New Professionalism and New Public Management: Changes, Continuities and Consequences

The links between New Public Management (NPM) and the possible emergence of a new and different form of professionalism raise interesting and challenging questions for sociologists of professional groups. In this paper, an ideal-type (organizational/occupational professionalism) is used to examine the links between NPM and professionalism in the contexts of the public services of western post-industrial societies. Then the changes to and the continuities in professionalism in these organizational contexts and with NPM are indicated. The discussion section examines some of the consequences of the changes in professionalism for practitioner workers and their clients in public service sector work.