Paradoxes and Pendulum Swings: Performance Management in New Zealand's Public Sector

Under New Zealand's radical state sector reforms, ‘empowered’ managers are held accountable in an arm's length way by politicians and control agencies through the use of clearly stated objectives and the availability of quality information about progress towards those objectives. However, empirical research indicates that this thermostatic metaphor embodies a number of paradoxes. A great deal of international attention has been paid to these reforms, but New Zealand has not discovered any ultimate resolution of the fundamental paradox of modern bureaucracy — the tendency for control to subvert purpose — and is now seeking a new ‘balance’ between these two managerial imperatives.