The assumptions about the motivations and treatment of people in the New
Public Service differ starkly from both the Old Public Administration and
the New Public Management. The Old Public Administration assumed
people to be as McGregor’s Theory X described them: lazy, stupid, lacking
in drive, and unwilling to accept responsibility. Accordingly, they had to
be controlled and threatened with punishment to secure their performance.
The New Public Management has a different, but no more trusting, view of
people. It assumes that they are self-interested and will seek to meet their
own objectives unless they are monitored and provided with enough incentives
to do otherwise. As such, the New Public Management, like Taylor’s
scientific management, excludes consideration of group norms and values,
organizational culture, emotional/social considerations, and psychological
and other “irrational” needs. It negates the idea that people act in responseto shared values, loyalty, citizenship, and the public interest.