The new public service ethos:: An ethical environment for governance

This article examines the concept of a public sector ethos as it is manifested at regional level. It argues that the increased interaction of the public and private sectors in recent years, exemplified by the growth of quangos and programmes such as the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and Single Regeneration Budget (SRB), has had a more complex effect than is usually acknowledged and that while the demands of the market have clearly imposed strains on the conventional view of the public sector, the increasing involvement of private sector organizations in public projects has also had a reciprocal effect on private sector companies. It is further suggested that there is, in consequence of this interaction, a new emerging ethos of public service which more accurately reflects organizational behaviour than the (largely misperceived) public sector ethos which it is replacing. This synthesis of public and private ethics, manifest in both the public and the private organizations engaged in the new 'governance' of the UK, reflects a fundamental shift from a concern with process to a concern with outputs, and offers an insight of general importance into the way in which New Public Management impacts upon the delivery of public services.(1)