Public Management: A Vision Statement A self-conscious field of study, organized in four subject areas, approached from multiple reference disciplines,

Public Management:A Vision Statement

• A self-conscious field of study, organized in four subject areas, approached from multiple reference disciplines, oriented to improving lay probing of theoretical and situational issues, with individual works meeting appropriate standards of inquiry.

Field of Public Management• Subject areas

– Designing programmatic organizations• Closely related with organizational aspects of policy design in

substantive areas of governmental action

– Executive leadership in government• Focus is on the strategic apex of organizational units within

government as well as on “the centre”• Closely related to strategic management and study of political-

bureaucratic relations

– Managing government operations• Focus is on the design, maintenance, and strengthening of the

operating core of units within government as well as on the planning, budgeting, control, execution, and evaluation of performed tasks

Field of Public Management• Subject areas

– Public Management Policy• Focus is on public management policy choices, i.e. government-wide

institutional rules and routines in the areas of– expenditure planning & financial management– civil service & labor relations– procurement– organization & methods– audit & evaluation

• Traditional subject of public administration, but perspective comes from public policy and management

• Focus is on central co-ordinating agencies and other oversight bodies– program agencies seen as “implementers”

Field of Public Management• Reference Disciplines

– Political Science• Study of institutions within a governmental system• Study of public policy-making processes and events within various

policy domains• Traditions of normative argument about such topics as responsible

and good government

– Organization Science• Study of organizational learning, error, and change• Broader conceptions of decision-making and organizational life

– Management• Schools of thought, such as strategic management• Functional disciplines, such as accounting and control

Field of Public Management

• Reference Disciplines– Public Policy

• Provides a functional more than institutional view of good government

• Oriented to issues of design, control, and evaluation of “systems of systems” that shape outcomes of public action

• Sensitive to the public policy-making process, while focused on the substance of policy problems

– Historiography• Provides a framework for studying experiences

– Law• (see political science)

Field of Public Management(Reprise)

• A self-conscious field of academic study, organized in four subject areas, approached from multiple reference disciplines, oriented to improving lay probing of theoretical and situational issues, with individual works meeting appropriate standards of scholarly inquiry.

Your instructor

• Academic centered in the field of public management– Primarily concerned with the subjects of public management

policy, executive leadership in government, and managing government operations

• Interested in theoretical argumentation about these subjects – Includes doctrinal issues arising in varied circumstances

– Committed to idea that such argumentation should be informed by research and analysis about experiences

• Research questions about experiences usually drawn from economics and management, especially financial management

I&CPM GoalsThe course pursues a central theme: The big questions

about international public affairs are about governance—how markets and political systems shape the lives of citizens.

• Identify and explore the major themes in international policy. “Globalization” has emerged as one of the touchstones of the 21st century. Often lost has been the simultaneous rise of devolution. Both trends raise tough questions about the role of nation states. The course will investigate these trends and their implications.

I&CPM Goals

• Examine the links between public management and international policy.

• To learn how to analyze processes of administrative reform and modernization.

• To understand similarities and differences among recent experiences with administrative reform and modernization, drawing on comparative research

• To develop an appreciation for how public policy-making is related to public management

I&CPM Topics

• How to talk about public management • Governance & Management• Old public management

– Bureaucracy– Personnel– Budgeting

• New public management– New organizational forms and self definition– HR Management– Financial management & control

I&CPM Topics

• Defeating/Overcoming corruption• Public management in developing nations• Managing international organizations

– WTO, IMF, WB– EC, UN

I&CPM Technology

• Lectures

• Reading

• Seminars

• Formative Essays

• Class Presentations

Joining Up

• Access Course Website/Outline– www.willamette.edu/~fthompso/pubfin/ICPM.html

• “Register” by Sending me an E-mail– Address: [email protected] – Introduce Yourself– Indicate Preferred Presentation Topic– Indicate Timetable Clashes for Class

A Common Title

• P Aucoin, The New Public Management: Canada in Comparative Perspective (1995)

• E Ferlie, et. al. The New Public Management in Action (1996)

• C. Hood, “A Public Management for All Seasons” (1991); The Art of the State (1998)

N

P

M

But What is the New Public Management?

