The New Public Management and Human Resource Management Policies: Numerical Flexibility in the New Zealand Public Sector

This article draws upon data from a workplace survey to compare the incidence of non-standard employment in the New Zealand public and private sectors. The data shows that public sector organisations employ higher proportions of part-time, temporary and casual workers and employees on fixed term contracts than do those in the private sector. They are also disproportionately likely to employ contractors and consultants than private sector firms. Public sector organisations are three times as likely as private sector firms to have contracted out activities in recent years. It is argued that the more widespread use of numerical flexibility strategies in the public sector is linked to the influence of new public management theories in the restructuring of the public sector over the last decade.