Abstract
The current paper presents some aspects and criticisms from the theoretical literature concerning the New Public Management (NPM). The article also critically examines whether the NPM model is appropriate and the drivers that affected its efficiency and effectiveness in the public sector especially in Greece, during the current pandemic. The research concluded that the process of managerial reform and the specific criteria in order to evaluate NPM’s effectiveness are not completed yet and that there are some key barriers such as the statist perception of citizens and politicians, the corruption of public, the fragmented organizational structures, the resistance to change that hinder the success of change and of NPM’s effective implementation in public sector. However, Covid-19 was a situation that helped many aspects of NPM such as digitalization, digital transformation, e-governance etc. to effectively be introduced and implemented in public governance of Greek organisations.
Highlights
The effects of Cοvid-19 on public management are unquestionable, the opinions on whether or not the NPM tools worked are still ambiguous, but the promotion of digital transformation, the need for proper functioning in a long-term crisis, the need for data, for coordination and cooperation and to enhance public confidence are common findings and factors for a broad and modern administrative reform. Denhardt and Denhardt (2000) refer to the term of New Public Management as “a revolution” rather than radical changes in bureaucracy and services and define it as “a cluster of ideas and practices that seek, at their core, to use private sector and business approaches in the public sector»
From the above review we can conclude that a combination of factors coincided to produce a seemingly irresistible push for public service management reforms in developed market economies
Many academic commentators have linked it to the political rise of the "new right." This in itself does not explain why these doctrines were in favor, nor why the NPM was so strongly adopted by the governments of the seemingly opposite in the New Right ", mainly in Australia and New Zealand
Summary
The effects of Cοvid-19 on public management are unquestionable, the opinions on whether or not the NPM tools worked are still ambiguous, but the promotion of digital transformation, the need for proper functioning in a long-term crisis, the need for data, for coordination and cooperation and to enhance public confidence are common findings and factors for a broad and modern administrative reform. Denhardt and Denhardt (2000) refer to the term of New Public Management as “a revolution” rather than radical changes in bureaucracy and services and define it as “a cluster of ideas and practices (including reinvention and neomanagerialism) that seek, at their core, to use private sector and business approaches in the public sector». Researchers have challenged the idea that NPM is a completely new practice (Hood & Jackson, 1991), others have argued that its reforms are limited to a few countries and not globally (Flynn, 2002), while others have argued that NPM does not involve substantial changes in the day-to-day operation of the public sector (Pollitt, 2000). The NPM embodies a series of reforms inspired by the idea that private sector management techniques and market mechanisms increase public sector efficiency. Maor (1999) argued that politicians have lost control of policy implementation because of NPM reformers, and public choice theory has been challenged, with Boston, et al (1996) noting that personal interest is questionable as the a priori assumption that private sector organizations are better managed than public ones is questionable. There are several secondary studies that generally discuss the mechanisms of NPM reform, citing secondary data, but only a few have begun to collect primary data on specific effects on service users and citizens in general (Pollitt & Dan, 2011)
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