Establishing the foundational elements of a public procurement body of knowledge

Abstract

Public procurement scholars have been striving to identify technical and behavioral competencies to drive toward professionalization. However, there is no vetted body of knowledge that practitioners and scholars can use to establish roles and responsibilities. This empirical study outlines a logical process to identify the foundational elements of the body of knowledge, specifically technical competencies, serving as the building blocks for advancement toward a recognized profession. Findings suggest that 87 job tasks can be classified under 6 job domains that contain many of the components and conceptual constructs for the field of public procurement. These domains can improve understanding of the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary in public administration.

Recent research on public procurement: Should it become a subfield of public administration?

“…• As specific research objects, some admittedly important themes-such as feasibility studies, risk assessments, contract negotiations, contract management, ex post evaluations and HR-are almost entirely absent from the academic literature, despite constituting an important part of the practitioners' day-to-day activities (McCue et al 2020). Globally, there seems to be little academic research done on the core activities of PP (i.e., the various steps of the process), and only slightly more on governance and strategic issues related to public contracts.…”

“…We also conjecture that we have now entered, with the publication of this review article as well as Trammell et al's (2020), into a third phase which involves legitimizing PP research as a specific subfield of public administration research. This third phase is happening simultaneously to a practical legitimization effort, through which practitioners are looking for recognition and during which a differentiated set of skills is being identified in the hope of making PP a recognized profession (McCue et al 2020). It is with advocacy in mind that we undertake this thorough analysis of the state of PP research across journals and research fields in the last decade.…”

“…The first reason is linked to the importance of PP in the day‐to‐day activities of governments. Indeed, PP spending accounts for 12% of the GDP of OECD countries and thus constitutes “a core administrative function of public organizations” (McCue et al 2020: 2). The second reason is that, consequently, PP is slowly becoming more professionalized with the identification of a “body of knowledge” of specific competences and abilities (McCue et al 2020), which constitutes a reason to study it critically.…”

“…Indeed, PP spending accounts for 12% of the GDP of OECD countries and thus constitutes “a core administrative function of public organizations” (McCue et al 2020: 2). The second reason is that, consequently, PP is slowly becoming more professionalized with the identification of a “body of knowledge” of specific competences and abilities (McCue et al 2020), which constitutes a reason to study it critically. Finally, the third reason, is that several review articles have, in the last two decades, pointed to the need for a consolidation of the growing academic literature on PP.…”

Call for Proposals of Articles for a Special Issue of Public Organization Review (POR) on Public Sector Accountability and Corruption Problems SI #4

“…Restrictions and exclusions call into question the reality of public accessibility for government contracting opportunities, but also raise larger implications for the prevalence of waste (Plaček et al, 2020 ). Professional failures in public administration can prevent attainment of public value (McCue et al, 2018 ).…”