Questioning the New Public Management

Mike Dent is Professor of Health Care Organisation at Staffordshire University. John Chandler is Principal Lecturer and Jim Barry is Professor of Gender and Organisation, both at the University of East London Business School.

• Contents: Introduction: questioning the new public management, Mike Dent, John Chandler and Jim Barry. Context and Theory of the New Public Management: New public management and the professions in the UK: reconfiguring control?, Mike Dent and Jim Barry. Variations Between Sectors: Does 'Best Value' represent best value? local government middle management perspectives, Linda Keen; What do we want from social care managers? aspirations and realities, Jeanette Henderson and Janet Seden; Have you seen my assessment schedule? Proceduralization, constraint and control in social work with children and families, Paul Michael Garrett; New police management, performance and accountability, Beverly Metcalf. Hydra-Headed New Public Management: The Case of the National Health Service: Dilemmas beyond the glass ceiling...: the performances of senior women managers in the National Health Service, Alison Linstead and Geraldine Catlow; Can the public sector learn? the importation of 'Patient-Focused Care' in an NHS hospital trust, Chris Howorth, Frank Mueller and Charles Harvey; 'It's a leap of faith, isn't it?' managers' perceptions of PFI in the NHS, Sally Ruane; New forms of 'Out of Hours' care: from collaboration to competitive entrepreneurialism, Catrina Alferoff and Mike Dent. New Public Management as Contested Terrain: The new public management and higher education: a human cost?, Elisabeth Berg, Jim Barry and John Chandler; A bit of a laugh: nurses' use of humour as a mode of resistance, Sharon C. Bolton. The Limits of New Public Management: Uses and limitations of performance measurement in the civil service: an assessment of the Singapore and New Zealand experiences, David Seth Jones; Making a 'success' out of failure: darker reflections on private and public management, Tony Cutler; Index.

'...a timely and intriguing critical analysis of the nature of the New Public Management. This book should be of great interest to both academics studying the New Public Management and those working in the wide variety of settings in the public sector that this text covers.' Professor Mike Saks, University of Lincoln, UK '...The publication of this book, after twenty years of experience with the New Public Management is timely. This is a wide-ranging study of a range of public sector services and has extraordinary value...It is full of reports of detailed research which consider the impact of the new public management in particular areas of provision...It deserves to be widely read by students and public sector professionals.' Professor Stephen Ackroyd, Lancaster University Management School, UK '...presents a series of illuminating case studies and provides a detailed analysis of the experiences of public service managers and professionals. The book will be of particular interest to students and academics studying aspects of New Public Management and will also be of interest to professionals and managers working within the public sector...The book incorporates a particularly important section on the NHS which provides an insight into the variable nature of NPM.' Local Government Studies '...useful insight is provided to challenges and implications from both a program delivery perspective as well as from broader equity and management perspectives...a broad yet insightful coverage of the application of NPM is provided...' Public Administration Today