T.R. – Journal of Organizational Change Management

New public management (NPM) refers to an ideology that underpinned public sector reform of the 1980s and 1990s (Dieffenbach, 2009; Hood, 1991; Pollitt & Bouckaert, 2004; 2011). At its core was a problematisation of existing public sector institutional forms and operations for which the solution was establishing organizational arrangements within state bureaucracies that could be subjected to modern management as practiced in the private sector (Brunsson, 2012). Central to this are the ideas of steering, effectiveness, and efficiency, which proponents of NPM argue improve public administration by increasing accountability and productivity. Organizational change arising from NPM tended to be around structure, culture, strategy processes, and strategy content (Ashworth, et al., 2009). Some examples of these changes include the development of internal market-like competition, casualisation of employment, and the contracting-out of services in public hospitals, schools, and public transport.