Bureaucracy or Post-Bureaucracy? Public Sector Organisations in a Changing Context

This article explores the nature of public sector organisational values m the context of wider debates about the shift from bureaucracy to post-bureaucracy. Preference for post-bureaucracy is a characteristic of the discourse of new public management, which has been influential in the public sectors of advanced economies. The article focuses on organisational values, which are ingrained attitudes and beliefs that underlie organisational structures. It might be expected that public sector organisations would reflect post-bureaucratic values in response to changes in dominant management and organisational discourses as well as the external environment. The research reported here does not confirm initial expectations that public sector organisations have become post-bureaucratic. In this regard, the article discusses the possibility that public sector organisations have evolved from one form of bureaucracy based on political controls and values, to a form of bureaucracy associated with market controls and values.