Progressive public administration and new public management in public sector accountancy

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to evaluate responses to the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board’s proposed conceptual framework for evidence of support of new public management doctrines by key stakeholders, namely, accounting professionals, government agencies and international bodies.Design/methodology/approachThe research uses a content analysis of response letters to select phases of the conceptual framework project to identify themes/principles pointing to acceptance or rejection of new public management principles by stakeholders.FindingsAccounting professionals tend to support proposals that are consistent with principles of new public management providing evidence of normative and mimetic isomorphic pressure to align public and private sector accounting practices. Some government agencies and international organisations appear to have conformed but the majority resist efforts to incorporate a new public management discourse in public sector accounting.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is based on a content analysis of publically available response letters. It does not engage directly with respondents. In addition, not all stakeholders have submitted an equal number of response letters, with the result that it was not possible to compare responses from the developed and developing world or according to variations in legal and governance systems.Originality/valueThe study provides empirical evidence of different perspectives of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board’s conceptual framework project, which have not been considered explicitly by the previous research. The findings support the view that the accounting profession, as an integral part of the capital market system, exerts pressure to drive standardisation of financialised accounting practices. In contrast, government agencies support accounting systems aligned with conventional accountability principles aligned with jurisdiction-specific contexts. The interaction of these opposing perspectives is a primary determinant of change in accounting practice in the public sector space.