Finland

Most governments in western Europe are transforming their societal roles in a substantial way. The prevailing concept of the basic state functions, the relationship between state and society and the overall steering and planning role of the state are changing. The function of public administration is also changing as a result of new political strategies by governments. Perry and Kraemer (1983), representatives of a ‘generic school of management’, introduced the term ‘public management’, which they defined as a new approach that has grown naturally from weaknesses in other prevailing educational philosophies. They describe ‘public management’ as a merger of the normative orientation of traditional public administration and the instrumental orientation of generic management. By ‘normative orientation’ Perry and Kraemer mean a concern with issues of democracy and accountability and values such as equity, consistency and equality. By the ‘instrumental orientation’ of generic management, they evidently mean that the public sector shares with business enterprises the aim of achieving its goals effectively and efficiently by developing coherent strategies, well-defined tactics, appropriate structures, motivated personnel and mastery of relevant managerial techniques for deploying and controlling the use of limited organizational resources (Gunn, 1987).