Dealing with Multi-Level Governance and Wicked Problems in Urban Transportation Systems: The Case of Palermo Municipality

Abstract

Italian New Public Management (NPM) has been mainly characterized by a political orientation toward power decentralization to local governments and privatization of public companies. Nowadays, local utilities in Italy are often run by joint stock companies controlled by public agencies such as Regional and Municipal Administrations. Due to this transformation, these companies must comply with a set of diverse expectations coming from a wide range of stakeholders, related to their financial, competitive and social performance. Such fragmented governance increases the presence of "wicked" problems in the decision-making sphere of these entities. Given this multi-level governance structure, how do these agents influence public services performance? In recent years, coordination and inter-institutional joint action have been identified as possible approaches for dealing with governance fragmentation and wicked problems deriving from it. How can we adapt a performance management perspective in order to help us reform the system and so have a better collaboration between the stakeholders involved? In order to address and discuss these research questions, a case study will be developed. The case concerns AMAT, the local utility providing the public transportation service in the Municipality of Palermo (Italy). The result of this study is a dynamic model including a set of performance indicators that help us in understanding the impact of the governing structure on the system's performance. OPEN ACCESSSystems 2015, 3 63

Combining System Dynamics and Performance Management to Support Sustainable Urban Transportation Planning

“…Others studies that applied System Dynamics to urban transportation issues may be found in Wang et al (2008), Armah et al 2010, Haghshenas et al (2015) and Noto and Bianchi (2015). Analysing this contribution, it emerges how this methodological approach is suitable in order to adopt a sustainable perspective.…”

“…This approach empowers a systemic view of transportation systems, since each performance driver shows how the employment of the linked strategic resources affects all the other interdependent resources within the system (Noto and Bianchi 2015). Due to this interdependence, each strategic resource has the power to foster others in the same system, or not.…”

Impact of Public Management Approaches on Municipal Real Estate Management in Poland and The Netherlands

“…Future research could concentrate also on MREM in other countries than Poland and The Netherlands. In further research, it can also be interesting to add other sources about NPM and GG, like Gruening [54], Noto & Bianchi [55] and the Council of Europe [56]. By adding more perspectives on NPM and GG, the questionnaire can be modified and it can contribute to the refinement of the operationalization of the NPM and GG principles.…”

The Impact of Environmental Factors on the Measurement of Managerial Efficiency in the Italian Waste Management Sector: Framework and Empirical Evidence

“…In particular, the goal of externalisation is to improve performance in the provision of public services, increase service quality and lower costs. In order to meet these expectations and goals, it becomes critically important for each partner to define which type of governance form should be involved (Broadbent et al, 2003;Rosenau, 2000;Noto & Bianchi, 2015). efficiency levels has been developed, using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) (Charnes et al, 1978;Fare et al, 1978) non-parametric technique in a modified Slack Based Measure (SBM), (Tone, 2001; version.…”

“…In particular, the goal of externalisation is to improve performance in the provision of public services, increase service quality and lower costs. In order to meet these expectations and goals, it becomes critically important for each partner to define which type of governance form should be involved (Broadbent et al, 2003; Rosenau, 2000;Noto & Bianchi, 2015). The externalisation process led by the recent spending review trends is pushing governments to enhance efficiency while using the best optimization level for resources compared to the public services provided (Levine, 1978;Pandey, 2010).…”