Organizational Innovation in Public Services: Forms and Governance (Governance and Public Management)

In the wake of the economic crisis, many public services are facing a challenging environment in which they receive less funding but are expected to deliver better services. Organisational Innovation in Public Services develops new theoretical models and analyses case studies to provide an important insight into how to modernise 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 Front Matter....Pages i-x Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Contexts and Challenges of Organizational Innovation in Public Services....Pages 3-12 Supporting Organizational Innovation in the Public Sector: Creative Councils in England....Pages 13-26 Analyzing Organizational Innovation in Public Services — Conceptual and Theoretical Issues....Pages 27-46 Front Matter....Pages 47-47 Agencification Processes and Agency Governance: Organizational Innovation at a Global Scale?....Pages 49-71 Corporatization as Organizational Innovation....Pages 72-91 Mutualization and Public Services....Pages 92-110 Organizational Innovation in Public Procurement in Scotland: The Scottish Futures Trust....Pages 111-129 Outsourcing Public Services: Process Innovation in Dutch Municipalities....Pages 130-148 Front Matter....Pages 149-149 Governance of Public Service Companies: Australian Cases and Examples....Pages 151-169 Governance of Social Enterprises as Producers of Public Services....Pages 170-186 Championing and Governing UK Public Service Mutuals....Pages 187-201 Improving Governance Arrangements for Academic Entrepreneurship....Pages 202-220 Governance and Accountability of Joint Ventures: A Swedish Case Study....Pages 221-237 Contractual Governance: A Social Learning Perspective....Pages 238-255 Front Matter....Pages 257-257 Lessons for the Governance of Organizational Innovations....Pages 259-269 Back Matter....Pages 270-273