Nordic New Public Management: the case of Denmark

This chapter examines how New Public Management (NPM) has been adopted in the public sector and illuminates its impact on working life for welfare professionals i.e. public sector employees working in the front line of welfare state service provision. As our case, we take the development of NPM reforms in Denmark, which has many similarities to developments in the other Nordic countries. Drawing on existing studies of NPM and its impacts on working life, we show that the Danish version of NPM can be characterized as a ‘negotiated modernization’, where welfare professionals and their trade unions have been actively involved in shaping NPM reforms. The Nordic context and traditions of social dialogue and negotiation have thus made their mark. However, in accordance with international trends, Danish NPM reforms have had extensive impacts on the working life of welfare professionals in terms of standardization and marketization, resulting in widespread experiences of e.g. work stress and intensification, increased documentation and control, decreased autonomy and lack of recognition. However, a specific trend of combining professionalization of welfare work with NPM reforms has also played a role in underpinning welfare professionals’ individual and collective strategies of resistance and translation of NPM reforms in accordance with their professional ethics and orientations