First Management Reform Wave in Great Britain

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Organisation and Administration, grade: 2,0, University of Constance, language: English, abstract: The 1980s in Great Britain are referred to as the "decade of Thatcherism", named after their characteristic Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Her government produced revolutionary changes which not only completely transformed economic life, but also fundamentally reorganised the government's tasks and functions, as well as the structure of the civil service. These all public sector divisions encompassing reforms are referred to as the First Management reform wave, in which market forces, as well as management concepts from the private sector were enthusiastically implemented in the public sector. This research paper analyses the reasons for the ineffectiveness, and the sometimes even negative influences of the first management reform wave on the state's performance. Hereby it will be assessed if the causes are to be found in the private sector management techniques and their application to public sector organisations (in form of the New Public Management concept), or if rather the specific kind and context of British reforms was problematic, and rendered the techniques unfeasible and impractical. To this end, the reform process in Britain, starting in 1979 with the election of the Conservatives, until the change of government to Labour in 1997, will be analysed. The first part of the paper will give an ...