Innovative Public Sector Education and Training in a Developing South Africa: The Impact of and Responses to Globalization

The end of the twentieth century witnessed significant changes in governmental administration with increasing reliance on, for example, the application of market mechanisms, & the carrying out of privatization & deregulation initiatives to be in line with globalization challenges. The significance of these changes was accelerated by the social transformation which took place during this time. Countries moved from undemocratic to participative/democratic states & from planned to free market economies. The constitutional change that paved the way for a democratic dispensation in South Africa directly impacted upon the public sector which was & still is undergoing major structural changes to undo & unlearn the aberrations of the past. These changes are sometimes characterized by terms such as modernization, reform, transformation, restructuring & rationalization. This focus on modernization of the public services reflects a commitment of the government to improve public services but also a declaration that the core public services are not performing as well as government believes that they should. The new challenges of governing therefore seem increasingly complex, placing governments & public administrations in situations that are probably quite different from those we knew before. Today, developing countries need to find answers geared towards today's needs in order to clear up ambiguities concerning some of the basic principles by which they are governed. One of the major consequences of modernization is a lessening of administrative disparities & less divergence in models due to the development of the principle of standardization & uniformity of management rules. This takes a number of inevitable routes that can be summed up by the term New Public Management (NPM). The term challenges the classical administrative considerations about the structure & function of public services. The new environment has aimed at producing a more responsible & efficient customer-focused service. These reforms, largely influenced by the market model, are founded on the following two postulates: that management methods originating in the private sector are superior to those traditionally used in the public sector, & that the management of the economy must gradually give way to market forces. The demand for NPM therefore aimed not only to improve administrative output technically, but also to develop public relations techniques based on communication skills, simplified administ