NPM is dead, long live NPM : The strategic shift in public sector discourse

Abstract

Strategic performance measurement (SPM) is an important tool of New Public Management (NPM) which found great currency during the previous New Labour Government in the U.K. A discourse analysis of the official publications of Governments from Thatcher to Blair establishes the fact that all these governments had faith in the change management role of accounting, and important public sector reforms relied heavily upon accounting changes. However the new Coalition Government has scrapped the SPM tool of NPM and hence the question arises whether both SPM and NPM are now dead. This interview-based discourse suggests that SPM has left imprints at the operational level of management and the Government has shifted its focus to efficiency savings due to economic pressures. Since there is only a change of tools offered by NPM it can be concluded that NPM still remains relevant.