Thesis (M. P. A.)--Texas State University-San Marcos, 2008. / "Summer 2008." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-73).

Thesis (M.P.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves i-viii (2nd group)). Also available in print.

Diss. Univ. Rotterdam, 2008.

Thesis (PH.D.) -- Syracuse University, 2005. / "Publication number AAT 3207096 ."

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. / Dr. Hans Klein, Committee Member ; Dr. Diana Hicks, Committee Member ; Dr. Barry Bozeman, Committee Member ; Dr. Gordon Kingsley, Committee Chair ; Dr. Michael Meyer, Committee Member.

The Government of St. Lucia (GOSL) engaged in an ambitious programme of New Public Management (NPM) reform, under a Public Sector Reform (PSR) classification, and by their own assessment, this initiative was unsuccessful. Yet, no analysis of the failure was carried out and there is very little documented information. This study therefore aims to understand the reasons for this failure. This thesis also explores why St. Lucia adopted NPM; in a national environment unlike those for which it was designed. The qualitative approach and interpretive enquiry, permitted rich and indepth accounts to be gathered on the research phenomenon. Based on semi-structured interviews with public servants and trade unionists and the analysis of documentary evidence, the research finds a gap between the rhetorical convergence and the implementation convergence of NPM. Coerceive isomorphism and external infleunces appear to have greater weight for the adoption of NPM; in an environment that was ill equipped to engage in its implementation. Government embraced NPM as a panacea to its many public service challenges; despite their limited understanding of the concept. Thus, the attempt to redesign the public sector according to an imported model failed because neither the concepts underlying NPM, nor the challenges of implementation were properly understood. A greater investment in capacity building to equip implementers for policy analysis discussions and policy implementation may have had different results.

This thesis examines the concept of Agencification against the backdrop of Public Sector Reforms in Nigeria in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. These reforms had components and elements of New Public Management (NPM). New Public Management ideas of public sector management and governance have been influential in reform strategies across the world since the 1980s. Notwithstanding its popularity, New Public management approaches and methods have attracted controversies in areas of practical applications and ‘context’ domain. Evaluation of New Public Management reforms in Developing and Developed Countries have produced mixed results, somewhat a hazy picture which cannot be categorised as either a success or failure (Overman et al. 2015). NPM, as a policy development tool and management initiative, raises more questions than answers. An assessment of NPM and public governance models by academics and public policy analysts have generated phrases expressions such as ‘implementation habitats’, ‘cultural homogeneity’, ‘unstructured complexity’, ‘matrix of governance’, choreographies of governance ‘appropriateness milieu’ etc. (Lieberthal, 1995; Swyngedouw, 2001; Jessop, 2004), to describe the rather complex nature of public sector reforms. The main aim of this thesis is to understand the behaviour of an agency whose original design is inspired by the New Public Management (NPM) doctrines. The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) Nigeria is the selected case study in this research. The objectives of the research are tied to the various narratives on NPM reforms and Agencification deliberations like the drivers, accountability, transparency, doctrines of autonomy, structural disaggregation, contractualisation, ministerial relationship, cross functionality, independence and governance (e.g. state- society relationship). In the context of Nigeria, the implementation of NPM inspired reforms elicits several distinct analyses given the volatile politico-administrative structures and the oscillation between political regimes and systems, e.g. parliamentary (1963-1966) to Military (First Junta,1966-1979, Second Junta 1983-1999) and to Presidential (1979-1983, Interim Presidential administration 23rd June1993-17th Nov. 1993, 1999-Present). This research adopts a single case study research design and qualitative data collection methods. The research findings offer a unique insight into New Public Management Reforms in Nigeria and this enables us to draw some tentative generalisations about the organisational behaviour of public agencies in the context of a developing country such as Nigeria. The research unveils an interesting finding that the TETFund does, to a large extent, display some form of autonomy. In contrast to what existing literature emphasis on problems and obstacles to NPM implementation in developing countries, e.g. corruption and political decay; the TETFund operates as a semi-autonomous organisation- in a political context which provides formidable challenges to an NPM agency.

