ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a critical angle on New Public Management in the Danish health sector. While the Danish case is often associated with positive values, such as involvement, local democracy and dialogue, the current chapter aims at offering an alternative interpretation of the Danish NPM story as a story of invisible power operations. Based on the analysis of a performance measurement initiative at two hospital departments, the paper demonstrates how the departments are formally given the freedom to choose the indicators they prefer while in reality their freedom is restricted by what Foucault refers to as ‘modern power’. Thus, we argue that the employees are made responsible for interpreting how top management views the world, which translates into the development of a set of performance indicators that looks suspiciously similar to the ones preferred by senior management. In this regard, the chapter contends that the myth of Danish democratic NPM processes blurs the power operations that do take place and that this blurring may imply an even stronger element of power than a top-down approach.
