The Lyons Inquiry into Local Government has introduced the English local government community to the concept of ‘place-shaping’. Place-shaping refers to the new role for local governments in promoting the well-being of communities and citizens. The processes of place-shaping are remarkably...

In this chapter, we challenge the assumption of a direct relationship between the existence and availability of information, and its use in decisions. We will do so by integrating three different sets of literature. Other chapters in this book stress organisations’ capacities and capabilities...

Citizens consider certain public (and private) services as essential services and therefore to be shielded from the full extent of market forces. Little is known about why some services are considered essential public services while other sometimes very similar services are not. In this article,...

Competing values complicate debates on the reform of public services. Attention for competition and efficiency is balanced by concerns for equity and universality in service delivery. These potential value conflicts are best visible in the reform of services of general interest. Despite debates...

Purpose of this paper: A number of studies and indicators have ranked European countries in terms of the performance of their public sectors. This paper demonstrates there are important conceptual problems with such rankings and comparisons.Design/methodology/approach: Using the existing...

This report on making better use of information to drive improvement in local public services was commissioned from the School of Public Policy at the University of Birmingham, by the Audit Commission. It explores how decision makers use information when making decisions. These decision makers...

In their search for empirical credibility, public management researchers may search for topics that lend themselves more easily to experimental methods. This chapter looks at how the use of the experimental method may change the questions asked in the field of public management. Possible...

Research findings have been contradictory with respect to the determinants of why people choose a public sector job. In this paper we use an internationally comparative design with data from 26 countries to explain public sector employment preference. The study shows that on the individual level...

Introducing choice and competition in public services was supposed to put citizens in the “driver's seat”, making them in charge of their service provision. Introducing choice often is indeed beneficial for citizens. However, it sometimes also leads to increased inequality among citizens....

Public sector reforms often focus on high impact agencies in order to restore trust in government and in the public administration. Using a face-to-face survey on citizensiquest; attitudes toward public services, we test what public agencies contribute to citizensiquest; general image of...