The New Public Management and Workplace Change

A burgeoning literature has emerged over the last decade examining the growth of the New Public Management model in the public sector. The literature, however, tends to overlook the implications of these reforms for employment relations in the public sector. This paper presents evidence from two major surveys from the mid-1990s that compare the impact of workplace change on Australian public and private sector workers. Public sector workers reported they were working more intensively, under greater stress and with less job security than private sector workers. They also reported that their satisfaction with their job, with management and with their work/family balance had declined to a greater extent than their private sector counterparts. These employee responses suggest, despite the assertions of public sector management reports to the contrary, that the NPM reforms in the Australian public sector have resulted in more intensive workloads, increased job-related stress and reduced job security for many Australian public sector employees in the 1990s.