THE ASIA PACIFIC JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION VOL 26, NO 2 (DECEMBER 2004) 197-215 Bureaucracy or Post-Bureaucracy? Public Sector Organisations in a Changing Context Rachel Parker and Lisa Bradley This article explores the nature of public sector organisational values in the context of wider debates about the shift from bureaucracy to post-bureaucracy. Preferencefor post-bureaucracy is a characteristic of the discourse of new public management, which has been influential in the public sectors of advanced economies. The article focuses on organisational values, which are ingrained attitudes and beliefs that underlie organisational structures. It might be expected that public sector organisations would reflect post-bureaucratic values in response to changes in dominant management and organisational discourses as well as the external environment. The research reported here does not confirm initial expectations that public sector organisations have become post-bureaucratic. In this regard, the article discusses the possibility that public sector organisations have evolved from one form of bureaucracy based on political controls and values, to a form of bureaucracy associated with market controls and values. Introduction Recently, organisation theorists have both described and proscribed a transition from bureaucracy to post-bureaucracy involving a declining emphasis on formalised internal organisational structures and control mechanisms (Clegg 1990; Hydebrand 1989; Cooke 1990). The values of bureaucratic administration included structured hierarchies, rational systems based on rules and procedures, the formalisation of decision making processes, and advancement based on administrative expertise (Bozeman 1979; Perry & Rainey 1988). The characteristics of public sector bureaucratic organisations reflected Weber's legal-rational model, which described bureaucracy as hierarchical, rule enforcing, impersonal in the application of laws, and constituted by members with specialised technical knowledge of rules and procedures (Weber 1948). In contrast, the post-bureaucratic organisation is characterised by collaboration, trust, negotiation, groups, teamwork, decentralisation of authority, and reduced management layers (Cooke 1990). At a broad level, organisational transformation can be seen as a reflection of broader social, economic and cultural developments (including rapidly changing technologies which have revolutionised production techniques), 197