Measuring the impact of new public management and European integration on recruitment and training in the UK civil service

Moshe Maor, Handley Stevens

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

This article investigates the impact which the institutional development of the European Union (EU) and the new public management (NPM) have had on the process of recruitment and training of senior public officials in the United Kingdom between 1970 and 1995. Information provided by directors of personnel and training has enabled the extent of change observed in three government departments - Agriculture, Transport and Health - to be measured on a numerical scale. This is combined with a historical analysis rooted in practitioner experience. The evidence from both sources suggests that whereas NPM pressures have had a relatively similar impact on recruitment and training practices in all three departments, the response to EU pressures is much stronger in the Ministry of Agriculture than in the Departments of Transport and Health. The EU impact in Agriculture is particularly strong in respect of recruitment and career progression, the only area and the only department in which our index suggests that policy has been more heavily influenced by European pressures than by NPM. These findings reflect the strength of the political commitment to NPM and the power of the central departments in imposing it across Whitehall; and in the case of Agriculture the development of a cadre of senior officials who have almost all had experience of working in or with the EU institutions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)531-551
Number of pages21
JournalPublic Administration
Volume75
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 1997
Externally publishedYes

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