This article reviews a set of studies depicting how public officials (agents) in French public utilities have reacted, in practical terms, to customer‐focused reforms.
The article is based on data drawn from labour studies commissioned by French public utilities to evaluate the effects of reforms. Qualitative research using direct observation or semi‐structured interviews testing the assumption that the real locus of change in behaviour, values and identity stem from changes in work practices not principles.
There is evidence of a progressive diffusion of new public management values but this varies between different groups and their changes in behaviour are triggered more by the adjustment of workers' practices to new management rules and technical innovations than the imposition of new principles or cultural values. The responses of agents are also often inconsistent. This suggests that the generalised findings of research based on surveys and questionnaires may not capture the reality of change, which is more complex, varied, inconsistent and contingent.
It offers a challenging critique of the use of surveys and top down approaches in the study of the impact of new public management on public officials and suggests a bottom up approach throws more light on how and why changes in behaviour, values and identity occur.
