Re-engineering public administration in developing countries

There is a compelling need for public administration in developing countries to be increasingly more cost-effective, due to lack of available resources as well as pressure on these countries to remain globally competitive and sustain their development. This article introduces the concept of 'public administration reengineering' (PAR) to address this issue. It conceptualizes PAR as development of an organizational architecture that links the strategy of a public organization to its administrative processes. Further, it identifies the key elements and categories of PAR, examples of its application, potential problems in applying it in less-developed countries and, finally, a framework for the planning application of PAR. It is hoped that the article will stimulate the thinking of public administrators to evaluate PAR as a solution to some of the problems in their own organizations, and would thus provide valuable case studies required to establish PAR on sound intellectual as well as practical footings. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd