New public management in Chile (1990 - 2008): exploring its impact on public employees

UnrestrictedThe New Public Management (NPM) is an administrative philosophy that can be pinpointed as the theoretical background for many of the public sector reform processes the world has witnessed in both developed and less developed countries. It is conceived as an administrative philosophy, which entails a group of new assumptions regarding the manner in which public agencies should be managed. In the last fifteen years or so, public administration literature has assessed the outcomes of the implementation of this new paradigm. The following dissertation is an effort to add a new case to this growing literature. The Chilean case can be seen as an example from less developed country, which is not normally analyzed in the mainstream literature on public administration. After justifying the argument that NPM style reforms have been implemented in Chile in the last ten years, two outcomes of these reforms are analyzed. First, the potential erosion of public values due to NPM style reforms is tested among Chilean public employees. The Public Service Motivation survey conducted among 767 employees was applied to test for the notion of erosion of public employees. Second, the (un)intended outcomes of NPM style reforms is analyzed. A group of interviews with key players of the public sector reform process in Chile was developed to explore this issue. Conclusions regarding the implications of NPM style reforms in Latin America, drawing from the Chilean case, are provided