scholarly journals Education within public management in South Africa: A focus on external Whole-School Evaluation process’ contribution in Mpumalanga province

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 145-156
Author(s):  
Richard Siphamandla Ryan Mathaba ◽  
Nirmala Dorasamy
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
School Evaluation ◽  
Whole School ◽  
New Public ◽  
Performance Auditing ◽  
Management Functions

The study focused on the role played by public sector management in South Africa towards the country’s total development and improvement. This article also analyses how through the Whole School Evaluation (WSE) process, the education system in South Africa seeks to ensure that the schooling is effective. This paper examines public management, public administration as well as new public management (NPM). The aim is to illustrate a view of how education fits in the broader public management and how the WSE process assists schooling in South Africa and Mpumalanga in particular. This is to ensure that the schooling is effective and contribute towards service delivery and the country’s overall development and improvement. Furthermore, WSE as a process, is viewed through five of NPM undisputable and debatable characteristics of accountability for performance; performance measurement; performance auditing; policy analysis and evaluation; and strategic planning and management. Public management functions and public management principles are discussed from a point of how the WSE process strives to ensure that it complies with these function and principles, and how this compliance benefit school improvement. This paper came to a number of conclusions regarding education within public management from a WSE perspective. Firstly, education through the external WSE process conforms to this principle of New Public Management in that evaluation is aimed at improving the quality of education. Also, the external WSE, as a process, and education in general, through the NPM principles can be performed within public management. Furthermore, external WSE conforms to public management principles as well as Batho Pele principles.

scholarly journals New public management and the rise of public sector performance audit

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 280-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee D. Parker ◽  
Kerry Jacobs ◽  
Jana Schmitz
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
New Public ◽  
Performance Audit ◽  
Performance Auditing ◽  
Strong Control

Purpose In the context of global new public management reform trends and the associated phenomenon of performance auditing (PA), the purpose of this paper is to explore the rise of performance audit in Australia and examines its focus across audit jurisdictions and the role key stakeholders play in driving its practice. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts a multi-jurisdictional analysis of PA in Australia to explore its scale and focus, drawing on the theoretical tools of Goffman. Documentary analysis and interview methods are employed. Findings Performance audit growth has continued but not always consistently over time and across audit jurisdictions. Despite auditor discourse concerning backstage performance audit intentions being strongly focussed on evaluating programme outcomes, published front stage reports retain a strong control focus. While this appears to reflect Auditors-General (AGs) reluctance to critique government policy, nonetheless there are signs of direct and indirectly recursive relationships emerging between AGs and parliamentarians, the media and the public. Research limitations/implications PA merits renewed researcher attention as it is now an established process but with ongoing variability in focus and stakeholder influence. Social implications As an audit technology now well-embedded in the public sector accountability setting, it offers potential insights into matters of local, state and national importance for parliament and the public, but exhibits variable underlying drivers, agendas and styles of presentation that have the capacity to enhance or detract from the public interest. Originality/value Performance audit emerges as a complex practice deployed as a mask by auditors in managing their relationship with key stakeholders.

E-Value Creation in a Government Web Portal in South Africa

2011 ◽  
pp. 384-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blessing M. Maumbe ◽  
Wallace J. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Service Quality ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Value Creation ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Government Information ◽  
Web Portal ◽  
New Public ◽  
Citizen Service

By the end of 2005, an emerging era of e-government had arrived in South Africa with the promise to transform public service delivery and the relationships between government, business and the citizens. E-government has been perceived as the second revolution in public management after the new public management of the 1980s (Saxena, 2005; Teicher, Hughes, & Dow, 2002). The advent of e-government information and services globally has brought increasing focus on the need to develop user-oriented quality Web portal services. Prior to this time, governments paid little attention to citizen service quality issues (Teicher et al., 2002).

scholarly journals Supervision: A force for change? Three stories told

2010 ◽  
Vol 53 (6) ◽  
pp. 773-790 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greta Bradley ◽  
Lambert Engelbrecht ◽  
Staffan Höjer
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
New Public

Drawing on research, we contextualize social work and describe the role of supervisors in child welfare settings in South Africa, England and Sweden. Exploratory frameworks and models of supervision illustrate how it has been influenced by principles of New Public Management and the concluding discussion proposes an agenda for change.

