Managing hybridity: China’s compressed reform trajectory

In recent years the public sectors of a number of countries have experienced what has been called 'new public management' (Hood, 1991; Hughes, 1998). This movement has resulted in, within some jurisdictions, a transformation of the management of the public sector: as traditional public administration has been replaced; as former public enterprises have been privatised; as the terms and conditions for employing public servants have become more like those of the private sector and as the contracting out of services has proceeded apace. The changes induced by the new public management have continued for a number of years now. In many respects the reforms have been successful, in others they have not. Some countries have proceeded further than others; Australia and Malaysia are two of the countries which have adopted much of the model. The next thing to look at, however, is what comes next, that is what are the lessons from those aspects which have or have not worked well and those which have worked badly. As with any reform movement there are critics: such criticism is at its strongest over the application of new public management to developing countries. There are some lessons which point to a way ahead for managerial reform. Of course, some would favour abandoning the reform movement altogether and returning to the certainties of the traditional model of public administration. Such a move would be a mistake and is unlikely to occur. What is needed instead is an appreciation of where the new public management reforms have succeeded and failed and where they are likely to proceed. A particular focus in what follows concerns developing countries. Instead of arguing, as some do, that new public management should not be applied to developing countries, it is more useful to set out the preconditions in order for these reforms to work in any country regardless of its state of development. From this a research agenda can be devised.

An important interest in public-administration ethics has been expressed in OECD member states since the 1990s in reaction to the development of New Public Management (NPM) reforms. However, the meanings attached to the ethical issue in a context of managerial modernization remain ambiguous depending on the country and / or time period studied. Therefore, this article aims at underlining the main characteristics of administrative ethics thanks to the creation of a theoretical concept which summarizes them. The latter can also serve as an analytical grid to engage in further research and especially comparisons between varying national cases.For that purpose, the analysis is divided in two parts and draws insights from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Canada and France, through a review of major official reports and a series of interviews with public officials and experts in charge of these questions. First of all, it concentrates on the OECD’s historical activities on public-sector ethics in order to devise a theoretical concept of administrative ethics. The utility and relevance of this concept is then tested while being implemented to compare the Canadian and French governments’ overall interest in ethics in their process of public-management reform.The article distinguishes two key dimensions of public-administration ethics, namely the managerial and normative ones, which are strongly intertwined. On the one hand, the managerial dimension focuses on the management of civil servants’ daily behaviors and combines the compliance-based and integrity-based approaches to govern conducts in public administration. On the other hand, the normative dimension refers to the normative framework incorporating the core principles and values which define civil servants’ professional identities and guide their specific missions and goals within the democratic system.The historical comparison of major trends in terms of administrative ethics in Canada and France shows, finally, that, despite national characteristics, the two countries have tended progressively to deal with the ethical issue in a more comprehensive way. They are trying to take into account, for example, problems due to conflicts of public values and combine compliance-based and integrity-based instruments of ethics management. These evolutions shed light more generally on the movement of hybridization, incorporating elements from traditional public administration and New Public Management, which seems to develop in both states.

This volume calls attention to the importance of collaboration and design for public sector innovation. In Chapter 1, we distinguished a model of public sector innovation inspired by NPM from one inspired by NPG (see Figures 1.1 and 1.2 for summaries). While NPM has certainly helped to place public sector innovation on the agenda over the last two decades, we believe that its focus on 'making the managers innovate' (as we might slightly restate the more usual aphorism 'making the managers manage') leads to a narrow view of the possible benefits of innovation (e.g., lean production) and overlooks the importance of understanding the process of innovation itself. We argue that collaboration and design are at the heart of this process and that attention to these contingent aspects opens up a wider perspective on the possibilities and benefits of public sector innovation. As opposed to a narrow focus on efficiency, the lens of innovation through collaboration and design permits us to imagine more radical innovations achieved through creative problem-solving.

