New Public Management Reform Strategies: Cross‐National Impacts on Performance‐Oriented Management

ABSTRACT New Public Management (NPM) reform strategies have been adopted globally by policy makers and administrators as market‐based approaches to improve traditional civil service systems. This study examines the cross‐national impact of five NPM reform strategies identified in the literature to determine whether they have positive impacts on performance‐oriented management (POM) for public organizations. The argument is that these strategies are promoted as competitive approaches that are multipurpose in enhancing labor resources and influencing high performance strategies of public agencies. Few studies have examined these relationships in public administration (PA) in countries as diverse and distinct as these jurisdictions. Given these NPM reforms, our study tests these hypotheses using hierarchical regression analyses across seven countries. Our findings indicate that hiring flexibility, the use of pay‐for‐performance strategies at work and public‐private partnerships in service delivery have a positive relationship with POM in most countries, the deregulation of rule‐bound personnel systems and contracting out showed mixed effects.