Post-New Public Management in Public Healthcare: Recycled, Hybridized, Paradigmatic?
Paper in proceeding, 2019

New Public Management (NPM) is increasingly used pejoratively and claimed unfit for the complex challenges in contemporary societies, for example aging population structures and, as a result, increased number of cancer patients. Consequently, post-NPM gains increased attention. Drawing from a longitudinal case in Swedish cancer care, the present article seeks to pinpoint post-NPM in public healthcare practice. It is revealed that some post-NPM aspects are recycled by combining traditional public administration (pre-NPM) and NPM aspects: the former’s re-professionalisation is combined with the latter’s foci on performance measures, decentralisation, and accountability. Other post-NPM aspects are hybridizing typical NPM aspects with new (post-NPM) aspects: for instance, customer-focus is taken further to include the patient’s active participation in co-designing services, and standardization is reinterpreted to concern meeting-places rather than efficiency. Yet other aspects are replacing NPM shortcomings: for instance, trust is replacing control, and a systems approach is replacing the intra-organisational focus

Cancer care

Governance

Public management

healthcare

Author

Erik Eriksson

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Service Management and Logistics

Andreas Hellström

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Service Management and Logistics

Thomas Andersson

University of Skövde

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Service Management and Logistics

Christian Gadolin

University of Skövde

British Academy of Management (BAM) 2019 Conference

British Academy of Management
Birmingham, United Kingdom,

Subject Categories

Health Care Service and Management, Health Policy and Services and Health Economy

Public Administration Studies

Other Social Sciences

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

Areas of Advance

Life Science Engineering (2010-2018)

More information

Latest update

7/23/2021