This article examines the practical experiences of developing countries and Nepal regarding new public management (NPM) reforms. This article employed the descriptive research design based on the systematic literature review using almost 50 articles for the analysis; the study aims to understand the extent of NPM adoptions. While many developing countries have partially embraced NPM principles, full implementation remains a challenge. NPM has portrayed public managers as business-like owners of a leaner, more privatized government, incorporating corporate methods and principles. However, the argument suggests that NPM may not be appropriate for developing nations due to issues like corruption and administrative incompetence. NPM initiatives in the underdeveloped world have resulted in both successes and failures, influenced by localized contextual factors rather than national capabilities. The circumstances should guide reformers, urging open-mindedness towards effective strategies. Since the 1960s, Nepal has pursued public administration strengthening efforts, adopting NPM-related reform principles after 1990. Despite good intentions, NPM-based reforms have not brought significant improvements to Nepalese public administration. The article also focuses on how Nepal's political environment, path-dependency traits, and bureaucratic behavior have influenced the implementation of NPM-oriented reforms.

The United Kingdom (UK) instituted a performance framework for the National Health Service (NHS) in the late 1990s that, inspired by the New Public Management (NPM), employed performance measurement and management in an effort to improve the quality of health services to citizens, in addition to realizing efficiency goals. Using data from the 1996 and 2002 Eurobarometer and a difference in differences analytical approach, we evaluate the impacts of these performance reforms by comparing the UK to other European Union countries in terms of overall citizen satisfaction with the health care system and perceptions of how well the health care system performs. In general, our results suggest that citizen satisfaction and performance perceptions in the UK were more favorable after the reforms than what would have occurred, absent the implementation of the reforms. The estimated improvement in satisfaction and perceived performance is both statistically and substantively significant, and thus provides evidence that the UK’s NPM-inspired performance framework did accomplish at least some of its goals. Points for practitioners The New Public Management and performance measurement movements in public administration have called for a focus on customer service and citizen satisfaction. We evaluate the effects of performance-focused reforms in the health care system in the UK over time in comparison to other EU countries. Our results suggest that the quality and customer-focused aspects of New Public Management that were applied through the UK’s health system reforms seem to have improved citizen satisfaction with health care and perceived performance of the health system. Practitioners’ efforts to measure, report, and improve quality may have noticeable effects on citizens’ attitudes.

In Bangladesh, Office of the Deputy Commissioner is the key role player in the district with a big number of traditional functions right from the time of East India Company. Although the original pattern of district administration remains more or less unchanged but there appears to be gradual transformation of the conventional character of district administration. The purpose of the study is to explore the extent of transformation of functions of the Office of the Deputy Commissioner from traditional regulatory system to a new form of public administration with specific aim to identify the factors that induced and or influenced the transformation process. The present features indicate that Traditional Public Administration (TPA), New Public Administration (NPA) & New Public Management (NPM) co-exist in an uneasy manner in the Office of the Deputy Commissioner in Bangladesh. It has significantly moved from TPA towards a mixed approach of NPA & NPM. Article visualizations:

Over the past decades there has been a remarkable paradigm shift in Public Administration. Traditional Public Administration was in dire need for a change of a New Public Administration (NPA) approach in the 1980s. From early 2000s, the NPA began to be subjected to heavy criticism, which influenced public administration to take complete control of different reforms and approaches regardless of their diversity, complexity, hybrid and contradictory situations rather than offering the perfect approach and reform to the public sector. The New Public Management (NPM) and Post-New Public Management (Post-NPM) paradigms emerged in times whereby the NPA was already experiencing a massive deconstruction and reconfiguration of the public sector management. To scan and understand the remarkable paradigm shift in the field and practice of public administration, this study applies both NPM and Post-NMP to examine different views, principles, values and norms, and reform proposals for South African Public Administration. Methodologically, this study used qualitative research methods with the aid of secondary data to evaluate both the NPM and post-NPM paradigms, criticisms, arguments, challenges, and changes in public policy implementations. Recommendations are provided based on the existing challenges confronting the current public administration in South Africa. This study contributes to literature, new policy proposals and research within public administration.

This paper aims to investigate the effects of new public management reforms on human resource practices of a public organization in Jordan, a Middle Eastern country in the developing world. The data was collected from fifteen purposeful semi-structured interviews in the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM), one of Jordan’s biggest public organizations. The data was analyzed using thematic analysis (i.e., a coding technique). The findings revealed the challenges and gaps in Human Resource (HR) practices from gaps in implementing New Public Management (NPM) reforms which weakened the performance of the public organization. The discussion and conclusion are presented at the end.

For over two decades a wave of public sector management reforms has swept through developed, transitional and developing countries. The role and institutional character of the state and of the public sector have been under pressure to be more market-oriented and private sector-oriented, initially in developed countries and later in some developing countries. The article concentrates on New public management (NPM). The authors give a theoretical description and key components of New public management, human resources management influenced by NPM. As underlying and fundamental aim of the new public management reform program is to transform management of public organizations into a business-like management. NPM incorporates the importation of private sector management systems and techniques into the public services. Seeking for the effectiveness of public institution’s activity the importance of human resources becomes especially evident, because it is not only the most important resource of public organizations, but also the most sensitive field, therefore when managing it, it is necessary to invoke modern prime methods and refer to the new human resource management scientific research results. The main change trends of the HR system management in the public sector should be the following ones:  The expansion of the employee development possibilities. The quality of the state institutions depends on the knowledge and qualifications of employees and the ability to use them.  The stimulation of the workers independence and creativity. The greater freedom of activity should be given to the civil servants encouraging their unconventional behavior.  The stimulation of good results and competitiveness. The greater orientation of workers to the final goal but not to the rules and procedures. The competitiveness enables to render the services of a better quality.  The development and expansion of collaboration, communication and information exchange.  The participating management style. The paper is divided into three parts. The first part examines the conception of New public management. Human resources management in public sector is introduced in the second part. The research on the ability to adapt the main NPM principles at Lithuania’s municipalities is presented in the third part.

Purpose. Comparative assessment on the relevance of paradigms that lead to the development of new public administration models. Methodology. A comparative analysis was conducted in the research in order to provide a comprehensive understanding, from occupational and academic viewpoints, on the existing public administration models, which are traditional public administration, new public management and new public governance, spatial features which contribute to new paradigmatic exemplars and viewpoints. Findings. There are some important aspects in the understanding of paradigms in public administration models. To that extent the overall framework of public administration models are paradigms that constantly shift when a crisis occurs. This demonstrates that the new developed public administration models will not always fit in one paradigm, and can exist in a hybrid state where various characteristics of other paradigms overlap the other. Identifying these characteristics aids in determining the applicability of current models to regulating governance and management of public sector entities and functions as well as its designation. Originality. Previous research indicates that numerous attempts in understanding and developing a systematic approach to the order of public administration have been made. To date, the development of public administration as a discipline is perceived as a succession of overlapping paradigms. Notwithstanding this, public administration still remains the single most important aspect of bureaucracies in the world. With the government deciding on all aspects of civil society in capitalist, socialist and democratic states the objectives of public administration are termed to be in a continuous state of paradigm shift. Paradigms provide solutions and determine whether areas of a particular phenomenon are problematic and many public administrative practitioners have often adopted the paradigmatic assumptions that politicians, officials, and citizens are motivated by self-interest, and will perceive the development in public administration in this light. Practical value. The work provides an interpretation on the functions and prospects of public administration as a discipline that lead to the development and transition from traditional public administration (TPA) to new public management (NPM), then new public governance (NPG) and further on to other post-new public management models.

This chapter examines the role and importance of leadership in public management reform through the experience of Hong Kong. It aims to identify the gap between leadership in public organizations and public management reform in both theory and research and to make recommendations on how the gap can be bridged, particularly under the Asian context. It is a major irony that while both leadership and public management reform have a common concern of fostering positive change in public organizations, these two streams of research are separated, incompatible, and even conflicting. While leadership study is influenced by disciplines such as the psychology and emphasizes a multifaceted approach, most public management reforms are based on the New Public Management (NPM) model which is economics-oriented and structure-driven. Through studying the role of leadership in the public management reform in Hong Kong, it is argued the hollowing-out of leadership in reform is often one of the leading causes for the failure to achieve the expected outcomes. This chapter will elaborate its argument in the following sequence. First, it will review the generic literature on leadership to highlight the importance and relevancy of leadership for public organizations. Second, it will point out the leadership crisis in public management reform caused by the dominance of the NPM model. Finally, it will discuss the negative impact of the hollowing-out of leadership on public management reform and how this problem should be tackled.

