Participation: Add‐on or core component of public service delivery?

Abstract

Drawing on a systematic review of the literature, this paper explores the factors which have enabled and/or constrained the transformative potential of public service user participation within the five most influential recent narratives of public service reform. It argues that these narratives have failed either to offer a holistic conceptualisation of such participation in theory or to achieve its enactment in practice for four main reasons: participation is framed as polemic, with limited evidence of efficacy; public service delivery has been

Participation unpacked: participants' perceptions of its meaning and scope

“…Instead of following the tradition of focussing on the organiser of participative projects (Migchelbrink and Van de Walle, 2022), research needs to acknowledge the stories of those participating in projects; that is, the participants. This is aligned with Osborne and Strokosch's (2022) proposal for a value-creation framework for participation, and their presentation of a narrative which emphasises the public service users and puts their needs, experiences, and expectations at the centre. The aim of this study was therefore to explore how participants perceive and interpret the meaning and scope of participation.…”

Towards Interactive Governance: Embedding Citizen Participation in Local Government

“…However, less attention has been paid to the embedding of citizen participation in public sector organizations and their government (Osborne & Strokosch, 2022; Yang, 2016). From an organizational viewpoint, citizen participation conflicts with traditional bureaucratic government practices.…”

“…However, despite the vast literature on citizen participation, it remains unclear how to embed citizen participation into the government of public sector organizations (Osborne & Strokosch, 2022). Embedding citizen participation in government practices is complicated and requires attention to the interconnections between interactive governance and democratic institutions (Edelenbos et al, 2010).…”

Value Creation in the Public Service Ecosystem: An Integrative Framework

“…Second we stress the need to move from an introspective focus on the PSO and to embrace the centrality of the user to value creation through public services. Such user‐engagement and participation has been a preoccupation of successive waves of public management reforms over the past fifty years but with only limited success (Osborne et al 2020, Osborne & Strokosch 2022). The framework offered here offers a language and syntax through which to develop genuinely user‐focused public services.…”

“…These included the ability/inability of PSOs to create external value through public service delivery, the lack of attention to broader networks of PSOs rather than individual PSOs, the failure to address citizens other than as atomized consumers (for example as active citizens at the interface of democracy and public service provision), and the preoccupation with models of public service delivery that drew heavily upon private sector manufacturing experience. These critiques led subsequently to the proliferation of alternative reform frameworks for understanding the delivery of public services (Osborne & Strokosch 2022), discussed further below. Four frameworks have been especially influential in the evolution of PAM theory and practice: Public Value (PV), addressing the societal impacts of public services; Collaborative Governance (CG), examining the role of the local milieu and organizational networks of public service delivery; Public Service Logic (PSL), addressing citizen value creation through public service delivery; and Behavioral Public Administration (BPA), focusing upon the psychology of citizens and staff engaged in public service provision.…”