What does public governance of public service organisations involve?
We define public governance as follows:
- Public governance is how an organisation works with its partners, stakeholders and networks to influence the outcomes of public policies.
Furthermore, by ‘good governance’ we mean:
- The negotiation by all the stakeholders in an issue (or area) of improved public policy outcomes and agreed governance principles, which are both implemented and regularly evaluated by all stakeholders.
From this definition of good governance it is clear that there are two key areas in which assessment is required:
- improvements in public policy outcomes; and
- implementation by all stakeholders of a set of governance principles and processes by means of which appropriate public policies will be designed and implemented.
This approach recognises that ‘the ends do not justify the means’, so that achievement of quality-of-life outcomes is not the only set of results which are needed for good governance – it is also important are also that key public governance principles are also respected. These include, for instance:
- Citizen engagement
- Transparency
- Accountability
- Ethical and honest behaviour
- The equalities agenda and social inclusion (gender, ethnicity, age, religion, etc.)
- Equity (fair procedures and due process)
- Respect for the rule of law
- Respect for privacy and data security
- Sustainability.
How can Governance International help you to improve the public governance of your public service organisations?
The Governance International model for identifying, prioritising and measuring the achievement of outcomes covers both the quality-of-life outcomes above and also the achievement of good governance principles.
This outcomes model is based on assessments from multiple stakeholders about the importance of each of the outcomes and the level of achievement of those outcomes. An example is shown in the graphic above, which reports on the assessments made by different stakeholders (working in focus groups) about the achievement of the quality of life and the level of good governance in a large housing estate in Cornwall, England, set out in the format of a ‘community scorecard’.
This allows you to balance your priority outcomes and to consider the trade-offs which are necessary – read a case study of how this model can be applied in the journal Public Money and Management:
Tony Bovaird and Elke Loeffler (2007), Assessing the Quality of Local Governance: A Case Study of Public Services in Carrick, UK, Public Money & Management, Vol. 7 (2): 293–300. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9302.2007.00597.x