New Public Management (NPM) models the emerging public administration orthodoxy. With the aim of raising the efficiency of government, the theory and practice of NPM favour the participation of private firms in public service provision. Out go bureaucracies and traditional public administration; in come flexible management and private sector input into the affairs of government. From welfare services to defence, this paradigmatic strategy has proven to be applicable to any aspect of the public sector and its influence is global in scope. The trend towards NPM reform has been gaining momentum since the 1990s and it has unfolded alongside the proliferation of private military companies (PMCs). The shift of the global political economy towards neo-liberalism has contributed considerably to this transformation. Against this background, key structural changes in the relationship between the public and private sectors that have contributed to the emergence of new modalities for the management of state security are discussed in this article. The notional underpinnings of NPM are discussed first. Second, through a focus on the robust outsourcing and contracting out dynamic of Western states, there is an overview of the operational logic of the NPM of security. In this regard it should be noted that many PMCs originating in these countries operate in weak states, where government and the market economy are embryonic structures. Third, noting that the handling of military and security tasks by PMCs to some extent can be extrapolated in such cases, it is argued that there appears to be three emerging modalities for the privatisation of security characteristic to weak states, in particular in sub-Saharan Africa. The identification of variants of the NPM of security allows the author to propose that the efficiency assumed to be inherent in NPM will remain elusive unless both countries that supply PMCs and those that are predominantly receptors of their services synchronise NPM reform.

This chapter addresses a main theme of this book: the influence of various institutional settings of states and administrations on the way public management ideas and practices are implemented. Different historical-institutional backgrounds of European states and administration do affect the form and content of their administrative reform. Western states and administrations do differ considerably in many relevant respects. That influences the path of their administrative ‘public management’ reforms (Kickert, 1997, 2000; Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2004). This chapter will concentrate on the administrative reforms in three European countries that significantly differ from the Anglo-Saxon state model, that is, on the three European countries — France, Italy and Spain — that have a Napoleonic state tradition. In comparison to the relative success of New Public Management (NPM) reforms in Anglo-Saxon countries, France shows more modest examples of that type of reform and Italy and Spain are relative ‘failures’ in terms of NPM reforms. One of the explanations for this difference is that Anglo-Saxon state models differ from continental European legal state traditions, such as reflected in the Napoleonic model (Wunder, 1995). France forms its origin and Italy and Spain have adopted the Napoleonic model.

In this paper, we review the past two decades of administrative reform in South Korea and argue that the dominant models and theories in the fi eld, i.e., New Public Management (NPM), post-NPM, and traditional public administration have been in a state of fusion in implementing measures without a coherent reform model. We observe that the reform movements can neither challenge nor undermine the traditional bureaucracy and maintain that they are the result of a complex mix of both environmental events and contextual factors. We specifi cally examine the co ncrete change and development of administrative reform during the Kim Dae Jung (1998- 2003), Roh Moo Hyun (2003-2008), and Lee Myung Bak (2008-2013) administrations in South Korea. Among the cases being considered are the restructuring of government ministries, the executive agency system, and rationalization of public enterprises, as well as such performance management schemes as the evaluation system for government departments and the Open Position System. We conclude that the developmental state and the hierarchical bureaucracy are still salient in South Korea’s inconsistent administrative reform since the 1990s and that it is crucial to design a prudent reform strategy to achieve a more effective public sector.

New Public Management (NPM) reforms as described in Chapter 1 have affected the profile and functioning of top civil servants. This chapter discusses the combined effect of personnel reforms and the creation of so-called quasi-autonomous organizations. It would seem that as a result of these reforms two different types of ‘new public managers’ have emerged: senior public officials within the central departments and the top executives of quasi-autonomous agencies. We expect a number of differences between these two categories. The main aim of this chapter is to investigate these expectations. To do so, we will use data from two surveys of our own (on the Netherlands and France) and secondary sources on a number of countries (Denmark, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom).KeywordsCivil ServiceSenior ManagerExecutive AgencySalary ScalePublic Sector ReformThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.