STRATEGIES FOR MANAGEMENT IN THE CIVIL-SERVICE - CHANGE OF DIRECTION

'Market testing' has been hailed by the Government as an opportunity t o bring enterprise into the management of the civil service. But what about the previous attempts to do that through setting up Executive Ag encies? Should we assume that they should be consigned to the dustbin of failed government reforms? This article suggests that market testin g is based on a fundamentally different approach to public management and speculates as to whether it has been introduced for reasons of car eer opportunism or because of a reasoned critique of what has been ach ieved through past approaches to management change. If there has been a reasoned critique, it has not been shared with the citizens of this country or their representatives in Parliament.