No description available.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine if the organisational reforms, commonly referred to as New Public Management, have led to an institutional arrangement that promotes corrupt behaviour among officials at the sub-national level. By using a theoretical framework which is based on rationality among actors within the current institutional arrangement it is suggested that these reforms have created an environment where bribes and nepotism will increase and spread. To test this theory, a statistical analysis of the relationship between the percentage of private contracting by public procurement in the elderly and disabled care, and the level of corruption in Swedish municipalities has been conducted. The results indicate that the percentage of private contracting in elderly and disabled care does not have a significant effect on the levels of corruption in the municipalities. Some guidance to why this might be the case is presented in the conclusion, where it is argued that the theoretical framework must include a wider and broader understanding of the root causes of corruption, and further studies on the relationship between public officials and private companies must be carried out.

This study explores the practical and ideological implications of the New Public Management (NPM) paradigm as introduced in Greece by the so-called “Troika”, a sobriquet referring to a triumvirate comprising representatives of the IMF, the European Union, and the European Central Bank. In the past, attempts had been made by Greek officials to implement managerial practices within the Greek National Health Service (NHS) and the hospital sector in particular, albeit at a more leisurely pace than that of other countries’. On arrival to Greece the Troika imposed a number of changes to improve the country’s public services; and set a brisk pace to accelerate their implementation. The present doctoral thesis seeks to critically evaluate the issue of whether those reforms, especially those salient to the Greek NHS system, are true manifestations of a shift in the NPM paradigm or whether they represent yet another archetypal Greek public sector restructuring. It will also evaluate responses to and outcomes of the successive reforms in the Greece’s NHS system, ascertain the factors contributing to and/or impeding the adoption of those reforms, and identify new opportunities for growth. In order to gain access to a more profound insight into the Greek context, the collection of secondary data provides, among other things, an historical background of Greece’s public healthcare system; reviews the system’s characteristics in terms of healthcare policies, and probes into the state of working conditions within public hospitals. The heightened managerial spirit prevalent in Greece at the moment and brought about by the Troika’s tenure, has made it necessary for the literature review of the present work to focus on the ways that managerial practices and ideologies are imposed on other countries so that their public sector dysfunctionalities may be rectified. Drawing on the literature reviewed, the study develops an integrated analytical framework anchored in NPM, so as to test it in the Greek case and contribute to understanding the Greek NHS organisational realities as well as to evaluating how the new changes have been evolving and faring within Greece’s healthcare organisations. The framework is comprised of a review of the NPM paradigm so as to contextualise the Greek reforms in terms of ideology and practices; a review of Principal-Agent Theory (PAT) for illuminating the interrelationships and involvement of the key actors with the reforms; and a review of Critical Realism (CR) for assisting to reveal the underlying mechanisms and structures that bind the actors with the organisations and their development. Apart from providing the conceptual basis of the thesis, the framework also serves in informing its methodological design (i.e., generating the interview schedule), analysing the findings, and steering the discussion. The study adopts an in-depth, qualitative research approach that views social life within organisations in terms of processes, events, actions, and activities between key actors as factors unfolding over time. To that purpose, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the key stakeholders of the Greek NHS system: State hospital doctors, hospital managers, and policymakers. The contribution of the study is an in-depth analysis of reform implementation as carried out in Greece’s medical system which now stands, within a turbulent economic and political context. By means of that analytical framework, it is shown that Greece is a sui generis case whose context and historical background are altogether different than those of other countries’. Moreover, the framework demonstrates that, despite the fact that NPM is firmly ensconced, as far as practice and ideology go, it is too soon to be drawing any conclusions: NPM is still in its infancy and reforms to the Greek NHS system have yet to be finalised as they continuously stumble on the inefficiencies and blunders of the past which hinder them from functioning properly. Last, the thesis does possess one more unique feature: it delves into the thinking, manoeuvres, and behaviour of the Greek healthcare professionals as a group, a world rarely if ever explored by empirical studies.