New public management: its impact on public servant's identity

Purpose This paper introduces the symposium on public management reform and its impact on public servant's identity. It provides both a descriptive and theoretical context within which the other contributions to the symposium can be located. Design/methodology/approach It is based on a literature review and a summary of the articles in the symposium Findings The paper describes the changes associated with new public management (NPM) and its variants and their impact on systems of public administration and public officials. It also highlights the contribution that cultural and social theories, drawn from anthropology and organisational psychology, make to an understanding of the processes by which public servants’ identity are formed and changed. It complements this with an examination of different models of bureaucracy, which reflect the transition from classical public administration to NPM. These concepts and ideas are developed further in other articles in the journal. Originality/value It provides an introduction for readers unfamiliar with the core concepts and ideas associated with individual, group and organisational identity and highlights for readers what is central to the research papers in the symposium.