The influence of new public management on the police first-line manager: exploring the challenges faced by practitioner managers

Since the introduction of New Public Management (NPM), police sergeants haveexperienced significant role expansion, increasingly required to deliver organizationalstrategies, implement managerial policies, and facilitate organizational change.A study of police sergeants identified a conflict between management and opera-tional responsibilities. Participants described policing as a mechanistic organizationheavily weighted towards middle and upper management, impeding their autonomy.Yet, aired strong support for the retention of hierarchy. Participants expressed frustra-tion at being excluded from critical decisions, negatively affecting their ability tofacilitate change. This provides important insight into the impact of NPM on policing.