Public service ecosystems are an increasingly influential concept in public administration and management theory. This article explores their implications for public service management practice. It ...offers a framework for public service managers to understand how the concept can impact upon their practice. It emphasises the need for practitioners to be able to work across the three levels of the ecosystem identified and how they might most effectively impact upon these levels.
This article argues for the 'public service ecosystem' as an organizing framework through which to appreciate the interactions and integration of the institutional, service, and individual levels in public service delivery. It offers a heuristic ('Appreciate-Engage-Facilitate') through which to understand and support the role of public managers in value creation at all levels of such ecosystems.
The delivery of public services by nonprofit and for-profit providers alters the nature of services and jobs, often in unintended and undesired ways. We argue that these effects depend on the degree ...to which the service is ‘marketized’, that is, subjected by the funder to price-based competition. Using case studies of British and German employment services, this article scrutinizes the link between funding practices and service quality. Of particular concern in marketized employment services is the problem of ‘creaming and parking’, in which providers select job-ready clients for services and neglect clients more distant from the labour market. We explore three questions. What are the mechanisms through which marketization produces creaming and parking? What are the differences between these mechanisms in commercial and non-commercial service providers? Which national institutions might serve as a buffer for the landscape of service provision facing price-based competition?
Chatbots are being used in an increasingly wide range of public services and present several benefits for public service delivery. Our typology contributes to effective chatbot-mediated service ...delivery in the public service context.
How has research regarding public service motivation evolved since James L. Perry and Lois Recascino Wise published their essay "The Motivational Bases of Public Service" 20 years ago? The authors ...assess subsequent studies in public administration and in social and behavioral sciences as well as evolving definitions of public service motivation. What have we learned about public service motivation during the last two decades? What gaps in our understanding and knowledge have appeared with respect to the three propositions offered by Perry and Wise? This essay charts new directions for public service motivation scholarship to help clarify current research questions, advance comparative research, and enhance our overall understanding of individuals' public service motives.
This paper proposes a new index that measures the development level of public services for people with disabilities. Based on the framework of territorial justice, the measure examines the equity in ...the spatial allocation of public service resources for disadvantaged groups. Taking China as a case, this study uses principal component analysis to construct the Public Service Facility Coverage Index for persons with disabilities. It also employs cluster analysis and spatial econometrics methods to analyze the spatial characteristics of public service facilities for persons with disabilities. Findings reveal that public service facilities for persons with disabilities can be divided into four coverage clusters—very high, high, medium, and low—with significant regional disparities among them. This article also found a significant regional spatial variation in public service facilities for persons with disabilities. Specifically, public service facilities for persons with disabilities in eastern regions were obviously higher than in other regions, mainly due to regional differences in financial autonomy, the density of the disabled population, and urbanization. The above shows that the opportunities for accessing public services still differ within a territorial entity. The realization of territorial justice requires strengthening the government’s governance capacity.
Empirical support for institutional influences on public service motivation (PSM) has been growing in recent years. Yet, we lack a concept and a measure that captures the capacity of public ...institutions to energise and propel members to perform meaningful public service and pursue the common good. This study aims to address this gap by presenting a conceptual foundation of institutional PSM. By extending PSM from the individual to the institutional level, we lay the groundwork for a fundamentally different approach to PSM measurement. We draw upon multiple theories and empirical studies to propose that institutional PSM consists of four pillars: public-service orientation, legitimacy, merit, and support. We then present research propositions for studying institutional PSM.
This article aims to understand various efforts to improve public services through deregulation. For example, the Mayor of Pekalongan shared complaints from fishermen who felt that the existence of ...the state and government made it difficult because to take care of sea permits alone had to deal with 17 different agencies. The problem centers on the obstacles to improving public services through deregulation and the factors that cause overregulation in Indonesia. This study determined the obstacles to public services and over-regulation. The data used are secondary data collected through literature studies and analyzed qualitatively. This study concludes that the Government has made various efforts to improve intermediate public services through deregulation by enacting several laws and regulations that unify the material of previous laws and regulations. Overregulation occurs in Indonesia due to the unclear development of authority between various institutions. There are still many overlapping laws and regulations in regulating various affairs so the applicable regulations can be said to have been too many. Therefore, there needs to be a firm policy in the division of authority of regulators so that there is no more over-regulation because there are no more overlapping regulations.
We conduct a field experiment to evaluate the effect of extrinsic rewards, both financial and non-financial, on the performance of agents recruited by a public health organization to promote HIV ...prevention and sell condoms. In this setting: (i) non-financial rewards are effective at improving performance; (ii) the effect of both types of rewards is stronger for pro-socially motivated agents; and (iii) both types of rewards are effective when their relative value is high. The findings illustrate that extrinsic rewards can improve the performance of agents engaged in public service delivery, and that non-financial rewards can be effective in settings where the power of financial incentives is limited.
•Evaluate financial and non-financial rewards for HIV prevention and selling condoms.•Field experiment randomized across Lusaka, Zambia.•Non-financial rewards more effective than either financial rewards or volunteering.•Both financial and non-financial incentives complement pro-social motivation.•Response to both types of incentives is stronger when the relative value is higher.
Since the New Public Management Movement, privatization has become a popular approach for delivering public services. However, few studies empirically assess the relationship between privatization of ...public service delivery and citizen participation in coproduction. Taking advantage of a national survey of U.S. local government chief administrators, this study aims to contribute to the literature by exploring the link between these two important mechanisms of public service provision. Our findings indicate that local governments are more likely to involve citizens in coproduction when a larger proportion of service delivery is privatized. Regarding various types of coproduction, privatization in public service delivery is positively associated with the likelihood of citizen involvement in co-planning, co-design, and co-assessment, but not in co-delivery. Finally, compared to for-profit service providers, involving nonprofit organizations in public service delivery is likely to create more opportunities for citizens to be involved in the coproduction of public services.
PDF
