Abstract:
Management and cultures of state and non governmental social service organizations in Aotearoa New Zealand have been transformed since 1987. The state’s ‘managerialist project’ was driven by the State Sector Act 1988, the Public Finance Act 1989, and the Fiscal Responsibility Act 1994 which replaced input controls by outputs contributing to Government outcomes. ‘Government by contract’ was inaugurated. Performance agreements between ministers and chief executives specified contractual outputs, devolved to managers down the line. These changes, underpinned by public choice theory, agency theory, transaction cost economics and new public management (‘NPM’), were used to award social service contracts to non governmental organizations (‘NGOs’). These legislative, policy and managerial drivers changed the cultures of public sector and NGO social services as managers developed leadership skills, strategic thinking, business planning and performance management systems. The project analyzes whether and how the implementation of reform drove cultural changes in a state sector social service and a NGO respectively. The proposed analysis has been facilitated by the recognition in 2004 of management as a ‘core purpose of social work’ by the International Federation of Social Work (‘IFSW’), enabling professional validation of a contribution to the New Zealand social service management research literature