9 Conclusion
As Johnson and Scholes’ (2001) cultural web shows, cultural change is best effected by looking at a range of different interventions and ensuring that they support each other. The recommendations made above fulfil many of the aspects identified in the cultural web. Specifically, they provide for the power structures, organisational structures, control systems and rituals and routines in the New Zealand public management system to be amended to allow for a greater focus on outcomes.
It will be important that the stories and symbols of the system also support this cultural shift. The latter is already occurring – in part through Ministers reinforcing the cultural shift in public statements (although greater buy-in from Ministers would promote the change further), and through the change in rhetoric and behaviour on the part of central agencies. The latter will, possibly, be most important however – the stories that surround the system will need to provide evidence that an outcomes-focus on the part of agencies will be supported.
Shifting the culture of the New Zealand public management system towards one focused on achievement of outcomes will be a slow process. It is not a process that can rely purely on shifts within the strategic management process – as the cultural web suggests there are a number of other aspects that also need to be addressed if the overall paradigm is to be successfully altered. This paper has identified one possible picture of a managing for outcomes system in the New Zealand context, with the hope that it will lead to further debate and the development of an image that all actors within the system can easily work towards.
