Introduced in the 1980s as part of an effort to make the public service improve its efficiency, the New Public Management (NPM) focused on the “centrality of citizens who were the recipient of the services or customers to the public sector.
In a journal titled ‘New Public Management: Emergence and Principles’, the writers highlighted five reasons for the emergence of NPM.
First, the large and expensive public sectors put pressures to cut programs and increase efficiency.
Secondly, the emergence of NPM is also due to massive technological innovations over the years, particularly, the development of information technology.
Third, the globalization of economy with increasing competition has become order of the day.
Fourth, the journal also noted that it has become unavoidable to liberalize the economic sector following heavy burden being imposed upon the national exchequer as a result of mismanagement, corruption, inefficiency in resource management, bureaucratic bungling etc.
More importantly, increasing efficiency in resource management is also expected as economic recession and competition simply demand it.
Fifth, in the competitive world, people are demanding quality goods and services as they are now keen to compare services of all organizations.
