New Public Management Reform in New Zealand: A Critical Overview

One of the most exemplary administrative reform (restructuring of the government organisation) along with economic reform to be initiated in recent times by applying New Public Management (NPM) technique is the case of New Zealand (NZ) reform initiated in 1984. The purpose of the paper is to be skeptical on the NPM reform initiative of NZ in 1984. The paper tries to shed light whether the desired outcome was achieved for which the reform was initiated. The aim of the paper is to see some of the reverse effects or fatal remedies of the 1984 reform initiatives. Methodologically, the paper is a content analysis involving literature review of vast secondary materials on the books, journals and websites on administrative reform and NPM initiatives, especially to that of NZ, which has been used, interpreted and reinterpreted to substantiate arguments. The finding of the study is that the reform in NZ was very much aggressive and rapid in nature rather than pragmatic and piecemeal approach of reform which was initiated in Norway, Sweden and Australia. The theoretical basis of the reform was very narrow, and the sustainable organisational efficiency was not achieved. The paper would add a new value involving the reverse effects or fatal remedies of the 1984 reform initiative which would help academicians and researchers to look at the reform initiatives of NZ from a critical perspective.