Governance and public management
In the end of the previous century sociologists used to claim that the public management field сould be hardly recognized by comparison with the classic perceptions, elaborated by Max Weber and Ferdinand Toennies (McLaughlin et al, 2002, p.5). While in the 19th and the largest part of the 20th century public administration was primarily associated with hierarchical organizations, governed by strong leaders, the end of the 20th century is characterized by the rising neutrality of civil servants and flattening structures. Moreover, the era of the Internet brought about the complex connections between the government, companies and NGOs that serve as the common framework of governance. The emergence of modern governance is also concerned with the evolution of a range of concepts, such as “good governance” and “sustainable human development”.
In broad terms, governance refers to the set of governance processes, conducted by the government, markets or networks in relation to particular objects through varying forms of power. Since ‘governance’ is uniquely general notion, it is applied in a variety of contexts, such as global governance, public and private governance, corporate governance, environmental governance etc. Given the tightening links between different entities, involved into the complex governance processes, the approaches and methods, peculiar to particular type of entities, tend to be adopted by other entities. For instance, business- and corporate management-related approaches currently tend to be actively transplanted into public administration. In this view, as a public manager, I would suggest using the concept of new public management, bringing together the foundational characteristics of private and public management.
New public management (NPM) can be defined as the public governance theory that refers to the application of private governance models in public administration to increase their efficiency (McLaughlin et al, 2002, p.9). Having been coined in the end of the 1980s, NPM is currently broadly used in developed countries and is being actively applied by them in their effort to reform the governance structures in the developing ones. The important momentum in the development of the NPM has been the establishment of the Public Management Committee and respective Secretariat in the OECD that converted public management into one of the most broadly discussed policy domains. Globalization and the efforts of the OECD led to the fact that NPM is currently being actively used around the globe.
The scope of the NPM includes the following elements. First, since NPM seeks to transplant private governance concepts to the public administration, the key element of the NPM is managerialism. It includes the application of managerial techniques and processes, as well as strengthened accountability of public servants. Second, the NPM is service-oriented, and views citizens as the key service beneficiaries. Third, the NPM involves clear target-setting, as well as the establishment of benchmarks and indicators to continually evaluate the quality of action. Fourth, the NPM advocates shifting from the hierarchically governed bureaucratic structures to the decentralized management systems that allow keeping the efficiency high, but reduce costs. Finally, the NPM seeks to promote public-private partnerships and competition within the public sector (McLaughlin et al, 2002).
In view of the emergence of the ever more complex challenges and strengthening cooperation between public, private and nonprofit sectors, the NPM is the key governance theory to promote the development of public administration. Simplified structures and competitiveness are required to enhance public administrations’ international cooperation and boost their cost-effectiveness. To conclude, the NPM is a promising theoretical framework that would help me as a public manager to bring together the perspectives of different actors and effectively implement governmental policies.
References
McLaughlin, K., Osborne, S.P., Ferlie, E, 2002, New public management: current trends and future prospects. Routledge, London
