ABSTRACT
Traditionally, public service was to the crown or to the nation-state. In this model there is no public service element as such; rather, the service is provided to the authority figures within the state and to the areas under their control. In recent years public service has undergone a shift in emphasis, with a stronger focus on efficiency of processes leading to mechanisms to deliver good service. In the early 1990s the book Reinventing Government described and exemplified a framework designated new public management (NPM).1 Authors David Osborne and Ted Gaebler reconsidered structures and processes employed in private sector organizations and formulated these with a view to transforming public organizations “into a business-like identity.”2 In essence, NPM envisaged a radical refocusing of public service delivery from bureaucratic rigidity to cost-effectiveness. Although there are exceptions, conventional environments of public sector work tend to be within rule-based processes intended to standardize service throughputs and outputs. This is to help ensure that standardized public services are provided to end users who are mostly (but not exclusively) the country’s citizens and taxpayers. The NPM framework envisages a separation between policy making and service delivery.3 Since its inception, the NPM model has benefitted from a number of improvised developments, particularly at the moments of truth.4 However, the jury is still out on whether NPM represents a real paradigm shift or is an incremental development of past practices.5 What is noticeable is that the NPM model of public services has shifted toward a more sensitive awareness of user needs. This can be seen in the decentralization of administrative functions and market-driven approaches to procurement, supply, and delivery of some public services.6 Inherent in public management reforms envisaged by NPM are issues of development of employees’ competencies, especially of officials and bureaucrats at senior levels in governmental organizations.7 Private sector organizations have seen similar developments stretching back over the past several decades. However,
private sector environments need to meet external drivers of change, such as increased competitive pressure from globalization, the need for business continuity and survival, and the quest for sustainable profitability. Within these pressures and parameters, organizations in the private sector have comparatively greater freedom to choose what goods and services they will supply to whom and at what price. The decision of what to produce and supply is “not premised on the client’s capacity or willingness to pay.”8 Different motives and perspectives influence public sector enterprises. Stringent regulations govern public sector work, and the increased focus on cost efficiency gives public service a different operational framework from private sector organizations.
