Governing Public Value: How to Foster Knowledge-intensive Collaboration in the Public Sector ^☆

This paper was presented in the track 24 (Leading Public Sector Organizations in the New Era: Challenges in Governance Systems, Mechanisms and Roles) at the Seventeenth Annual Conference of the International Research Society for Public Management (IRSPM XVII), 10–12 April 2013, Prague.

Abstract

Purpose

The chapter aims to conceptually explore how to govern public sector organizations in order to create public value. It focuses on the importance of knowledge-intensive processes in creating public value as well as the challenges in governing such fragile processes.

Methodology

We use organizational theory and respective concepts in the field of organizational design focusing on cognitive and motivational aspects. These are explained by group theories and concepts of conditional cooperation.

Findings

We show the important role and the antecedents of self-governance in creating public value based on knowledge creation, sharing and use, whereas the classical method of hierarchical and bureaucratic procedural-based governance (via rules and direct supervision) as well as the more modern method of output-based governance (via so-called key performance indicators) fails to govern public value in this form.

Research limitations/implications

The heuristic model differentiates between modes of governance. Their mutual interplay and empirical evidence are yet needed for substantiating the findings.

Practical implications

Self-organizing mechanisms require behavioural antecedents of the involved actors: on the one hand there is a need for a minimum of mutual understanding in the sense of ‘cognitive compatibility’ and on the other, a minimum of ‘willingness to cooperate’.

Social implications

Participating public employees and citizens need to cultivate participatory and collaborative governance mechanisms in order to create public value. These can be understood as supplementing and enriching existing ones rather than replacing them.

Originality/value of the paper

This chapter contributes to research in public administration in that the concept of public value with a focus on knowledge-intensive collaboration is specified. A new path is taken, originating from organizational theory and motivational theory that are transferred into public administration in order to show how collaborative governance should be employed and how motivational and cognitive aspects should be considered.

Citation

Morner, M. and Misgeld, M. (2014), "Governing Public Value: How to Foster Knowledge-intensive Collaboration in the Public Sector ^☆

This paper was presented in the track 24 (Leading Public Sector Organizations in the New Era: Challenges in Governance Systems, Mechanisms and Roles) at the Seventeenth Annual Conference of the International Research Society for Public Management (IRSPM XVII), 10–12 April 2013, Prague.

", Mechanisms, Roles and Consequences of Governance: Emerging Issues (Studies in Public and Non-Profit Governance, Vol. 2), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 41-57. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2051-663020140000002000