Managerialism

Managerialism is a word often used in Australia and New Zealand since the late 1980s to describe a critique of traditional bureaucratic public sector organisation; this critique was coupled with an argument that the public sector ought to be organised to mimic business organisation and managed along business lines. These basic ideas are widely referred to internationally as the new public management. They overlap with the precepts of economic rationalism.

Endemic problems of bureaucratic organisation, such as rigidity, stultifying hierarchy and a focus on following processes rather than achieving results, have been repeated ad nauseam since the early twentieth-century writings of the influential German theorist Max Weber. Rather than simply repeating these complaints, supporters of managerialism argue that business provides an alternative and better mode of organisation for the public sector. In this vein, future Liberal Premier Nick Greiner memorably described himself in the mid-1980s as wanting to be like the managing director of New South Wales Inc., out to get better returns for his shareholders.

Under managerialism, public sector managers have become part of a senior executive service. They have lost their previous career tenure but gained performance-based contracts and increased salaries related to their market worth. Government ministers set objectives for public sector managers and the managers are then allowed freedom to pursue those objectives without political interference. ‘Let the managers manage’ is the mantra.