Government Reform, Public Service Values and the Roles of Public Sector Leadership in Serving Society By

Abstract: Administrative reforms, through processes and structures inspired by New Public Management are now widespread and commonly used. This paper looks at the values we want to promote through government, the styles of leadership managers use to implement those reforms, and assesses whether the NPM reforms are promoting the values we most desire in a democratic government. The conclusions suggest many NPM reforms are not consistent with broader values than efficiency and thus may be falling short of our aspirations and the values citizens want from government. Decisions on appropriate managerial leadership styles to endorse and teach are needed, as NPM reforms encourage private sector practices that probably need tempering for the public sector. “The contemporary problem is how to organize the public sector so that it can adapt to the changing needs of society, without loosing coherence of strategy or continuity of governance values. (OECD,2005, 13) During this time of reform in all sectors, management skills were emphasized, as the various public and private sector organizations struggled to survive and to compete … There were also some able leaders, but with a predominance of these performing a somewhat traditional, hierarchical leadership role. This somewhat impoverished private sector model has tended to be duplicated in the public sector. ” Brosnahan, 2000, p. 229-230. “So there is a major challenge to create a public sector environment which can nourish leadership and create lively, innovative publicly responsive organizations. ” (IBID, p. 225