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Management Control, Accountability, and Learning in Public Sector Organizations: A Critical Analysis

Max Visser

Governance and Performance in Public and Non-Profit Organizations

ISBN: 978-1-78635-108-1, eISBN: 978-1-78635-107-4

Publication date: 18 April 2016

Abstract

Purpose

In the past decades, Dutch public sector organizations (PSOs) have been encouraged to become more “business-like” in their internal control and accountability processes, following a more general trend toward New Public Management (NPM) in Western societies. However, in the Netherlands, this trend has met with increasing resistance and discontent among public sector professionals. In this chapter, a framework is developed that enables these public sector professionals themselves to discuss and reflect on their internal control and accountability processes, and possibly to effect changes in it.

Methodology/approach

The chapter contains a critical analysis of existing research on management control, accountability, and learning in PSOs and describes a reflection and discussion session with a group of senior staff employees at a Dutch university, employing the framework developed in this chapter.

Findings

It is argued that, generally speaking, the “business-like” approach of NPM does not appear appropriate for most public sector activities and may even negatively affect accountability and learning in PSOs.

Social implications

The chapter critically assesses the impact of NPM on PSOs and provides an alternative to NPM in the form of experimentalist governance, with possible positive implications for the effectiveness of public sector activities.

Originality/value

This chapter is among the first to adapt a framework, developed for scientific and descriptive use, for more practical and prescriptive purposes, that is, as an instrument for public sector professionals to discuss and reflect on their internal control and accountability processes.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

I thank the editors and reviewers for the Emerald Series “Studies in Public and Non-Profit Governance,” Geert Hofstede, Ed Vosselman, Jan-Kees Helderman, Charles Sabel, Maria Crema, Salvatore Russo, and other participants at the 8th Annual Conference of the EuroMed Academy of Business, 16–18 September 2015, Verona, Italy, for their valuable suggestions and ideas for earlier versions of this chapter.

Citation

Visser, M. (2016), "Management Control, Accountability, and Learning in Public Sector Organizations: A Critical Analysis", Governance and Performance in Public and Non-Profit Organizations (Studies in Public and Non-Profit Governance, Vol. 5), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 75-93. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2051-663020160000005004

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited