Moral Efficiency: Implications for Public-Private Interactions and Social Value

Abstract

A considerable body of research has argued that government outsourcing is normatively good because it can increase efficiency, competition and save public money, while other research claims that outsourcing is inefficient, results in monopoly and delivers poor value for money. Both sides of this debate have failed to consider a form of non-technical efficiency that is inextricably tied to social value, impacting a firm’s ability to reproduce social value and, ultimately, succeed in the long term. Drawing on the ethics literature on public-private interactions, I propose a conceptual process model that illustrates how a lack of ‘moral efficiency’ leads to violations of social norms. By examining high-profile scandals and failures in government outsourcing, I demonstrate how scholars can uncover taken-for-granted social norms tied to efficiency, contributing a new ethical lens in public-private interactions.