公共行政在不同国家的不同利率(Simonet,2008)以及不同程度的疗效,具有不同程度的疗效,文化差异在发挥关键作用(Bouckaert,2007)。在检查此过程时,Polinitt(1995)确定了一个主要的悖论:虽然NPM需要可衡量的行政活动产出,但到目前为止没有提供评估工具来评估NPM。A number of studies (e.g., Box, 1999; Pollitt, 1995) have indicated that one of the most important aspects of NPM is the increasing emphasis on customer service quality (other key aspects include cost-cutting, the creation of separate agencies, the decentralization of management authority, the introduction of market mechanisms, the introduction of performance-related pay, quality management, privatization, downsizing, rightsizing, and entrepreneurism).
公共行政的现代化需要改善向市民提供的服务,他们期望被视为客户。作为客户服务中的关键资源,公共人力资源管理已成为最近NPM改革的关键目标(Battaglio,2009; Battaglio&Condrey,2006; Kellough,Nigro,Brewer,2010)。Irrespective of their position (i.e., blue collar or white collar), their rank in the hierarchy (i.e., manager or subordinate), or the nature of their interactions with customers (i.e., back office or frontline), all public service employees have become involved in this process. At the point of service delivery, managers are able to assess employees' willingness to provide better service to the public based on their commitment to the customer (i.e., the citizen). As a result of the modernization of public administration, there has been a radical shift in the status of citizens, who have come to be viewed as customers by public servants.
Although service delivery to citizens as customers has emerged as an important concern for public management in recent years (e.g., Osborne & Gaebler, 1992; Vigoda- Gadot & Golembiewski, 2001), Kelly (2008) indicated that the adoption of a citizen-as-customer model reflects a confusion between means and objectives, arguing that “if citizens are dissatisfied with high-performing services, the modern public manager may be more inclined to intensify his or her outreach activities than to adjust the way services are delivered to increase satisfaction” (p. 78).