New Public Management and Path Dependence in Public Organizations in Ethiopia: A Multiple Case Study

A differentiating focus and contribution of this panel is our call for advancing research that examines and theorizes organizational change and HRM on the quality of public sector work in different national contexts. As the... [ view full abstract ]

A differentiating focus and contribution of this panel is our call for advancing research that examines and theorizes organizational change and HRM on the quality of public sector work in different national contexts. As the purpose of this study was to document how managers in public organizations in Ethiopia describe the nature and implementation of path-breaking interventions for the effective adoption of NPM in order to improve services and social outcomes for low-income populations, it has direct relevance to the topic of the panel. NPM has attracted the attention of researchers worldwide. There are mixed findings on the performance of NPM in the public sector. There is a research gap as well as findings of poor performance in effectively implementing NPM in public organizations in developing countries. This study addressed the issue of adoption of NPM programs in Ethiopia, approaching it from path dependency theory. This study also extended path dependency theory by applying a model of path dependence to develop an empirical investigation and contributing original qualitative data from Ethiopia on the performance of NPM in this country’s public sector. Considerable resources and attention have been allocated to recent ‘good governance’ public administration reform in low-income and fragile states. The problem is there is little evidence as to what degree path-breaking interventions have been implemented, or if they have led to improved services and social outcomes. In lines with that, the research questions addressed are: RQ1: How do managers in public organizations in Ethiopia describe path-breaking interventions for the effective adoption of NPM in order to improve public services for low-income populations? RQ2: How do managers in public organizations in Ethiopia describe how path-breaking interventions for the effective adoption of NPM can be implemented in order to improve social outcomes for low-income populations? In doing so, a multiple case study was applied to compare and contrast the divergent opinions of different managers in Ethiopia having taken each as a unit of analysis in the study. Qualitative data was based on insights derived from in-depth interviews with the identified participants. Key findings of the study show that in Ethiopia NPM reforms have been introduced following a system-wide approach, obstructing their clear articulation and communication thereof. The levels of performance in design, implementation, output in terms of service delivery, and outcomes to the society vary among enterprises. Leadership commitment, persistence, necessary work in the reward system, and human resource policies (soft S’s), institutional development, autonomy and accountability, and benchmarking and contextualization are some of the factors for effective adoption of NPM reforms. The findings of this study will be significant for theory building and for policymakers and managers in effective adoption of NPM. This research can be expanded through quantitative analysis of public enterprise managers, through qualitative analysis of public enterprise managers outside of Ethiopia, by extending it to subject matter experts of public enterprises, and by finding case studies involving the main research questions. Finally, qualitative and quantitative research can be conducted on current and historic NPM reform trends.