Co-Production and the Co-Creation of Value in Public Services: A suitable case for treatment?

Co-production is currently one of cornerstones of public policy reform across the globe. Inter alia, it is articulated as a valuable route to public service reform and to the planning and delivery of effective public services, a response to the democratic deficit and a route to active citizenship and active communities, and as a means by which to lever in additional resources to public service delivery. Despite these varied roles, co-production is actually poorly formulated and has become one of a series of ‘woolly-words’ in public policy. This paper presents a conceptualization of co-production that is theoretically rooted in both public management and service management theory. It argues that this is a robust starting point for the evolution of new research and knowledge about co-production and for the development of evidence-based public policymaking and implementation.     

Easier said than done: a review of antecedents influencing effective HR implementation

Abstract

Despite the importance of effective implementation of HR policies and practices for the achievement of HR outcomes, this remains an area of research to which HR scholars have paid limited attention, without a clear conceptualization of constructs and a lack of consolidation of research findings. Moreover, the field does not avail of an organized corpus of knowledge to guide how to accomplish the successful implementation of HR practices. As a response to this situation, the present study provides a review of empirically grounded evidences about antecedents that can influence effective HR implementation. With the results of the review, we generate a model that organizes the elements identified according to content, context and process, and that proposes relationships among them. The study also delineates much-needed avenues for further research on this topic, and constitutes a first step to claim attention for the phenomenon of HR implementation among HR scholars.     

A Systematic Review of Co-Creation and Co-Production: Embarking on the social innovation journey

Abstract

This article presents a systematic review of 122 articles and books (1987–2013) of co-creation/co-production with citizens in public innovation. It analyses (a) the objectives of co-creation and co-production, (b) its influential factors and (c) the outcomes of co-creation and co-production processes. It shows that most studies focus on the identification of influential factors, while hardly any attention is paid to the outcomes. Future studies could focus on outcomes of co-creation/co-production processes. Furthermore, more quantitative studies are welcome, given the qualitative, case study, dominance in the field. We conclude with a research agenda to tackle methodological, theoretical and empirical lacunas.     

Why People Co-Produce: Analysing citizens’ perceptions on co-planning engagement in health care services

Abstract

The aim of this article is to comprehend the motivation of citizens to co-produce. More specifically, it considers citizens’ motivations to engage in co-planning activities of health care services. The article brings together theoretical insights and empirical data. First, we integrate insights from different strands of literature. We combine literature on citizen participation, political efficacy, co-production, volunteerism, public service motivation, and customer engagement to offer a first understanding of citizens’ motivations to actively engage as co-producers of public services. Next, empirical data are derived from one specific case: citizens participating in client councils in health care organizations. Q-methodology, a method designed to systematically study persons’ viewpoints, is used to distinguish different perspectives citizen have on their engagement in co-production. Our analysis of citizens’ motivations to engage in client councils enables us to identify four types of citizen co-producers, which we label: the semi-professional, the socializer, the network professional, and the aware co-producer. Implications for future research studying citizens’ motivations in a broader range of co-production cases are discussed.     

Opportunities and Challenges in Engaging Citizens in the Co-Production of Infrastructure-Based Public Services in Australia

Research and practice have observed a shift towards service-oriented approaches that depend on input from citizens as co-producers of services. Yet in the delivery of public infrastructure the focus is still on managing assets rather than services. Using a Policy Delphi approach, we found that although experts advocate service-centric approaches guidelines and policies lack a service-centric perspective. Findings revealed a range of impediments to effective stakeholder involvement. The paper contributes to co-production and new public governance literature and offers directions for public infrastructure decision-makers to support and reconnect disengaged government–citizen relations, and determine ways of understanding optimal service outcomes.     

Exploring barriers to the successful implementation of a formulated strategy

This paper reports a case study conducted to identify barriers to the successful implementation of activities as part of a planned strategy in a Norwegian ferry-cruise company. Data were gathered among workers on one of the company's vessels using a structured sequence of questions with open-ended answers. Our findings indicate that various types of communication problem which may be influenced to some extent by the organizational structure, constitute the key barriers to the implementation of planned strategic activities.     

Repositioning Global Staff Transfers: A Learning Perspective

In this article, we challenge the prevailing view that global staff transfers are a necessary cost of doing business globally by contending that such deployment is integral to successful strategic implementation. We use three scenarios—learning from failure, failure to learn, and lost opportunities—to illustrate how awareness of the consequences of decisions related to international staffing can facilitate their efficacy. Learning awareness therefore can lead to improved policies and outcomes for the management of global staff transfers and demonstrate the value HRM brings to the implementation process. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Packs,Troops and Herds: Prosocial Cooperatives and Innovation in the New Normal

Prosocial organizations are emerging to tackle the effects of a New Normal. As they navigate its fragile and liquid institutional membranes, they prioritize cooperative forms of governance. These forms allow for collaboration and democratic decision-making necessary for the development of innovative solutions in this new context. At the same time, the high coordination costs of cooperatives lead to significant market pressures. Therefore, understanding when and under what conditions these new cooperatives innovate and strive is important as it provides insight into whether and how these ventures can become a viable alternative in this changing landscape. Using configurational analyses of organizational enablers leading to innovation in 40 entrepreneurial cooperatives, we identify three approaches: Attentive Pack, Eclectic Troop, and Wandering Herd, showing that innovative outcomes can indeed emerge under traditional cooperative features emphasizing collectivism. However, the pursuit of higher novelty requires a shift to more individualistic, business-as-usual, approaches. The New Normal does indeed enhance entrepreneurial activity, but of a different kind comprising novel sets of antecedents and outcomes, which we show can easily become the new dominant form of venturing required in this new context.     

