Joined‐Up Government and the Challenges to Accounting and Accountability Researchers

Abstract

Collaborative working between public sector bodies in the UK, sometimes involving partnerships with private sector and not-for-profit organisations, was promoted heavily by the Labour Government (1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010) under what is sometimes labelled 'Joined-Up Government'. The Conservative -Liberal Democrat Coalition Government, elected in 2010, appears likely to continue to promote such policies. The objective of this paper is to raise awareness of what may be seen as an important and developing agenda in public services in which accounting and accountability researchers are barely visible. The paper reviews the meanings and motivations of joined-up government and its development in the UK. A number of challenges are presented, including the need to refocus research from an entity to a network perspective; to assess whether joined-up government delivers valuefor-money services; to join the debate on the development of related accounting techniques; to seek precision in specifying accountability mechanisms and to adapt our research methods.

The joined-up strategic planning of cultural service provision: What are the routes of accountability?

“…In Joined-Up Government, the latter is twofold: vertical accountability and horizontal accountability (Hodges, 2012). The latter is concern with the accountable relationships across the organizations or departments for the shared goals, outputs and outcomes.…”

“…Even though recent studies have highlighted some difficulties in having a clear definition of "collaboration" (Bryson et al, 2015;Morris and Miller-Stevens, 2015;Hodge and Grave, 2018), many collaborative practices have been encouraged under the "Joined-up Government" approach. This term, introduced by the UK Labour Government Modernisation Agenda (1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010), encompasses all that forms of collaboration (public-public partnership, co-working, joined-up-working, networking and co-production partnership) in which public organizations work with each others and with private or not-for-profit organizations (Hodges, 2012). The JoinedUp Government is based on an overview of the public actions, a global strategic approach and a coordination policy (Chow et al, 2007).…”

“…The modernising government agenda across the world sprung up the joining-up model of delivering public services (Osborne and Strokosch, 2013). This seems particularly suitable for providing "complementary" services, such as health care and social services (Hodges, 2012). The complexity associated with those public services emerges, also, in managing cultural heritage.…”

Inter-Municipal Cooperation and Satisfaction with Services: Evidence from the Norwegian Citizen Study

“…When services are delivered by other organizations outside the government, an important issue is that the government remains the ability to be accountable for the performance of these contractors (Hodges, 2012). Several authors note that contracting of services may challenge public sector accountability (Boston, 1995;Schmid, 2003) and raise concerns of whether public agencies possess the necessary capabilities to monitor and evaluate the contracted services (Bel & Warner, 2008;Shaoul et al, 2012).…”

Searching for Organizational Intelligence in the Evolution of Public-Sector Performance Management

“…Furthermore, current modes of performance evaluation rely excessively on the assumption of entity-based evaluation: the idea that it is possible to detect performances within clear-cut organizational boundaries and to distinguish "public" from "private" performance (Hodges 2012). In modern publicadministration practice, it would be equally important to understand performances within collaborative networks and in contexts where both public-and private-sector actors contribute to fi nal outcomes for citizens.…”