Call for papers: NIG Conference
Together with Sandra van Thiel (EUR), Koen Migchelbrink (EUR) and Bert George (UGent) I am organizing a panel at the annual NIG Conference. The conference will take place on Wednesday the 17th and Thursday 18th of November.
Our panel (#12) is titled Public management for public value: bridging the divide between internal and external management.
Public management has traditionally been divided into internal and external management. With internal management focusing on the internal structuring of public organizations, strategies, and instruments that contribute to the optimization of organizational performance. Alternatively, external management has traditionally focused on the collaboration of public organizations with other stakeholders, such as private organizations, citizens and societal organizations, and the strategies and instruments to improve the collaboration. With the emergence of new public governance, the emergence of new technologies and the professionalization and maturation of business processes (e.g. procurement and HR) internal and external management could and should work together to achieve public value (Bryson et al., 2014; Moore, 1995; O’Flynn, 2007)
Internal management plays an important role in the creation of public value. Government procurement of goods and services can contribute to achieving sustainability goals (Grandia & Meehan, 2017) whereas HR strategies can enable organizations to become inclusive role models and reduce the distance of long-term employed citizens to the labor market. Moreover, public leadership can promote and co-create public value by engaging, inspiring and mobilizing actors with relevant governance assets (Sørensen et al., 2021).
The public management literature demonstrates that external management processes also play a role in the creation of public value. Public value creation is not limited to government and public organizations only. How governments structure and organize collaboration with (semi)public organizations, NGOs, SOCs, and even private enterprises can affect the public value creation and safeguarding of public interests by these organizations (Andrews et al., 2011; Moulton, 2009). Similarly, governments use citizen-state contacts such as participation and collaboration to inform public policy and services decisions (Amirkhanyan & Lambright, 2018). Public participation and coproduction can contribute in the creation of public value as well (Bryson et al., 2017; Osborne, 2020). In short, the design external management processes at the macro, meso, and micro level also impact on public value creation.
Against this background, we invite contributions that help close the gap between internal and external management for the purpose of achieving public value. The panel is committed to theoretical and methodological pluralism and we welcome contributions using diverse theoretical frameworks, analytical approaches, and research designs to further our understanding of the role of internal and external management in the creation of public value. The panel invites both experienced and junior researchers to submit theory-based and methodologically sound contributions.
Topics of papers that can be submitted
We invite authors to submit empirical and theoretical research that links internal and external management for the achievement of public value. We also invite authors to submit papers containing their research design (containing the introduction, theory, and methodology) on one of these topics. Expected/Example topics:
- Use of public procurement to diminish the negative consequences of production and consumption (sustainability), improve labor and safety standards throughout the international supply chain or enable long-term unemployed citizens to re-enter the workforce.
- Collaborative HRM strategies focused on achieving societal value by empowering and enabling people to diminish the distance to the labour market
- The use of e-government and technologies for citizen and stakeholder participation
- Social media/communication strategies for citizen and stakeholder.
Abstracts can be sent in through via the NIG office manager Esther Verheijen at NIG@uu.nl. The deadline for abstract submission is September 3th.