Organizational Innovation in Public Services
Reforming public services has become an integral part of instituting austerity measures
as governments around the world struggle to balance the books in the wake of the financial
crisis. Vital public services and government departments have been given the seemingly
impossible task of delivering better services to the public while receiving less funding.
This excellent and highly original collection brings together contributors from across the
globe to explore and analyse innovational methods aimed at helping overburdened and
under-funded public services cope with the demands of austerity and continue to deliver
high quality services to the public. In the process this book develops new theoretical
models and analyses case studies to provide an important and timely insight into how to
reform public services across the globe.
The topic of public service reform discussed in this book is relevant to all advanced
industrial societies. There are no easy answers and this book does not fall into the trap
of trying to provide any. Instead it offers the reader food for reflection on the
challenges involved. In doing so it provides a valuable service to policymakers and
practitioners as well as researchers - Gerry Stoker, Professor of Governance, University
of Southampton, UK. A valuable and timely volume highlighting the considerable diversity
of organizational innovation in the management of public affairs.
The variety of organizational forms is immediately apparent - from agencies through
corporations, mutuals, social enterprises and beyond. They are all possible contributors
to public governance, while themselves needing to be governed effectively - as the
analyses astutely confirm. - Ian Thynne, Adjunct Professor, Australian National
University, Australia & Visiting Professor, University of Hong Kong - The reform and
innovation of public sector services will be essential, but how will it be done? Will
Information Technology transform public sector services as profoundly as it is altering
the private service economy, indeed making possible the reforms and innovations. This
volume usefully opens these and other debates about public sector governance. - John
Zysman, Professor of Political Science & Co-Director of the Berkeley Roundtable on the
International Economy, University of California, Berkeley, USA
List of Tables, Figures and Boxes Notes on Contributors
1. Contexts and Challenges of Organisational Innovation in Public Services
2. Supporting Organisational Innovation in the Public Sector: Creative Councils in
England
3. Analysis Organisational Innovation in Public Services: Conceptual and Theoretical
Issues
4. Agentifcation Processes and Agency Governance: Organisational Innovation at a Global
Scale?
5. Corporatisation as Organisational Innovation
6. Mutulatisation and Public Services
7. Organisational Innovation in Public Procurement in Scotland: The Scottish Futures
Trust (SFT)
8. Outsourcing Public Services: Process Innovation in Dutch Municipalities
9. Governance of Public Service Companies: Australian Cases and Examples
10. Governance of Social Enterprises as Producers of Public Services
11. Championing and Governing UK Public Service Mutuals
12. Improving Governance Arrangements for Academic Entrepreneurships
13. Governance and Accountability of Joint Ventures: A Swedish Case Study
14. Contractual Governance: A Social Learning Perspective
15. Lessons for the Governance of Organisational Innovations Index
288 pages, Hardcover