The Contexts of Staff Participation and Public Management Reform

Most accounts of public management reform are ‘top-down’ and focus on the role of politicians, senior civil servants and policy advisers in fashioning the change process (Pollitt and Bouckaert 2004). Yet public officials (staff) have to interpret and apply the policies of governments and implement them and they have an interest in what reforms are introduced, as it affects their jobs, ways of working and economic position. They also have an interest in the substantive content and direction of reforms since, as public servants, many have a sense of responsibility for the public services they deliver. In other words, staff are a major stakeholder in the work of the state and activities of governments. This book explores to what extent staff in public services have been involved in the reform process and whether there is an alternative ‘bottom-up’ interpretation of public management reform. The aims of this chapter are two-fold. First, it identifies and analyses some of the main contextual forces influencing governments and their strategies for public management reform. Second, it examines how these contexts help shape staff expectations of work and their participation in the reform process.