This thesis examines the changing nature of efficiency and tesponsiveness of Australian public services over the past century It will examine how over the past 100 years efficiency has been improved and assessed. It will also examine how, since the 1970s, efficiency has become synonymous with responsiveness. The main argument of this thesis is that the nature of efficiency and responsiveness has changed over the past century.. Reforms introduced fiom the 1970s where the rationale at the time was improved efficiency, were essentially designed to make the public service more accountable and thereby responsive to the political executive. The study will examine: 1. the measures governments employed to improve efficiency and assess their effectiveness; 2. how responsiveness became the corollary of efficiency; 3. the resultant changes assessment of government perfbrmance; and 4. the effect these changes had on the Westminster system in Australia. The thesis is in three parts. Part one deals with the nature of public service efficiency and responsiveness. It examines the literature surrounding the nature of the terms and provides a definition of each. Part two details and analyses how public service efficiency was measured and improved from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the 1970s. It will detail the rise and decline in public service boards and commissions and how they were used to initially limit patronage and then to act as monitoring agencies to ensure that public service input costs were as small as they could be 1i will also detail how other factors, such as the training and education of staff and computerisation had an increasing role in improving efficiency. The third part deals with the changes that have occurred since the 1970s. This will examine how responsiveness emerged as an issue and how it became an essential companion to efficiency when promoting bureaucratic change.. It will examine how the nomenclature of efficiency has been applied when the political executive seeks to ensure greater responsiveness from the public service. This third part will examine the main apparatus that were employed by the political executive to improve efficiency and responsiveness: progr am budgeting, corporate planthng, efficiency audits and contracts with senior staff. Finally, I will demonstrate the inability or unwillingness of many ministers and governments to detail policy objectives and their reluctance to evaluate the effectiveness of spending. This was accompanied by a greater reliance on senior employment contracts as the main lever to improve efficiency and responsiveness of the service.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Connecticut, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-116).

本論文名為「行政效率測量標準與方法之研究」，除緒言外，共分七章。全文約十二萬字。 在「緒言」中，略述個人研究本文的動機與意旨，以及研究的重點與範圍。第一章「行政效率的概念」，首先闡述行政效率的性質、意義、辨正等。次論行政效率測量的意義，目的及其所遭遇的困難期澄清行政效率的基本概念，以利行政效率測量標準與方法的探討。第二章「行政效率測量標準」，就行政效率的性質，分成三個層次予以討論; 其一為機械性效率，凡行政機關工作屬於機械性者，適用機械性效率測量標準。筆者從各種角度提出七項測量標準，以供參考。其二為組織性效率，凡行政機關組織、人員、管理及運作情況的效率均屬之，適用組織性效率測量標準。筆者亦提出七項測量標準討論。其三為社會性效率，著重行政活動對社會所具的功能與價值等，適用社會性效率的測量標準。筆者提出討論的測量標準有三項。第三章為「行政效率測量方法」，採用統計分析方法與數理公式，論述行政效率測量的方法與技術。其中有的屬於理論性探討，有的則為現行測量辦法，筆者就此些辦法加以論列分析，並舉述實例，俾明其應用。第四章「我國行政效率測量的實施」，略論人事行政局與台北市政府的實施情形，並檢討其利弊，提出建議事項，以供參考改進。第五章「行政效率的測量人員」，鑒於「徒法不足以自行」，「為政在人」，故本章敘述如何遴任及訓練行政效率測量人員。期以人員的優點彌補制度的闕漏。第六章為「我國行政效率測量的展望」，闡明我國目前行政效率測量制度未臻完善，應從速謀求研究改進，加強實施工作簡化，計劃評核術與目標管理等新近管理技術，擬訂妥善的測量標準與方法。最後一章「結論」，綜合全文的研究心得提出報告，強調檢討現行制度缺點，力求改進，健全存政效率測量制度，增進行政效率，實現行政革新。本文研究方式，主要為理論性探討，並佐以若干實例，以求理論與實際相配合，研究範圍包括行政機關的組織、制度、人員及運作等，以求普遍討論效率測量標準與方法。筆者會去信美國當代名行政學者西蒙(Herbert A. Simon)教授，請教有關行政效率測量問題。西蒙教授謙虛表示，最近十幾年來，他的研究工作很少觸及行政效率、測量標準與方法。其主要觀點幾乎已盡括於「行政學士」(Public Adiministration 1956)一書中。但他指出美國這方面的研究趨向於「成本利益分析」(Cost-Benefit Analysis) 。西蒙教授並贈送筆者一書，名為「經由系統分析增進政府效率」(Efficiency in Government through Systems Analysis. by Roland N. Mckean, 1958) 其內容主要敘述利用成本利益分析以抉擇行政活動計劃，但與效率測量亦具有相當密切的關係，故本文會約略論及。