Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T09:13:07.989Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The New Public Management and Workplace Change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Michael O’Donnell ,
Cameron Allan  and
David Peetz
Michael O’Donnell
Affiliation:
School of Industrial Relations and Organisational Behaviour, University of New South Wales
Cameron Allan
Affiliation:
School of Industrial Relations, Griffith University
David Peetz
Affiliation:
School of Industrial Relations, Griffith University
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

A burgeoning literature has emerged over the last decade examining the growth of the New Public Management model in the public sector. The literature, however, tends to overlook the implications of these reforms for employment relations in the public sector. This paper presents evidence from two major surveys from the mid-1990s that compare the impact of workplace change on Australian public and private sector workers. Public sector workers reported they were working more intensively, under greater stress and with less job security than private sector workers. They also reported that their satisfaction with their job, with management and with their work/family balance had declined to a greater extent than their private sector counterparts. These employee responses suggest, despite the assertions of public sector management reports to the contrary, that the NPM reforms in the Australian public sector have resulted in more intensive workloads, increased job-related stress and reduced job security for many Australian public sector employees in the 1990s.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , June 2001 , pp. 85 - 103
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2001

References

ACTU (1998) Stress at Work — Not What We Bargained For. A Report on the 1997 ACTU National Survey on Stress at Work. Melbourne, ACTU Occupational Health and Safety Unit.Google Scholar
Armstrong, A. (1998) ‘A Comparative Analysis: New Public Management — The Way Ahead?, Australian Journal of Public Administration, 57(2): 12–24.Google Scholar
Aucoin, P. (1995) The New Public Management: Canada in Comparative Perspective. Quebec. Institute for Research on Public Policy.Google Scholar
Bendix, R. (1956) Work and Authority in Industry: Ideologies of Management in the Course of Industrialization. Los Angeles, University of California Press.Google Scholar
Boston, J., Martin, J., Pallot, J., Walsh, P. (1996) Public Management: The New Zealand Model. Auckland, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Buchanan, J., Bearfield, S. (1997) Reforming Working Time. Brotherhood of St. Laurence, Future of Work Project.Google Scholar
Caiden, G.E. (1965) Career Service: An Introduction to the History of Personnel Administration in the Commonwealth Public Service of Australia 1901–1961. Carlton, Victoria, Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
Cappelli, P. (1999) The New Deal at Work: Managing the Market-Driven Workforce. Boston, Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Davis, G. (1997) ‘Toward a Hollow State? Managerialism and its Critics’, in Considine, M. and Painter, M. (Eds) Managerialism: The Great Debate. Carlton South, Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
DIR (Department of Industrial Relations) (1995) Enterprise Bargaining In Australia: Annual Report 1994. Canberra, Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar
Fairbrother, P. (1997) ‘The Australian Federal Public Service: A Model for Change?’, Working paper No. 52. National Key Centre in Industrial Relations, Monash University, Melbourne, March.Google Scholar
Ferlie, E., Ashburner, L., Fitzgerald, L., Pettigrew, A. (1996) The New Public Management in Action. Oxford, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gray, A., Jenkins, B. (1995) ‘From Public Administration to Public Management: Reassessing A Revolution?’, Public Administration, 73(1): 75-100, Spring.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halligan, J. (1994) ‘Public Service Reform: International and Comparative Contexts’, Public Service Reform. Canberra, Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration in Association with the Centre for Research in Public Sector Management, University of Canberra. Volume 1: Conference Papers. August, pp. 15–30.Google Scholar
Hood, C. (1989) ‘Public Administration And Public Policy: Intellectual Challenges for the 1990s’, Australian Journal of Public Administration, 48(4): 346–358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hood, C. (1991) ‘A Public Management for ail Seasons’, Public Administration, 69(1): 3–19, Spring.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hood, C. (1995) ‘Emerging Issues in Public Administration’, Public Administration, 73(1): 165-183, Spring.Google Scholar
Hughes, O. (1995) ‘The New Public Sector Management: A Focus on Performance’, in Guthrie, J. (Ed), Making the Australian Public Sector Count in the 1990s. North Sydney, IIR Conferences, pp. 15–8.Google Scholar
Ives, D. (1994) ‘People Management and Industrial Relations’, Public Service Reform. Canberra. Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration in Association with the Centre for Research in Public Sector Management, University of Canberra. Volume 1: Conference Papers, August, pp. 195–208.Google Scholar
