Journal Articles

STRUGGLING WITH AMBIGUITY: PUBLIC MANAGERS AS USERS OF NPM-ORIENTED MANAGEMENT INSTRUMENTS

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Improving public sector performance involves both ‘knowing’ and ‘doing’ problems. With the emphasis on the ‘doing’ problem, this study examines public managers as users of management instruments (MI) in attempts to improve the performance of public services. The article explores uses of three MIs in Finnish local government by using the conceptual framework of ambiguity. The article demonstrates why and how the use of MIs does not always simplify the public management exercise. It may become even more ambiguous. It is important to comprehensively understand the ways in which uses and users of MIs intervene in the process of public service delivery. It is argued that understanding MI uses in public administration necessitates a more profound theoretical approach acknowledging the ways in which ‘rational intentions' for performance improvements turn into situated, boundedly rational, managerial practice. In the context of productivity programmes, such understanding is essential to researchers and practitioners of public administration.

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Detail Information

Series Title

Public Administration

Call Number

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Publisher

Oxfordshire, United Kingdom : Wiley-Blackwell., 2010

Collation

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

00333298

Classification

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Content Type

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Media Type

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Carrier Type

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Edition

Volume 88, Issue 4, pages 999–1024, December 2010

Subject(s)

Public sector performance
Struggling with ambiguity
Management instruments (MI)

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