WHEN MEANS BECOME ENDS: QUALITY ASSURANCE AS NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT

Author(s):  
Vidar Gynnild
Author(s):  
Vimbi Petrus Mahlangu

The purpose of this chapter is to argue that all open and distance learning (ODL) institutions should carry out quality assurance and accreditation processes in order for students and funders to have confidence in them. It also explains in detail what quality assurance and accreditation entails in ODL. This chapter follows a qualitative approach in understanding quality assurance and accreditation in ODL. Data were collected via literature review. During recent decades, the discourse and practices of systematic quality assurance and quality control have spread around the world, resulting to a great extent in market-based models related to the ideology and policy of neo-liberalism and expressed in economic rationalities such as new public management, total quality management, public choice, and human capital. Quality assurance and accreditation in ODL aims to maintain and raise the quality of education and to guarantee the improvement of its standards.


Author(s):  
Vimbi Petrus Mahlangu

The purpose of this chapter is to argue that all open and distance learning (ODL) institutions should carry out quality assurance and accreditation processes in order for students and funders to have confidence in them. It also explains in detail what quality assurance and accreditation entails in ODL. This chapter follows a qualitative approach in understanding quality assurance and accreditation in ODL. Data were collected via literature review. During recent decades, the discourse and practices of systematic quality assurance and quality control have spread around the world, resulting to a great extent in market-based models related to the ideology and policy of neo-liberalism and expressed in economic rationalities such as new public management, total quality management, public choice, and human capital. Quality assurance and accreditation in ODL aims to maintain and raise the quality of education and to guarantee the improvement of its standards.


2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (148) ◽  
pp. 369-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Ludwig-Mayerhofer ◽  
Ariadne Sondermann ◽  
Olaf Behrend

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.


2001 ◽  
Vol 152 (11) ◽  
pp. 453-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg Iselin ◽  
Albin Schmidhauser

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.


Author(s):  
Michael Vollstädt

Die Entwicklung der öffentlichen Verwaltung in Richtung eines effizienten und effektiv geführten Unternehmens ist seit dem Aufkommen des New Public Management (NPM) ein zentrales Thema von Verwaltungsreformen. Nicht selten tritt die damit eihergehende Ökonomisierung der Verwaltung dabei in Konflikt mit den bürokratischen Strukturen und dem Amtsethos der Angestellten. Bei aller Kritik und Diskussion um diese Tendenz zur Unternehmerisierung bleibt jedoch die Frage, was unter dieser Unternehmerisierung zu verstehen sei, meist latent. Das Ziel dieses Beitrages besteht darin, genauer zu eruieren, welche Vorstellung von Unternehmerisierung in den Diskursen des NPM im Zentrum steht, und ein alternatives Verständnis für die öffentliche Verwaltung zu entwickeln. Dafür bedient sich der hiesige Beitrag Ansätzen der Entrepreneurship-Forschung, um eine inhaltliche Anreicherung der Diskussion zu befördern. Damit soll ein Wandel von einer manageriellen hin zu einer unternehmerischen Sicht der Verwaltung skizziert werden, der anschlussfähig ist für die aktuellen Diskussionen um eine innovative und agile Verwaltung.


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