Melbourne Business School - Research Publications
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 4 of 4
-
ItemEngaging public sector clients: From service-delivery to co-production(Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2009-01-01)
-
ItemThe separation/specification dilemma in contracting: The local government experience in Victoria(BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, 2008)This article draws on evidence from case studies of local government contracting in the Australian state of Victoria. It argues that one of the key elements of competitive tendering – the separation of purchasers from providers – undermines another of its essential mechanisms – the specification of services – at the point where previously in‐house services are exposed to competition. The managers who are to become purchasers lack the requisite knowledge of services, which instead resides in the minds of the service delivery staff whose work is to be subjected to competitive processes. Separating purchasing from service‐provision ‘distances’ the staff from the managers, impairing employees’ willingness to share the relevant information. At the same time, the introduction of competition increases the probability that staff will withhold that knowledge, and makes it harder on probity grounds to maintain the type of collaborative relationship which might overcome their reluctance to share it.
-
ItemPublic value pragmatism as the next phase of public management(SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC, 2008-06)New Public Management has now been “new” for more than 15 years, and public administration scholars are calling for new approaches, such as networked governance or collaboration. However, these approaches share with their predecessors the problem that they tend toward a one-best-way orientation. Instead, the authors argue, the next phase should be what they call “public value pragmatism.” In other words, the best management approach to adopt depends on the circumstances, such as the value being produced, the context, or the nature of the task. They illustrate a decision framework for determining the most appropriate approach for different types of circumstances. The emerging literature also tends to be unclear about the level of the public sector to which it applies. The authors distinguish three levels—programs, organizations, and whole public sectors—and put forward some propositions about how public value pragmatism might apply at each level.
-
ItemMaking Sense of Public Value: Concepts, Critiques and Emergent Meanings(ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2009)