The Rise of a New Public Bureaucracy in New Zealand?

• Author: Karl Löfgren,Ben Darrah-Morgan,Linda Alamaa,Patrik Hall
• DOI: 10.1177/00953997211013301
• Date: 01 January 2022
• Published date: 01 January 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997211013301

Administration & Society

2022, Vol. 54(1) 57 –86

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/00953997211013301

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Article

The Rise of a New Public

Bureaucracy in New

Zealand?

Karl Löfgren1, Ben Darrah-Morgan1,

Patrik Hall2, and Linda Alamaa3

Abstract

One recurrent narrative in the discussion about managerial public sector

reforms is the growth in organizational professionals as a response to new

accountability regimes. New Zealand has experienced modest growth rates

in the general public sector workforce. Less studied, though, is whether the

composition of the public sector workforce has changed, with an increase

in organizational functions supportive to management. Based on descriptive

workforce data, followed by follow-up interviews, this article presents a

multifaceted and complex picture of a growing new public bureaucracy with

the main task of managing chains of accountability.

Keywords

public sector, organizational professional, managerialism, New Zealand

Introduction

For several years now, new public management (NPM) reforms, based on

neoliberal ideology and economic theory, have been described as fuelling a

1Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

2Malmö University, Skåne, Sweden

3Lund University, Sweden

Corresponding Author:

Karl Löfgren, School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington, Box 600,

Pipitea Campus, Wellington 6140, New Zealand.

Email: karl.lofgren@vuw.ac.nz

1013301AAS0010.1177/00953997211013301Administration & SocietyLöfgren et al.

research-article2021

58 Administration & Society 54(1)

new type of administrative expansion within public sector organizations

(Evetts, 2009; Hood & Peters, 2004; Power, 1997). The rise of this new

regime of managerialism in the public sector represents a well-known

account in many social science studies including the subtle undermining of

existing professional norms and values in the public sector workforce

through centralization of control and power, standardization of procedures,

individualized accountability, increased focus on legitimacy, and not least

managerial performance indicators (Brandsen & Honigh, 2013). While this

assumed evolution has been high on both the public and academic agenda

in, for example, the Scandinavian countries (cf. Greve, 2003; Hall, 2013;

Ivarsson Westerberg & Forssell, 2014; Torsteinsen, 2012), these assump-

tions have elsewhere more revolved around increased running costs as a

result of the reforms (cf. Hood & Dixon, 2015, 2016).

New Zealand represents in this context an interesting case. The country

was heavily affected by the major changes in the public sector occurring at

the time following the fourth Labor Government (1984). Structural changes,

such as disaggregation of units, increased emphasis on measurable outputs,

accountability measures, internal competition, and private sector manage-

rial methods and practices, all radically transformed the New Zealand pub-

lic sector through a number of legislative reforms (Boston, 2000; Boston

et al., 1996). New Zealand was constructed a prototype (“the New Zealand

model”) of the doctrines presented in Christopher Hood’s original article on

NPM (Hood, 1991), and subsequent assessments reinforced this view (cf.

Christensen & Lægreid, 2007). It appears that the legacy of managerialism

still colors much current thinking, despite the whittling down of many

reforms of the 1980s/1990s (Duncan & Chapman, 2010, 2012; Lodge &

Gill, 2011).

Notwithstanding the current body of literature (see below) presenting a

number of useful concepts and approaches, it is not exactly underpinned by

an abundance of empirical studies. The premise of our study is that, given the

literature on changes in the public sector workforce and a changing balance

in favor of managerial accountability, we should be able to somehow empiri-

cally observe these changes.

We will in this article evaluate the assumption that there is a trend leading

to observable increases in managerial and organizational professional func-

tions in public sector organizations. The chief research question is to what

extent can we observe (quantitatively) an occupational shift where a new

public bureaucracy of organizational professionals, including managerial

roles, have risen in the public sector in New Zealand? We will break this

down to two different levels/areas: