Capturing the nature of public value creation

What constitutes public service performance and what are determing factors and mechanisms?
Dr. Eva Knies, i.c.w. prof. dr. Peter Leisink

Expectations of what the public value is that welfare states should deliver are changing and rising. This is a fundamental issue in an era where citizens are no longer recipients, but co-producers, of public services, in which tailor-made services are valued over standardized ones and in which ICT changes the nature of public service provision.

This project’s aim is to capture the public value that, according to various stakeholders, elderly care and secondary education organisations should create and to explain which factors and mechanisms contribute to high-quality public service provision. The question this project will answer is: what constitutes public service performance and what are determining factors and mechanisms?

The rationale of the conceptual model underlying this project, which builds on insights from the public management and Human Resource Management bodies of literature, is that the provision of public services is largely dependent on frontline workers’ competencies, attitudes and behaviours and that their supervisors’ people management activities can facilitate high-quality service delivery.