Crossing boundaries: the fundamental questions in public management and policy

Abstract

The notion of working across boundaries receives considerable attention from scholars and practitioners of public management and policy. In recent times, much emphasis has been placed on notions of inter-organizational, interjurisdictional and inter-sectoral working, and a range of terms have emerged to capture this phenomenon: horizontal coordination, joined-up government, whole-of-government, holistic government, collaborative governance, to name just a few. Despite the flurry of terms, the core element that binds them is the sense that boundaries must be traversed in order to achieve goals. Most of the post-New Public Management (NPM) models which have emerged over the last decade or so have put the notion of boundary crossing front and centre: the new public service model articulated by Denhardt and Denhardt (2000) focuses on collaborative structures and shared leadership; the new public governance model set out by Osborne (2006) includes a notion of interorganizational management, inter-dependent agents and ongoing relationships; there is a strong relational, collaborative thread running through the public value management approach articulated by Stoker (2006); and Halligan’s (2007) work on integrated governance demonstrates that new models of governing place horizontal collaborative, boundary-spanning ways of operating at their centre. Indeed, Kelman (2007) has argued that the topics of collaboration across government agencies (‘connect the dots’) and between government, private and nongovernment organizations (networks, or collaborative governance) are the ‘most-discussed questions involving the performance of public institutions and achievement of public purposes’ (p. 45). In this chapter, I provide a review of the broad and varied literatures that connect to the notion of crossing boundaries in public management and policy. This is done by setting out four framing questions, which are explored throughout this chapter and which form the key threads drawing the contributions of this volume together. First, what do we mean by the notion of crossing boundaries? Second, why has this emerged, and what is the imperative for this phenomenon? Third, what does cross-boundary working involve – what are the forms and configurations? And, finally, what are the critical enablers and barriers which helpus to understand how this works (or not)? In addressing these questions, I seek to bring some order to a diffuse and multi-disciplinary set of literatures which inform the theory and practice of crossing boundaries in public management and policy.