A Systematic Review of Structure, Culture, and Demography of New Public Management (NPM) in the Developing Countries

Abstract

The paper assesses the effectiveness of NPM and its impacts with key consideration to culture, structure, and demography of developing nations. It blends the literature with cases and publications from the global organizations such as World Bank, United Nations, and International Monetary Fund (IMF). The study analyses the NPM reforms in Kenya which include budgeting, institutionalization and financial reporting, use of information systems, and changes in the management public finance. Increased transparency and accountability, public expenditures, and creation of agency problems are identified as the main impact of NPM on public governance. The literature also reveals that effective judicial system; efficient and control-oriented administrative system; and state capacity are some of the preconditions for NPM model. Onto to the factors affecting NPM implementation in the developing nations; it was found that limited resources, dispositions, the professional society, bureaucratic structure are the primary players. The article recommends institutionalization of code of ethics, balancing politics and bureaucracies, effective law enforcement, and implementation of NPM principles in phases as strategies to eliminate risk of failure. It then concludes that with increased pressure from the international donors, developing countries will continue adopting NPM framework into their public administrative systems.

Keywords: NPM, public sector, institutionalization, bureaucracy, transparency and accountability, performance-based budgeting, organizational structure and culture.

DOI: 10.7176/DCS/9-12-06

Publication date: December 31^st 2019