Workplace bullying and employee outcomes: a moderated mediated model

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between workplace bullying and employee outcomes in a healthcare setting. Drawing on HR process theory, we investigate the mediating role of the perceived effectiveness of implementation of anti-bullying practices on employee outcomes and whether targeted line manager training was a moderator of that relationship. Our multi-level analysis (utilising responses from 1507 employees within 47 hospitals with matched HR Director interviews), finds that the relationship between workplace bullying and employee outcomes is partially mediated by employees’ perceived effective implementation of intended anti-bully practices. The mediated relationship is moderated by targeted line manager training in anti-bullying practices. The mediated moderation model illustrates that it is effective implementation of anti-bullying practices enhanced by targeted training that is required to reduce bullying probabilities and their associated negative employee outcomes. The paper contributes to resource based view of the firm, HR process and human capital theories. The implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

Operationalizing Co-Production in Public Services Delivery: The contribution of service blueprinting

Abstract

We have argued for public services to move away from product-dominant logic towards a service approach. By taking a services orientation, the experience, inter-organizational, and systemic nature of public services delivery can be considered along with the role of the service user as a co-producer. In this article, we unpack how co-production can be operationalized through the application of service blueprinting. This article presents an example within higher education where the creation of a blueprint brought together staff and students to focus on the design of student enrolment, resulting in improved student experience and supporting co-production.     

Challenges in designing,implementing and operating an environmental management system

Introducing an effective environmental management system (EMS) to an organization is a complex process. This complexity is belied by current EMS models that concentrate on EMS frameworks and components, and present a relatively simple approach to the process, especially the introduction and implementation phases. While these models outline what should be introduced, they provide little guidance on how EMSs may be implemented. Experience indicates that effective EMS introduction may be adversely affected by a number of conditions, but EMS literature has yet to recognize these barriers. There is a significant gap between EMS theory and application. This paper discusses the degree to which current EMS models address practical EMS design and implementation, barriers to successful EMS introduction, strategies and tactics for overcoming these barriers and implications for EMS practice. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Managerial perspectives on drivers for and barriers to sustainable supply chain management implementation: Evidence from New Zealand

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that drive or prevent companies' implementation of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices. To this end, we interviewed 29 senior managers from 23 New Zealand‐based companies. The key reported drivers were customer expectation, top management commitment, moral and ethical values of managers, reputation management, and economic and operational benefits. Conversely, cost concerns, strategic and structural restraints, supplier and customer issues, and a lack of effective regulations were cited as critical obstacles to SSCM implementation. Thus, the evidence from our findings provides support for both instrumental and normative logics for SSCM implementation. The findings further indicate that, in general, instrumental and normative logics are congruent; however, varied tensions arise when managers seek to simultaneously address competing yet desirable SSCM aspects. Accordingly, we argue that it is imperative to understand, work through, and manage such tensions as balancing divergent sustainability aspects holds considerable potential for successful SSCM implementation.     

360 Feedback from Another Angle

How do you know if a 360 process has been implemented successfully? What are the factors that influence its success? How can those factors be controlled by those responsible for its implementation? Despite its popularity, there has been little effort to build a comprehensive model that addresses these fundamental questions about 360 feedback. In a quest for such a model, we identify a host of key factors organized according to whether they exert their influence proximally or distally. We discuss how each factor contributes to successful implementation. After identifying how design features of a 360 process affect these key factors, we recommend how to enhance the probability of implementing 360 feedback successfully and sustaining the process over time. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Collective Action and the Sustainability of Co-Production

Abstract

This article addresses the sustainability of citizen/user participation in the provision of public services, often referred to as co-production. Co-producing public services not only promises to limit cost, but it also requires a change in the relations and behaviour of public servants and citizens/users, in order for the latter to make a long-term commitment to co-production. The article notes that Olsen proposes two logics of collective action, not just one. Focusing on small group interaction can provide an important strategy for achieving sustainable co-production, particularly of enduring welfare services. However, Ostrom criticizes too simplistic approaches based on size alone for promoting social cooperation in collective action situations. She proposes seven structural variables of importance in resolving social dilemmas. Several of them can also be perceived as factors that facilitate sustainable citizen participation in co-production. Some additional factors are also considered important for sustainable co-production, like the nature of the service itself, organizational diversity, a dialogue between the staff and clients, and facilitating small group interactions in large organizations. This article concludes that governments should develop more flexible, service-specific and organization-specific approaches for promoting co-production, rather than looking for simple ‘one size fits all’ solutions to the challenges facing public service delivery, particularly of enduring welfare services. It also proposes a research agenda on sustainable co-production.     

SUCCESS IN DECISION MAKING: DIFFERENT ORGANIZATIONS, DIFFERING REASONS FOR SUCCESS

In an attempt to elucidate some possible conditions for success in managerial decision making, data were analysed from 53 cases of decisions in eight British organizations, five business firms and three non-business organizations (two universities and a District of the National Health Service). No clear relationships between features of the processes of making the decisions, and their successfulness were found until the business firms and the non-business organizations were separated. Clear differences then showed up, relatively speaking, in the conditions conductive to success. In the business firms, a successful decision was more likely to result from a decision-making process in which resources were available. In other words, in business a successful decision is most likely when sufficient information and sufficient means of implementation are to hand. By contrast, in the universities and the Health District, a successful decision was associated more with the social qualities of the decision-making process itself. In other words, in non-business organizations a successful decision is most likely when the right people participate and the people at the very top do not interfere too much.     

Multiplicity of mixed equilibria in mechanisms: A unified approach to exact and approximate implementation

We characterize full implementation of social choice sets in mixed-strategy Bayesian equilibrium. Our results concern both exact and virtual mixed implementation. For exact implementation, we identify a strengthening of Bayesian monotonicity, which we refer to as mixed Bayesian monotonicity. It is shown that, in economic environments with at least three agents, mixed Bayesian implementation is equivalent to mixed Bayesian monotonicity, incentive compatibility and closure. For implementing a social choice function, the case of two-agents is also covered by these conditions and mixed Bayesian monotonicity reduces to Bayesian monotonicity. Following parallel steps, mixed virtual implementation is shown to be equivalent to mixed virtual monotonicity, incentive compatibility and closure. The key condition, mixed virtual monotonicity, is argued to be very weak. In particular, it is weaker than Abreu–Matsushima’s measurability, thereby implying that: (1) virtual implementation in mixed Bayesian equilibrium is more permissive than virtual implementation in iteratively undominated strategies, and (2) non-regular mechanisms are essential for the implementation of rules in that gap.     

A new necessary condition for Nash implementation

In this paper we formulate a family of conditions called `B_k-monotonicity' that are necessary for Nash implementation, where k is a natural number that indexes a particular condition, and where the condition only becomes more restrictive as k increases. B_k-monotonicity is in general a stricter condition than Maskin monotonicity, and can be used to show that certain social choice correspondences that satisfy Maskin monotonicity cannot be Nash implemented.     

Co-Production in Developing Countries: Insights from the community health workers experience

Abstract

Co-production nowadays ranks high in global development strategies of international and philanthropic organizations. Although long-standing experiences in developing countries can provide a relevant contribution to the co-production theory, it is necessary to verify what contextual and conceptual conditions might alter the existing theoretical models. This article makes a theoretical contribution by modelling propositions that can withstand logical and empirical scrutiny. The literature is reviewed to identify key co-production concepts, their interrelationships, and the underlying assumptions. A longitudinal case study is analyzed to expand the existing theoretical propositions. Policy implications for scaling-up programmes are drawn.     

SEMI‐PARAMETRIC ESTIMATION OF PROGRAM IMPACTS ON DISPERSION OF POTENTIAL WAGES

We propose the use of instrumental variables and pairwise matching to identify the average treatment effect on variance in potential outcomes. We show that identifying and estimating program impact on dispersion of potential outcomes in an endogenous‐switching model is possible, without using the identification‐at‐infinity argument, if we impose semi‐parametric conditions or shape restrictions on the error structure. In the presence of a multi‐valued or continuously distributed instrument, we recommend the pairwise‐matching method under a set of symmetry conditions. Simulations and an empirical example show that the matching method is much more precise than the instrumental‐variable approach. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Current Issues in the Economics of Groundwater Resource Management

Abstract.  The issue of groundwater management remains a practical concern in many regions throughout the world, while water managers continue to grapple with the question of how to manage this resource. In this article, we attempt to bring the most advanced and appropriate tools to bear on the issue of resource allocation involving groundwater. Our objective is to demonstrate the state of the art in the literature on ways to think about this complex resource and to deal with the important economic issues emanating from its complexity. We present the conceptual framework within which economists examine the elements interacting in the management of groundwater resources, indicate why the role of the market is limited with respect to the price of this very complex resource, and point to the mechanisms that can pull competitive groundwater price and quality-graded quantity of groundwater in line with their equilibrium levels. In particular, we critically review economic models of groundwater use, examine the potential for groundwater management, discuss the difficulties encountered in the estimation of the relevant control variables of such models, and identify the advantages and limitations of the instruments devised for the efficient use (allocation) of this resource. Finally, we argue that devised regulatory schemes usually ignore the information and knowledge needed for their implementation, and we suggest a core of conditions necessary for successful groundwater management reforms.