Social workers, too, can reminisce about the “good old days” when they did not know and did not have to think about the costs of a certain action, in comparison with alternatives. Economization has also found its way into the profession of social work (Schimank/Volkmann 2009, 386).
In following the discussion about methods of social work since the early 1990s, one cannot deny that “since the beginning of the new millennium, all socio-pedagogical activities have mutated into `management’” (Galuske 2007, 333). The success story of economic methods of business management is based on the concept of so-called “New Public Management” and is mainly manifested in contract management and consequently in quality management. Contract management plays a central role in ”New Public Management“. It is a management instrument that is characterized by completion of a target agreement or a contract. The contract defines, for a given period of time, who is to implement which goals, in a verifiable manner. Contract management can be applied both inter-organizationally and intra-organizationally. The main foci are merit target agreements for particular products, payment agreements for budgets and the establishment of success indicators.