Explanation and Pathology of the Current Pattern of Public Administration in Iran

The purpose of this study is to illustrate the process of applying the “new public management” approach in the country, the reasons for its inefficiencies, as well as its consequences. In this research, “grounded theory” and the systematic design proposed by Strauss and Corbin were used. For collecting data, in addition to semi-structured interviews with experts and management specialists, secondary resources such as texts and archived interviews were used. In this research, purposive and theoretical sampling methods were used and the data were analyzed in the form of open, axial and selective coding. The results of the research showed that convergence and mimicry of administrative transformation policies are among the main reasons to implement the “new public management” approach in the country. The choice of the “new public management” approach in the country considering the general and specific conditions governing the management system, has led to more inefficiency and increased negative outcomes of this approach. In addition, administrative, organizational, economic, social and political challenges have increased respectively. In a general conclusion, it can be said that the components of good governance are, in fact, the manifestation of the existence of the governance and non-governance capacities needed to implement a managerialism approach in a country. Without developing such capacities, the use of the new public management model in the public sector would surely end in far more negative consequences.