This paper examines the intent and consequences of ‘new’ accounting (the ‘NewPublic Financial Management’) (NPFM) procedures invoked to facilitate a macromicro interface within the context of the significant administrative reform of the New Zealand (NZ) state education system. The 1989 educational reform of the NZ education system can be seen as part of a wider set of public sector reforms, which are characterised by the umbrella heading of ‘New Public Management’. It was claimed that NPFM provided a link between the sets of values highlighted through the NPM reform process and the internal workings of various public sector organisations.The study provides case studies of the organisational 本文来自优.文~论^文·网原文请找腾讯3249.114 change, and institutional theory that offers an explanation of the ‘operational’ consequences of public sector organisational (i.e. schools) response to change. The findings suggest that accounting and management technologies have served a useful, political purpose, although not in the way espoused by NPM proponents.
1. Introduction
A focus on education and the management of the educational process forms an important element of the public sector management reforms that have been implemented throughout many countries. Of particular interest is the role of accounting in the reform process (Broadbent & Guthrie, 1992; Hood, 1995). This paper provides one response to this challenge through an examination of management accounting procedures that were invoked during a period of change in the NZ schools sector, and our story begins in the late 1980s.
The re-election of the fourth Labour government (1984 – 1991) in 1987 heralded the commencement of a period of considerable change to the administrative structures and processes of NZ state provided education since its inception in the 1870s (Codd, 1990; Macpherson, 1989). In brief, the reform abolished the intermediary stages of education administration, radically reduced and restructured the central agency and identified individual schools as “… the basic building block of education administration” (Department of Education, 1988, p.1). Elected boards of trustees were responsible for the governance of individual schools and principals were charged with day-to-day management. Many of the direct controls that existed under the pre-reform structure were replaced by other steering mechanisms such as: school charter; national curriculum; national educational guidelines; educational reviews and financial audits.
Arguably, the then government had sought to introduce economic and managerial ‘rationalism’ into the education system and, specifically, the school site. The official rhetoric of the reforms emphasised issues of ‘efficiency’, ‘devolution’, ‘choice’, ‘competition’ and ‘accountability’ and impacted on other areas of the NZ public sector, which the government sought to steer, including education. Schooling was reoriented in line with these terms and schools modelled on structures more commonly found in the private business sector. The vertically integrated operational model of the education system that existed prior to the 1989 reform was remodelled with a decoupling of 2454
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