New Public Management (NPM): A dominating paradigm in public sectors

Abstract

New Public Management (NPM) system hasbeen the dominant paradigm inpublic administration theory and practice since 1980s, having its affinity with markets and private sector management as the old administrative model has been under severe criticisms for its inability to deliver goods and services to the people. NPM is depicted as a normative conceptualization totally different in many ways from traditional public administration, providing services that citizens value to increase the autonomy of public managers and rewarding organizations and individuals to enhance the efficiency of public sector production. This paper focuses on the introductory discussion of the NPM system which has replaced the traditional public administration system and analysis of the trends, rationales and scope of reforms of the public sector in Bangladesh and African countries. The paper is based on archival research, where secondary data sources have been used and methodological filter was applied to confine the literature. New Public Management (NPM) is a different paradigm of public management that puts forward a different relationship between governments, the public service and the public. Key words: New public management, traditional administration, public service, efficiency.