Costing governmental services in a reformed environment : unreachable goal or unfinished business?

This article asse sses the impact of New Public Management (NPM) reformsin the public sector from a cost consciousness pe rspective. Using an action-resea rchmethodology, we analyze the intensity of the external pressures that in¿uence theinstitutional logic under which public sector organizations manage their costs. The¿eld work shows that even after decentralization, public sector organizations appearuna ble to move their cos ting function from expense control to cost managementunless external pressures motivate managers to complete the reform. We propose thatthe prob ability of success of reforms is increa se d when organizations are subject tost rong pressures that could take the form of individual incentives or external threats