scholarly journals New public management and welfare-to-work in Australia: Comparing the reform agendas of the ALP and the Coalition

2014 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 469-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Considine ◽  
Siobhan O'Sullivan ◽  
Phuc Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Welfare To Work ◽  
New Public

Australian welfare workers and street-level discretion when working with clients from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds

2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 372-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tran Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Culturally And Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Welfare To Work ◽  
Cultural Understanding ◽  
Street Level ◽  
New Public ◽  
Welfare Workers

This article explores street-level discretion of Australian welfare workers when working with clients from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. The research is situated within the context of New Public Management (NPM) and neoliberalism in the welfare sector. Findings suggest that workers’ discretion oscillates between extra support for clients, or further scrutiny and sanction. Such contradictory patterns of discretion highlight workers’ capacity to resist neoliberalism while concurrently upholding it. The article argues that cultural understanding, recognition of the limitations in welfare-to-work policies and neoliberalism, and how those factors, together with ethnicity, may influence street-level discretion are necessary for welfare workers to support CALD clients effectively.

New Public Management and Service Privatization in Australia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siobhan O'Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Welfare To Work ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Private Companies ◽  
Employment Services ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
New Public ◽  
Australian Experience

Since at least the 1980s, New Public Management (NPM) has had a dramatic impact on public service delivery in Australia. NPM is a contested concept, but it is often closely associated with making government more businesslike, using a range of techniques such as the establishment of quasi-markets for the delivery of goods and services by private companies that work for government on short-term contracts. Australia’s strong embrace of NPM principles is most evident in its transformation of welfare-to-work under the Keating and Howard governments. Yet the evolution of Australia’s employment services system also points to some of the unresolved tensions inherent in NPM. In particular, the Australian experience suggests that it is difficult to strike a balance between maintaining control in a way that meets the expectations of citizens and allowing private companies freedom to innovate and capitalize.

"Jedes starre Konzept ist schlecht und passt net' in diese Welt"

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (148) ◽  
pp. 369-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Ludwig-Mayerhofer ◽  
Ariadne Sondermann ◽  
Olaf Behrend
Keyword(s):  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Unemployed People ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Public Employment Service ◽  
New Public ◽  
Recent Reform ◽  
The Unemployed ◽  
New Procedures

The recent reform of the Bundesagentur fijr Arbeit, Germany's Public Employment Service (PES), has introduced elements of New Public Management, including internal controlling and attempts at standardizing assessments ('profiling' of unemployed people) and procedures. Based on qualitative interviews with PES staff, we show that standardization and controlling are perceived as contradicting the 'case-oriented approach' used by PES staff in dealing with unemployed people. It is therefore not surprising that staff members use considerable discretion when (re-)assigning unemployed people to one of the categories pre-defined by PES headquarters. All in all, the new procedures lead to numerous contradictions, which often result in bewilderment and puzzlement on the part of the unemployed.

Organisation des Luzerner Forstdienstes – konsequente Entflechtung von hoheitlichen und betrieblichen Aufgaben | Organisation of the forestry services in Lucerne – differentiating between sovereign and management tasks

2001 ◽  
Vol 152 (11) ◽  
pp. 453-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg Iselin ◽  
Albin Schmidhauser
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Work Force ◽  
Forest Reserve ◽  
New Public ◽  
Forest Regions ◽  
Management Project ◽  
Forestry Services ◽  
The Individual

During the past ten years most cantonal forest services have undergone re-organisations. Lucerne's cantonal forest administration initiated a fundamentally new way of providing forestry services by differentiating between sovereign tasks and management tasks. By examining the individual steps of the process we demonstrate how starting with the mandate,goals were developed and implemented over several years. Product managers assumed responsibility for products, as defined in the New Public Management Project, on a cantonal-wide basis. Work within a matrix organisation has led to significant changes. Territorial responsibilities are increasingly assumed by district foresters, who have modern infrastructures at their disposal in the new forestry centres. The re-organisation has led to forest districts being re-drawn and to a reduction in the number of forest regions. To provide greater efficiency,state forest management has been consolidated into a single management unit. The new forest reserve plan removes almost half of the state forest from regular forest management,resulting in a reduction in the volume of work and in the work force. We show how effective the differentiation of sovereignty tasks and management tasks has been in coping with the effects of hurricane Lothar.

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