Performance auditing and neoliberal governmentality: future research directions

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarek Rana ◽  
Dessalegn Getie Mihret ◽  
Tesfaye T. Lemma
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Neoliberal Governmentality ◽  
New Public ◽  
Concurrent Development ◽  
Performance Auditing ◽  
The Individual

Purpose This paper aims to interpret the role and professional issues of public sector performance auditing (PA) as a mechanism of neoliberal governmentality in the New Public Management (NPM) era by drawing on a Foucauldian conceptual lens to chart directions for future research. Design/methodology/approach The study uses the Foucauldian concepts of visibility and identity to interpret PA against the background of neoliberal imperatives of public sector management. Findings As the growing emphasis on PA in recent decades can be understood as driven by the concurrent development of neoliberal and NPM rationalities, the relatively underexploited concepts of visibility and identity allow further inquiry into important PA issues. This paper identifies avenues for future research under the following three themes: the issue of visibility in neoliberal governmentality and potential for auditors-general to expand the domain of influence of National Audit Offices through the PA role; the potential for PA as a unified distinct specialisation; and the neoliberal idea of professional identity as the individual expert and its interplay with the potential emergence of PA as a distinct function within the accounting profession. Research limitations/implications This conceptual paper is anticipated to stimulate future PA research. Key areas in this respect include the position and authority afforded to PA and the possibility of transformation in auditors’ conception of their professional worldview. Originality/value This paper charts direction for future research by interpreting PA using Foucauldian concepts of visibility and identity that remain to be exploited in PA research.

scholarly journals Corporatisation and the Emergence of (Under-Managered) Managed Organisations: The Case of English Public Hospitals

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (12) ◽  
pp. 1687-1708 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Kirkpatrick ◽  
Ali Altanlar ◽  
Gianluca Veronesi
Keyword(s):  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Public Hospitals ◽  
Institutional Pressures ◽  
Social Service Agencies ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Public ◽  
Foundation Trusts ◽  
Management Functions ◽  
Service Agencies

An enduring feature of New Public Management in many countries has been the move to create more autonomous, ‘complete’ organisations such as universities, hospitals and social service agencies. Often referred to as ‘corporatisation’, this process is assumed to be leading to the emergence of new organisational forms with dedicated management functions and a greater focus on strategy. However, these assumptions remain largely untested and rely heavily on ‘technical’ accounts of organisational re-structuring, ignoring the potential influence of institutional pressures and internal political dynamics. In this paper, we address this concern focusing on the case of acute care public hospitals that have undergone corporatisation (to become Foundation Trusts) in the English National Health Service. Using administrative data spanning six years (2007–2012), the analysis shows that corporatisation is having mixed effects. While it is associated with a shift in the focus of managers to strategic concerns, it has not led to an expansion of management functions overall. Both tendencies are found to be mediated by institutional pressures, in the form of media scrutiny, and, indirectly, by the involvement of clinical professions in management. These results advance ongoing debates about the emergence of new organisational forms in the public sector, highlighting the limitations of technical accounts of change and raising the possibility that corporatisation is leading to organisations that are both more managed and under-managered at the same time.

A cultural ecology of New Public Management

2008 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 373-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soma Pillay
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Institutional Theory ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Reform Strategies ◽  
New Public

During the 1980s, new public management (NPM) evolved as a universal model of reform and governance in public sector management. However, in practice, there have been significant differences between countries that have been successful in NPM reform and those that have not. Drawing on institutional theory and frameworks of national culture, this article is aimed at exploring the applicability of NPM in a particular cultural context. In particular, the study analyses the applicability of NPM in the developing economy of South Africa. Using Hofstede's construct of national culture and institutional theory, social units within South Africa are explained. A cultural theory is presented whereby NPM is depicted as a culturally dependent strategy. The present study proposes a cultural theory that takes into account the differences that exist among the cultures of various countries. It is suggested that the successful implementation of NPM requires complementarities between the reform strategies that are adopted and the particular cultural characteristics of the country in which they are implemented. Points for practitioners This article is useful to practitioners in attempting to understand the importance of congruence between reform strategies and practices and national culture. In particular, the study makes a contribution to policy entrepreneurship in recognizing that efficiency and institutional perspectives must be complementary and congruent if success in reform is to be achieved.

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