Dynamics of Public Administration Reform Processes: Contrasting Top‐Down Purity and Meso‐Level Managerial Bricolage Reform in New Zealand
比较新西兰过去50年两次重大行政改革，揭示自上而下政治驱动与中层管理渐进拼凑两种路径的差异，强调集体领导通过内生反馈推动范式变革。
ABSTRACT Although the results of paradigmatic change are a common focus of the literature, significantly less attention has been paid to the process through which public administration reform takes place. In particular, the role of meso‐level induced changes has only recently started to receive some attention, and not much is yet known about how collaborative systems at the managerial level affect pathways of administrative reform. Here we compare the two most significant periods of reform in New Zealand in the past 50 years. The 1988–1989 reforms were based on simple (arguably simplistic) assumptions, amenable to rapid and politically led top‐down reform. In contrast, the 2012–2020 reforms conceived of public administration as a complex social system suited to incremental managerially induced change that was mainly driven by the bureaucratic elite. Our article shows that collective leadership may result in extensive paradigmatic changes through endogenous feedback and meso‐level induced processes.