IntroductionT he reform initiatives and programmes in public organisations, which have been introduced in some developed liberal democracies over the last three decades in order to restructure public services, control expenditure, and reduce the size and the scope of the state sector (Hebdon & Kirkpatrick, 2005) -the so-called New Public Management -draw heavily on privatesector practices. Thus, public managers are tasked to concentrate on performance and quality, financial discipline, strategic direction and objectives setting in order to enhance effectiveness of public services (Ferlie et al, 1996;Hebdon & Kirkpatrick, 2005).