Measuring the Utility of Institutional Reform in the Public Service

Early proponents of development administration advanced a paradigm based on a search for technically superior models, the study and acceptability of cross-cultural public management experiences, and the promotion of policy management styles and structures oriented to particular ideological imperatives. Some characterized development administration as the new public management but distanced it from the World Bank's agenda of market driven public administration. In the new public management it has been suggested that in some cases executive agencies may be the appropriate public service delivery mechanism. Adopting Jones' pragmatism, this paper seeks to distinguish executive agencies in Jamaica from traditional agencies using service quality delivery and the SERVQUAL instrument. The results do not support the proposition that, when measured using the SERQUAL model, executive agencies necessarily deliver better service quality than traditional agencies. The promoters of executive agencies may be creating a greater expectation of service quality than the agencies can deliver, while some traditional agencies are delivering better service quality than the public expects. The study supports Jones's "adaptive management process" where no institution is regarded as sacrosanct, and all can be adapted to achieve the desired policy outcomes