Management AnalysisName:
Management Analysis
In Chapter 6 of the book, New Public Service: Serving Not Steering, Denhardt argues for a New Public Management model or movement. The authors begin from the premise that New Public Management and New Public Service have emerged as significant paradigms of policy making and public administration. They argue that while New Public Management focuses on privatization of essential government functions and the establishment of strict accountability measures, New Public Service revolves around citizens as customers of government. It is the case that the New Public Management paradigm of leadership seeks to run government operations in a similar manner to profit making organizations. This trend has been as a result of the belief that citizens are customers whose votes are the object or subject of competition by elected officials. Further, it is believed that public service is better rendered when operations in government are run in a similar way to a competitive enterprise in which public administrators join hands with both profit and non-profit third party organizations.
On page 29 of the book, Denhardt further argues that the New Public Management views accountability of public service as the conglomeration of self-interests that usually result in outcomes that are desired by a large group of customers, in this case, citizens. Denhardt then takes the argument further by stating that a problem arises since the government does not in all cases under New Public Management respond to the wishes or interest of the citizens. Instead, persons occupying positions of power are the ones who determine what the public interest is. Under New Public Management, public interest is deemed to be an aggregation or the convergence of individual interests rather than resting on the shared values of customers or citizens. In addition, New Public Service has a humanistic vie of public administration as it focuses on service to citizens rather than customers. As a result, it calls for the valuing of people over and above their productivity and efficiency in service delivery. The New Public Service also acknowledges the fact that accountability is not easy. It looks at being more responsive to the wishes of the citizens by rejecting the notion that citizens are customers of the government. On the other hand, New Public Management views citizens as customers who do not share a common purpose but rather seek to maximize their own individual interests.
References
Denhardt, J., & Denhardt, R. (2007). The new public service: Serving, not steering (Expanded ed.). Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.
Dubnick, M., & Justice, J. (2006). Accountability and the evil of administrative ethics. Administration and Society, 236-237.