Kearney, R.C., Hays, S.W. (1998) ‘Reinventing Government, The New Public Management and Civil Service Systems in International Perspective: The Danger of Throwing the Baby Out with the Bathwater’, Review of Public Personnel Administration, 18(4): 38–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laffin, M. (1995) ‘The Public Service’, in Laffin, M. and Painter, M. (Eds.), Reform and Reversal: Lessons from the Coalition Government in New South Wales 1988–1995. South Melbourne, MacMillan, pp. 73–90.Google Scholar
MAB-MIAC (Management Advisory Board and Management Improvement Advisory Committee) (1992) ‘Task Force on Management Improvement’, The Australian Public Service Reformed: An Evaluation of a Decade of Management Reform. Canberra, Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar
MAB-MIAC (Management Advisory Board and Management Improvement Advisory Committee) (1993) Building a Better Public Service. Canberra, Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar
Morehead, A., Steele, M., Alexander, M., Stephen, K., Duffin, L. (1997) Changes at Work: The 1995 Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey, South Melbourne, Longman.Google Scholar
Morgan, C., Murgatroyd, M. (1994) Total quality management in the public sector. Buckingham, Open University Press.Google Scholar
O’Brien, J. (1994) ‘People Management and Industrial Relations: Rethinking the Employment Relationship in the Australian Public Service’, Public Service Reform. Canberra. Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration in Association with the Centre for Research in Public Sector Management, University of Canberra. Volume 1: Conference Papers. August, pp. 209–224.Google Scholar
O’Brien, J. (1998) ‘Changing Public Sector Industrial Relations in Australia: An Overview’, paper presented to Public Sector Restructuring and Industrial Relations Conference, National Key Centre in Industrial Relations, Monash University, Melbourne, 10-11 December, 1998.Google Scholar
O’Brien, J., O’Donnell, M. (1999) ‘Government, Management and Unions: the Public Service under the Workplace Relations Act’, Journal of Industrial Relations, 41(3): 446–467.Google Scholar
O’Brien, J., O’Donnell, M. (2000) ‘Creating a New Moral Order? Cultural Change in the Australian Public Service’, Labour and Industry, 10(3): 57–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Donnell, M. (1995) ‘Empowerment or Enslavement?: Lean Production, Immigrant Women and Service Work in Public Hospitals’, Labour and Industry, 6(3): 73–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Donnell, M. (1996) ‘Into the Mystic: Cultural Change and TQM Teams in the NSW Public Sector’, Journal of Industrial Relations, 38(2): 241–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Donnell, M. (1998) ‘Creating a Performance Culture: Performance-Based Pay in the Australian Public Service’, Australian Journal of Public Administration, 57(3): 28–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osborne, D., Gaebler, T. (1992) Reinventing Government; How the Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector. Reading Mass. Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Painter, M. (1988) ‘Public Management: Fad or Fallacy?’, Australian Journal of Public Administration, 47(1): 1–3.Google Scholar
Painter, M. (1997) ‘Public Management: Fad or Fallacy?’, in Considine, M. and Painter, M. (Eds) Managerialism: The Great Debate. Carlton South. Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
Pollitt, C. (1993) Managerialism and the Public Services: Cuts or Cultural Change in the 1990s?, Oxford, Blackwell, Second edition.Google Scholar
Quinlan, M. (1997) ‘The Implications of Labour Market Restructuring in Industrial Societies for Occupational health and Safety’, Working Paper No. 116. School of Industrial Relations and Organisational Behaviour Working Paper Series. Sydney, University of New South Wales.Google Scholar
Sinclair, A. (1989) ‘Public Sector Culture: Managerialism or Multiculturalism’, Australian Journal of Public Administration, 48(4): 382–397.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vardon, S. (1999) ‘Centrelink’ in Clark, C. and Corbett, D. (Eds.) Reforming the Public Sector: Problems and Solutions. Sydney, Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Weller, P., Gardner, M., Ryan, N., Stevens, B. (1993) ‘The Role of the Public Sector: Implications for the Australian Public Service’, Canberra Bulletin of Public Administration, 72: 1–23.Google Scholar
Wettenhall, R. (1997) ‘Public Administration and Public Management: The Need for a Top-Quality Public Service’, in Considine, M. and Painter, M. (Eds.) Managerialism: The Great Debate. Carlton South, Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
Yates, B. (1998) ‘Workplace Relations and Agreement Making in the Australian Public Service’, Australian Journal of Public Administration, 57(2): 82–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yeatman, A. (1987) ‘The Concept of Public Management and the Australian State in the 1980s’, Australian Journal of Public Administration, 46(4): 339–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar