New Public Management and Crisis Mitigation: The 2007 M/V Cosco Busan Incident

Abstract

The emergence of New Public Management (NPM) in the late 20^th century challenged governments to develop collaborative networks as the path to service entrepreneurship, improved efficiency, and satisfying citizen needs. This case study—based on a 2007 San Francisco Bay incident—scrutinizes the NPM networks developed to prevent and respond to vessel oil spills within U.S. territorial waters. The study finds that adherence to the theoretical strengths identified in NPM networks become diluted because of mission shifts, budgetary challenges, and politics.

Keywords:

• New Public Management
• oil spills
• disaster response
• organizational networks