Initial Concepts of NPM

• Administrative Philosophy or Doctrine– Hands-on Management– Focus on Results– Consumer Orientation– Stress on Transparency and Accountability

• Style of Organizing Public Services – Executive Agencies– Contracting out – Quasi-markets

• International Trend

An Initial Model

x =

Hood (1994)

+Style 3Doctrine Trend

Strengths of Initial Concept

• Recognized that “public management” had emerged on the public policy agenda

• Focused attention on change over time rather than on stable properties of executive government

• Invited analysis of ideas and arguments as part of the process of change

Limitations of Initial Concept

• Focus on “international trend” was incongruous with variation-finding research strategies

• Preoccupation with “acceptance of ideas” downplayed the dynamics of policy and organizational change

Some Ways Forward

• Understand why change occurs

• Differentiate among policy areas

• Examine the policy-making process in detail

• Employ variation-finding research strategies

Comparative Research on Public Management Policy

Research Goal

Research Style

Understand change in public management policy

Case-oriented

Research Objective Limited historical generalizations

Research Design Select case outcome

Select explanatoryframework/models

Research Task Explain similarities and differences among cases using explanatory framework/models

Selectcases

Disaggregating the NPM Elephant by Policy Domain

OverallGovernment

Policy

PublicPublicMgm’tMgm’t

StateEnterprise

MacroEconomy Health Education

Defining Public Management Policies

Government-wide institutional rules and routines

that guide, constrain, and motivate the public service,

typically managed by central agencies

What is included in public management policy?

• Government-wide institutional rules and routines in several areas– expenditure planning and financial management

– civil service and labor relations

– procurement

– organization and methods

– audit and evaluation

Illustration

• Audit and Evaluation– Rayner Scrutinies– Value-for-Money

Audit Mandate

• Expenditure Management– Financial Management

Initiative– Resource Budgeting

and Accounting

• Organization and Methods– Next Steps Initiative

– Citizens Charter Initiative

• Procurement– Competing for Quality

– Private Finance Initiative

What Public Management Policies are Not

• Broad Political Reform

• Political Decentralization

• Executive Leadership

• Program Designs

• Reform Themes

The Benchmark Cases

UK Aus NZ

1979 199?

Cases are Essentially Narratives

Events within the Episode

PriorEvents

Contemporaneous Events

1980 1998t

Narrative Structure of a Single Experience

Prior Events

t

The Episode

Related Events

Contemporaneous Events

LaterEvents

Studying Public Management Policy Change

Prior Events

t

The Episode

Related Events

Contemporaneous Events

LaterEvents

Period I Period II

E1 Expenditure Planning, Financial Management, Audit, and Evaluation

E2 Civil Service & Labor Relations

E3 Procurement

PE 1 ElectionCampaigns

PE 3 EarlierReforms

PE 2 EconomicEvents

CE1 Economic Policymaking

RE1 Operating/Reforming Line Agenices

FutureReforms

What do we Achieve?

• Proximate results comparative research designs include– An understanding of why and how change occurs

• In the form of limited historical generalizations (Ragin)

– An understanding of “technologies” of public management and policy implementation and “analysis of smart practices”

• In the form of empirically and theoretically based claims about relationships between system features and performance outcomes (Bardach)

How Should we Compare?• Answering comparative questions requires narrating

each experience studied in a systematic (similar) way– Apply the same descriptive scheme to classify events

comprising each experience– Focus attention on explaining event outcomes within the

episode• Decide what is analytically interesting about events in the experience• Characterize event outcomes accordingly

– Perform both cross-event and intra-event analysis– Use similar theories to explain event outcomes

• Provide analytical narratives that explain what led to the event outcomes

How Should we Compare?

• Compare the narratives to answer the comparative research questions about– stability and change in policy

Experiences Studied

• Public management policy-making in the 1980s and 1990s– NPM benchmark cases (UK, Australia, NZ)– US’s Federal government– Russia, Georgia, Armenia

Comparing Narratives

• General research question– Why did comprehensive public management

policy change occur in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand in the 1980s and 1990s, but not in Germany, USA, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, and Thailand?

Related comparative questions• How have linkages between economic policy-making and the

specialized policy agendas of central agencies varied among experiences?

• What have been the mechanisms by which managerial and economics ideas have affected the public management policy-making process? How have these mechanisms varied across cases

• What have been the developmental dynamics of public management policy-making?– How have these been influenced by varied but stable factors, such as

organization of the center of government? – Have platforming and momentum effects been at work?

• What kinds of interference effects have limited public management policy change? How varied are the sources of these effects?

Review

• Public management is a self-conscious field of study, organized in four subject areas, approached from multiple reference disciplines, oriented to improving lay probing of theoretical and situational issues, with individual works meeting appropriate standards of inquiry.

Review• Designing programmatic organizations

– Closely related with organizational aspects of policy design in substantive areas of governmental action

• Executive leadership in government– Focus is on the strategic apex of organizational units within

government as well as on “the centre”

• Managing government operations– Focus is on the operating core of units within government and their

relationship to other parts, external co-producers, and clients

• Public management policies– Focus is on government-wide institutional rules and routines, as well

as central coordinating agencies

Review

Prior Events

t

The Episode

Related Events

Contemporaneous Events

LaterEvents

Review

TheWork

The Reader

ExperiencesStudied

ReferenceDisciplines

The Field ofPublic

Management

The Work