The doctrines of public sector management encompassed by NPM have been variously described by different commentators and some have identified different phases in the development of NPM. However, there is still a good deal of overlap among the different accounts of what NPM entailed. For example, the idea of a shift in emphasis from policy making to management skills, from a stress on process to a stress on output, from orderly hierarchies to an intensely more competitive basis for providing public services, are themes which appear in most accounts.