新管理主义时代香港社会福利领域NGO之发展

Development of Hong Kong Social Welfare NGOs in the Era of New Public Management

全球第三部门正处在发展的十字路口,面临转型的挑战。本文运用个案研究方法,试图探讨20世纪90年代以来新管理主义如何影响香港社会福利领域NGO的发展。研究发现,尽管新管理主义的价值观已深植于NGO领域,但不同个案机构对其影响的回应不尽相同;组织的社会倡导价值对于市场化价值的妥协在本研究中虽有体现,但如何使商界更加关注社会福利的改善正日益成为香港NGO实践其倡导价值的新关注点。

The global third sector is at a turning point and being challenged by the transformation. Using an in-depth case study method, this study investigated how New Public Management （NPM） had influenced the development of social welfare NGOs in Hong Kong since the mid-1990s. This paper first reviews NPM＇s development and its impact on the market-oriented reform in the area of social welfare in Hong Kong. It then analyzes the influences of these NPM reforms on the social welfare NGOs in regards to their commercialization trends, change in the organizational form, value basis andrelation with the government. The finding suggests that Hong Kong government wants to have some financial relief and that the policy to have lump sum released to better the efficiency of public service does have an impact on the commercialization of the NGOs in the social welfare field, regardless whether it is contracting with the government or it is related to other types of revenues from commercialized items. New management techniques and new management operational structures are being created in response. Commercialized management and the rise of social enterprises are the results of the changes in Hong Kong NGOs＇ organizational forms. While the penetration of NPM values into NGOs is deep, there are variations across the sample of 12 NG0s. Three types of NGOs can be identified in this study with regard to their different historical origins and functions, namely, operators, pioneers and advocators. Their various strategies in responding to NPM reforms and the changes in their relations to the government are discussed. This article argues that there is evidence of a tradeoff in organizational values for marketization suggested by previous studies. Given the continuing financial austerity and the growing authoritarianism of the government, the future of NGOs and their role in developing civil society in the region is quite uncertain. However, there is still one type of NGOs initiated by professionals in earlier years, and they are working to influence the business sector to realign values towards promoting social welfare as a new focus of advocacy.