Implementing Performance-based Management in the Traditional Bureaucracy of Portugal

The influence of the New Public Management (NPM) movement in Portuguese administrative reform has been one of the country’s noticeable trends in recent decades (Araújo 2001, 2002a; Rocha 2001). Many governments have aimed to introduce a new managerial rationality in public services. The literature about administrative reform shows that institutional bureaucracies resist change, particularly when it challenges prevailing practices and procedures (Bjur and Caiden 1978; Olsen 1991). Thus, the influence of NPM in administrative reform has found different expressions and, in several countries, the introduction of NPM ideas is a limited and superficial phenomenon (Pollitt 2000). This paper contributes to these debates. It examines the influence of New Public Management ideas in Portuguese administrative reform and discusses improvements in the way public services are implementing change using new managerial tools in Portugal: the Activity Plan (AP) and the Activity Report (AR). The data collected from official reports and a questionnaire show that the juridical-administrative model persists and transforms both Activity Plan and Activity Report into little more than a formality, another routine to be followed.