The Post-Bureaucratic Organization and Public Service Values ¹

Abstract

Recent public sector reforms, especially those associated with the new public management (npm) movement, have increased concern about the state of public service values. This concern has arisen in large part because some advocates of public sector reform pay little or no attention to values and others focus narrowly on the application of private sector values to the public sector. However, a growing number of reform advocates are seeking to reconcile traditional public service values with 'new' values arising from new approaches to organizing and managing public organizations, including approaches based on private sector experience. This paper, in its examination of the implications of these new approaches for public service values, makes three major arguments. The first is that reformers should take careful and systematic account of the value implications of reforms.The second is that account should be taken not only of ethical values but of other types of values as well. The third argument is that a statement of key values (often described as a code of conduct), both for the public service as a whole and for individual public organizations, facilitates an assessment of the value consequences of reforms.The first section of this paper provides a framework for analysing public sector reforms and for comparing the extent of these reforms over time and across jurisdictional boundaries. The second section explains the growing importance of public service values and classifies them into three major categories. The third section analyses the values implications of public sector reforms, and the final section draws learning points from this analysis, with particular reference to issues of public service ethics. This paper is in part a response to the recent call by Montgomery Van Wart (1998: xix) for contributions to the creation of a field of public administration values.

Birds of a Feather? The Effect of Organizational Value Congruence on the Relationship Between Ministries and Quangos

“…What has fueled the recent wave of publications on public values is the assumed influence of businesslike or managerial approaches to government, such as New Public Management (NPM; Hood 1991), and management by measurement (Noordegraaf and Abma, 2003) on traditional public sector values such as 'impartiality,' 'lawfulness,' and 'neutrality' (e.g., Eikenberry and Kluwer 2004;Frederickson, 2005;Kernaghan, 2000Kernaghan, , 2003Lane 2000).…”

“…Public management reforms in a majority of OECD countries during the last two decades have infused doubts, concerns and confusion about the state of public service values in those countries (Van Wart 1998;Kernaghan 2000Kernaghan , 2003, and about the ability to safeguard classical public values amidst the wave of privatization and liberalization in the last two decades (Beck Jørgensen & Bozeman 2002;De Bruijn & Dicke, 2006). Or, as Beck Jørgensen and Bozeman (2007:357) conclude in their review study on public values: "In particular, much of the literature praises recent reforms such as New Public Management and Reinventing Government.…”

Differences in Work Values by Gender and Generation: Evidence from Egypt

“…This can be explained by their youth self-motivation incentives as younger junior generations working in the health public sector. They aimed to serve their society and their organizations and act as stewards of the public interest (Kernaghan, 2000(Kernaghan, , 2003Van Wart, 1998) in order to guarantee a better future for them and the coming generations.…”

Innovation in Public Sector: A Study of Land Record Modernization Programme in India

“…In a similar vein, Frederickson (1996) has acknowledged the fact of driving changes in bureaucracy system. Furthermore, many authors has emphasized for the role of infusing new values and approaches for improvements in public sector (Feller et al, 2011;Kernaghan, 2000). Likewise, Hartley (2005) has proposed three prong approaches for policy makers, mangers and citizens for driving innovation in public sector.…”