practices. Pakistan is also influenced by NPM as reforms in public sector have been developed and implemented to some extent with weak claims of improved performance. The lack of actual improvement in performance raises many questions on the effectiveness of NPM implementation in Pakistan. This study aims to explore these questions by measuring factors influencing performance of public sector organizations in Pakistan. This study adopted quantitative approach to conduct an empirical investigation. Research framework includes major factors of NPM based on literature. Data was collected using adopted questionnaires for each variable. Survey was done from a sample taken from public sectors enterprises in Punjab province under random sampling technique. Data was analyzed using various statistical techniques. Demographics were analyzed in the form of descriptive statistics. Research variables were analyzed using Multiple Regression analysis and Pearson Correlation analysis. Regression assumptions were tested which were fulfilled. Reliability and validity were also tested. Findings show that both “Democratization and Participation (Involvement in Decision Making)”; and “Customer Concept (Customer Orientation)” have positive influence on performance under NPM. Whereas interestingly “Decentralization (Delegation)” has negative influence on performance under NPM as a result of resistance of employees towards recent attempts of Devolution of power or authority. But surprisingly “Management Style (HR Practices)” show no influence on performance under NPM as a result of unresponsiveness of employees towards modern management related practices. Recommendations have been provided as general and specific strategies for effective implementation of NPM in order to enhance organizational performance under NPM. Keywords. Public management, Public welfare. JEL. D73, E60, H10.