What impact has managerialism hadon a New South Wales AreaHealth Service?

Abstract

In a perfect world, the health public sector would be completely efficient and effective. In reality, managers, policy-makers,politicians, academics, public sector employees and business representatives are constantly searching for newways to orientate the public sector towards being more cost-effective, accountable, results- and outcome-orientated, task-specificand better organised and structured. In New South Wales (NSW), this has been most apparent in endeavoursto bring about a change towards the philosophy of 'new managerial thinking' or corporate management. This paperexplores the hypothesis that managerialism has significantly influenced the culture of the New England Area HealthService (NEAHS) and its relationship with its staff. To test this hypothesis, between 1996-1997 a self-administeredquestionnaire survey form was sent to a sample of the NEAHS staff across all work sites and all levels. It is concludedthat during this time, the organisation was struggling with change management issues and the successfulimplementation of managerialist philosophy and its elements as evidenced by staff confusion, doubt and 'cultural shock'.