Georgetown University Press Public Value and Public Administration (Public Management and Change series)

Public administration practitioners and scholars around the globe are paying considerable attention to the creation of public value and to the health of the public sphere. However, there is little agreement about how to define public value and know if it is being achieved. Some definitions of public value focus on organizational effectiveness, efficiency, and accountability. Other definitions stress going beyond these qualities to also emphasize protecting and enhancing citizen rights and mutual obligations between the public and private sectors to society. This book explores competing visions of public value and what it means to discern, measure, and assess the creation of public value in a world where most major public challenges require contributions from governments, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and communities. In this book, scholars from the US, Europe, and Australia present an overview of major issues and debates focused on the skills, methods, measurements, and processes related to creating public value. This book is essential reading for public administration scholars, students, and practitioners. Review In this remarkable book, the editors have pulled together a broad and fascinating collection of essays on a critically important issue: linking the administration of public programs with the public values they bring to life. The book is, at once, deeply embedded in rich tradition that stretches back for generations--and full of fresh, innovative insights into how the administrative process defines and advances the common wealth. Bryson, Crosby, and Bloomberg have gathered some of the very best minds in the field into this book's chapters and, in a masterly way, they have brought together very different streams of thought into a fresh, forward-looking approach sure to be of keen interest to practitioners and scholars alike.--Donald Kettl, professor of Public Policy, University of Maryland Public value has been a major theme in public administration for over twenty years. In this edited collection a group of top scholars in the field use the public value lens to examine how it can be used to help managers focus on public value and then on how to measure it.--H. Brinton Milward, Providence Service Corporation Chair in Public Management, Director, School of Government and Public Policy, University of Arizona This book brings together some of the world's foremost experts on the topic of Public Value. Together these authors push our intellectual boundaries with their compelling analyses and thoughtful insights. This book is a 'must read' for those around the world interested in the creation of public value.--Rosemary O'Leary, Edwin O. Stene Distinguished Professor of Public Administration, School of Public Affairs, University of Kansas This book is a refreshing, contemporary look at the public value movement in public administration. It features contributions from some of the most prominent scholars in the field. One of the distinctive qualities of this book is that the authors advance a host of definitions of public value and illustrate different approaches to measurement and, ultimately, to 'valuing' public value. This book will appeal to scholars and students in a host of areas including public management, performance measurement and management, program evaluation, strategic planning, and policy analysis.--Norma Riccucci, School of Public Affairs and Administration, Rutgers University, Newark About the Author John M. Bryson is McKnight Presidential Professor of Planning and Public Affairs at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota. Barbara C. Crosby is an associate professor at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota. Laura Bloomberg is associate dean at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota.