Public Management Reform. A Comparative Analysis

Offers a comprehensive critique of the spread of auditing in both the public and private sectors and shows how to achieve a better balance between audits and other forms of accountability. Michael Power is Professor of Accounting at the LSE. ‘A rare attempt to stand back and question the very notion of auditing and the place it has assumed in our society.’ Financial Times

The Audit Explosion

International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (vol. 10)

The rise of professionalism

Professionalism is a key concept in the sociologies of work, occupations, professions and organizations. But professionalism is changing and being changed. The article considers the different ways ...

Professionalism: Value and ideology

La multiplication de reformes, au sein des administrations, mobilisant des principes et des instruments inspires de la doctrine du New Public Management (NPM), a provoque protestations et mobilisations collectives de la part de nombreux groupes professionnels dans de nombreux secteurs (sante, education, justice, travail social, recherche…). Ces phenomenes font surgir des interrogations sur le devenir des groupes professionnels inscrits dans les services publics en particulier sur la remise en cause de leur autonomie par les reformes NPM. L’opposition entre NPM et professions, pour heuristique qu’elle soit, n’epuise pas l’analyse. Faut-il penser ces changements en termes de declin des professions, de retrecissement des autonomies professionnelles, de mutations des modeles professionnels, de recomposition du professionnalisme, etc. ? Ces questions se situent au carrefour d’une actualite vive — en France et en Europe — et de reflexions sociologiques continues. Elles sont developpees et traitees ici a partir de terrains empiriques, d’echelles d’analyse et d’experiences de recherche variees. Les contributions a ce dossier explorent ainsi les declinaisons des tensions entre NPM et professions.

https://spire.sciencespo.fr/hdl:/2441/c6t1fl36hv9s7q89j6sh929hh/resources/2011-benamouzig-et-alii-new-public-management-v-auteur.pdf

New Public Management et professions dans l’État : au-delà des oppositions, quelles recompositions ?

The proliferation of reforms in public administration based on the principles and instruments of the " New Public Management" (NPM) have triggered protest from and collective action by many professional groups in various sectors (healthcare, education, justice, social work, research...) and raised questions about the future of professionals working in the public service, particularly as concerns their autonomy. However, after analyzing the situation, it seems that the opposition between NPM and certain professional groups is not the last word in the debate. Should changes be seen as the decline of professional groups and of their autonomy or as a transformation of professional models, an overhaul of professionalism, etc.? Such questions, which current events in France and Europe have brought to the fore, are food for ongoing sociological thought. They are broached here empirically, from the field, applying varied levels of analysis and research. The contributors to this dossier explore the different forms of tension existing between professional groups and NPM. © 2012 Elsevier Masson

https://spire.sciencespo.fr/hdl:/2441/7o2v43dfqq8dlp4leggovrrc23/resources/2012-bezes-new-public-management-and-professionals-vauteur.pdf

New public management and professionals in the public sector

The proliferation of reforms in public administration based on the principles and instruments of the “New Public Management” (NPM) have triggered protest from and collective action by many professional groups in various sectors (healthcare, education, justice, social work, research…) and raised questions about the future of professionals working in the public service, particularly as concerns their autonomy. However, after analyzing the situation, it seems that the opposition between NPM and certain professional groups is not the last word in the debate. Should changes be seen as the decline of professional groups and of their autonomy or as a transformation of professional models, an overhaul of professionalism, etc.? Such questions, which current events in France and Europe have brought to the fore, are food for ongoing sociological thought. They are broached here empirically, from the field, applying varied levels of analysis and research. The contributors to this dossier explore the different forms of tension existing between professional groups and NPM.

New public management and professionals in the public sector. What new patterns beyond opposition

Les dispositifs d’action publique font de plus en plus appel aux competences et a la mobilisation des agents charges de leur mise en œuvre, afin de repondre au plus pres aux demandes des usagers et des citoyens. Les schemas de division du travail s'eloignent des modeles bureaucratiques classiques : le probleme n’est plus tant de delivrer des biens publics homogenes sur l’ensemble du territoire que de traiter, au cas par cas, des situations complexes et differenciees.

La logique bureaucratique avait favorise les strategies de cloture de corps professionnels au sein de l’administration. Revendiquant la maitrise de savoirs specialises, ces professions se sont historiquement bien accommodees des logiques de production propres a l’Etat moderne et a l’Etat providence en particulier. L’epuisement de ce modele invite a s’interroger sur la nature et la place des professions dans la conduite de l’action publique aujourd’hui. Dans quelle mesure son evolution offre-t-elle des opportunites pour la professionnalisation de nouvelles activites ? Comment, en retour, l’intervention de certaines professions contribue-t-elle a asseoir la legitimite de l’intervention publique ?

Les contributeurs, sociologues, politologues et historiens cherchent a apporter des reponses a ces questions en confrontant la notion de « legitimite professionnelle » aux transformations recentes de l’action publique. Si ces questions ont ete traitees a la fois par la sociologie des professions et la sociologie de l’action publique, il est encore rare que ces deux domaines de recherche soient associes. Les analyses presentees au fil des chapitres, qui s’appuient sur des etudes de cas puisees dans differents champs d’action publique (education, sante, politiques sociales, justice, amenagement du territoire…), cherchent a tracer des perspectives communes pour mieux comprendre le role des professions dans l’action publique aujourd’hui.

Thomas Le Bianic

Papers

New Public Management et professions dans l’État : au-delà des oppositions, quelles recompositions ?

New public management and professionals in the public sector

New public management and professionals in the public sector. What new patterns beyond opposition

Action publique et légitimités professionnelles

S'inscrire dans une démarche comparative