Leading and recognizing public value

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between leadership and public value, which is particularly challenging in a context of explicit contest and conflict. The theoretical framework is illustrated through a case study of policing rural crime. The study reveals that the police worked with multiple and competing publics rather than a single homogeneous public, and that part of their leadership role was to create and convene a public space in which different voices and divergent views could be expressed. The study notes that research needs to pay attention to the loss and displacement of public value, not solely its creation and recognition. The need to convene multiple publics required the police to lead, as part of a leadership constellation, and with political astuteness. The findings have wider relevance for other public services, and for studies of leadership and public value at the intersection between the state and civil society.

Leadership for public value: Political astuteness as a conceptual link

“…Turning to the symposium articles, they show the diversity of thinking about public value, and they also illustrate an exciting variety of purposes to which public value theory and its constituent frameworks can be put. They range from articles which deploy Moore's strategic triangle (Ayres ; Brown and Head ); use both Moore and Benington (Andrews ); use Benington (Hartley et al ; Teasdale and Dey ) and one article which is less definite about its approach to public value, but which assumes that endeavours by public servants and civil society actors can create public value by reducing air pollution (Trivellato et al ). These articles move the field forward, heeding the call of Hartley et al () for scholars to be clear about which strand of public value theory they are drawing on.…”

“…For Trivellato et al () there are also multiple interests which require particular leadership skills involving orchestration, mediation and negotiation. Hartley et al () present not only multiple stakeholders (who have interests, whether private or public), but also multiple publics. In their study of rural crime, different publics urged different solutions and leadership was exercised by a range of groups, not only the police.…”

“…This symposium highlights that leadership for public value can be exhibited by citizens and social groups (Brown and Head ; Hartley et al ), social enterprises, charities, and civil society organizations (Ayres ; Teasdale and Dey ), and also by private corporations (Andrews ) as well as by public organizations. Public leadership is not only about leadership from within public organizations but is about leadership which impacts on the public (Hartley ).…”

“…Where leadership occurs is a matter of significance and the location can influence public value. Leadership processes may happen in informal spaces (Ayres ; Brown and Head ; Hartley et al ); in liminal spaces across organizations (Trivellato et al ); in symbolic spaces of loss and displacement of public value (Hartley et al ); in hidden spaces ‘where public managers and civil society practitioners deviate from official mandates’ (Teasdale and Dey ); and in grappling with public and private issues about big data and technological algorithms (Andrews ).…”

“…Consequently, collaboration and partnership might be a means not an end in many situations. Leadership for public value also involves engaging in implicit or explicit decision‐making about what has public value, who is included and who is excluded (Ayres ; Hartley et al ; Teasdale and Dey ). Leadership for public value is also involved in establishing how decisions are made (Andrews ) and how to change practices and ways of working (Brown and Head ).…”