Toward a public service management: past, present, and future directions

Nicola Bateman,Rosamund Chester Buxton,Byron W Keating,Ian R Hodgkinson,Claire Hannibal

doi:10.1108/josm-01-2017-0020

Abstract

PurposeIn providing a fine-grained analysis of public service management, the purpose of this paper is to make an important contribution to furthering research in service management, a body of literature that has tended to regard public services as homogenous or to neglect the context altogether.Design/methodology/approachIntegrating public management and service management literatures, the past and present of public service management are discussed. Future directions for the field are outlined drawing on a service-dominant approach that has the potential to transform public services. Invited commentaries augment the review.FindingsThe review presents the Public Service Network Framework to capture the public value network in its abstraction and conceptualizes how value is created in public services. The study identifies current shortcomings in the field and offers a series of directions for future research where service management theory can contribute greatly.Research limitations/implicationsThe review encourages service management research to examine the dynamic, diverse, and complex nature of public services and to recognize the importance of this context. The review calls for an interdisciplinary public service management community to develop, and to assist public managers in leveraging service logic.Originality/valueThe review positions service research in the public sector, makes explicit the role of complex networks in value creation, argues for wider engagement with public service management, and offers future research directions to advance public service management research.

Highlights

The service management literature has largely neglected the public service context
Theoretical contributions This review develops the concept of ‘service’ in public service management, with the aim to advance current understanding of this important context for service management research
The review provides the impetus for new research into public service management and three conclusions emerge

Summary

Introduction

The service management literature has largely neglected the public service context. This is surprising given its importance and impact on the everyday lives of citizens, for instance, public expenditure on health services is almost three times that of private citizens, private companies and not-for-profit organizations (OECD, 2017); with similar contrasts found in the areas of education and welfare. Osborne et al (2013) outline four propositions of PSDL: First, by focusing on a public service-dominant approach, service users and citizens are “situated as essential stakeholders of the public policy and public service delivery processes and their engagement in these processes adds value to both” (p.149); Second, the strategy of PSOs is a ‘service promise’ or offering, which is shaped by service users and staff delivering the service This service promise provides PSOs with a robust framework to develop better trust and relationships with other PSOs, service users and citizens; Third, co-production becomes an “inalienable component of public service delivery that places the experiences and knowledge of the service user at the heart of effective public service design and delivery” (p.149); Fourth, there is a need for PSOs to use operations management and a public service-dominant approach to produce more efficient and effective public services; Professor Zoe Radnor elaborates: Service operations management is concerned with both the output or outcome of ‘the service’ in the sense of ‘customer service’ and the service organisation itself - in the way it configures, manages and integrates its (hopefully value-adding) activities (Johnston and Clark, 2008). [It is] service management theory, it is argued here, that should inform our theoretical and conceptual understanding and analysis of the management and delivery of public services (Osborne et al, 2015)

Conclusions

Limitations