Alessandro Sancino

L’articolo analizza in cinque diversi casi di governance locale: i) gli strumenti e i processi attivati per coinvolgere gli stakeholder nelle diverse fasi dello ‘stakeholder management’ ed ii) il ruolo svolto dal management pubblico. I casi studiati fanno riferimento a esperienze di co-consultazione, co-decisione, co-progettazione, co-produzione e co-valutazione. I risultati evidenziano che i processi di coinvolgimento degli stakeholder sono di tipo sia formale sia informale e che il coinvolgimento
degli stakeholder possa portare alla creazione di nuove strutture istituzionali e/o organizzative. Inoltre, la ricerca evidenzia come il management pubblico mostri un orientamento proattivo al coinvolgimento degli stakeholder quando questo avviene nell’ambito del ‘service delivery’, mentre un orientamento burocratico quando questo avviene nell’ambito del ‘policy making’.

Local public management is undergoing a period of great complexity. We identify three main challenges in the existing situation: achieving higher efficiency in the operations; building and managing public networks for improving the effectiveness of policy making and service delivery; engaging citizens and stakeholders in order to co-create public outcomes. These challenges happen in different domains: within the municipality, across the municipality and within the community. This paper systematizes for each domain some critical areas and provides specific recommendations for (local) public managers targeted at each critical area. Managing across uncertain boundaries within the municipality, managing polycentrism in (public) networks and managing community engagement have been presented as the key focal points for reshaping local public management in contemporary times.

Il coinvolgimento degli stakeholder nella governance delle amministrazioni pubbliche assume un ruolo fondamentale sia come mezzo di confronto con cittadini, ambiente, fornitori e dipendenti nell'ottica della responsabilità sociale della pubblica amministrazione sia come soluzione per fronteggiare in modo più efficace le nuove sfide che caratterizzano il settore pubblico. In questa prospettiva, il presente capitolo evidenzia come il coinvolgimento degli stakeholder possa essere interpretato come una vera e propria funzione aziendale e richieda adeguati processi, strumenti e competenze manageriali. È, quindi, introdotto il concetto di ciclo di coinvolgimento degli stakeholder e sono proposti alcuni differenti ambiti (co-decision making, co-delivery, co-auditing) in cui possono essere coinvolti gli stakeholder. Infine, viene posto in luce il potenziale generativo insito nell’incontro tra management e stakeholder che può contribuire – in particolare in questo momento di crisi – alla co-generazione di nuovo valore condiviso.

This paper aims to explore the behavior of city managers in the ongoing context of city leadership in Italy where there are high levels of political, economic and social turbulence. A survey was administered to 140 Italian city managers, with a response rate of 56%. The results depicted Italian city managers as caged leaders. They feel like they are capable of soaring to great heights outside the boundaries of their organisations, but they are constrained by their day-to-day organisational activities.

Despite an international resurgence of interest in coproduction, confusion about the concept remains. This article attempts to make sense of the disparate literature and to clarify the concept of coproduction in public administration. Based on some definitional distinctions and considerations about who is involved in coproduction, when in the service cycle it occurs, and what is generated in the process, we offer and develop a typology of coproduction that includes three levels (individual, group, collective) and four phases (commissioning, design, delivery, assessment). We describe and illustrate the levels, phases, and typology as a whole with several examples. We conclude with a discussion of implications for research and practice.

This article contributes to the growing amount of literature on co-production, focusing on co-production of public outcomes and taking the perspective of local government and public managers. A model for explaining the dynamics of outcomes’ creation at the community level is provided. The core argument of the article is that community outcomes result from a sum of peer production, co-production and inter-organizational collaboration processes promoted and activated at individual, organizational and network level across the public, third and private sectors. Institutional, managerial and organizational implications are discussed. The article argues that local government and public managers are asked to play new roles and to employ a new ethos grounded in a citizens capabilities’ approach.

This article aims to investigate how the role of the purchaser is exercised by (LGs) when they contract out the delivery of public service. In particular, the article tries to identify which practices are applied when public services are contracting out. In achieving this it employs a framework developed by MacNeil for investigating how the role of “purchaser” is managed in contracting out for public service delivery. The study is based on the analysis of two services (waste management and home care services for the elderly) offered by three Italian LGs. Transactional and relational contracting may be described as two poles of a continuum; accordingly, the crucial issue becomes identifying which is the right point (or the right mix) in a unique continuum for every outsourcing situation and is dependent on a balance of various factors, such as the type of the service, the type of the provider and contextual factors. The paper demonstrates with empirical evidence that the relational and transactional approaches are not substitutes for one another, but are both useful for contracting out. Finally, further research is needed in order to investigate the effects on the quality of service due to different governance systems used for contracting out and the evolution of the life cycle of the contract in relation to the different application of the transactional and relational approaches.

The aim of this paper is to formulate some recommendations for the currently undergoing reform of Italian metropolitan areas. This case is particularly relevant since it clearly represents how, even if expected by law, reforms might not happen on the implementation side. We draw the recommendations from some basic assumptions of the collaborative governance model. Recommendations deal with the development of a systemic, collaborative and leadership oriented view of reforms. Indeed, reforms should be intended not only as a legislative process, but also as a complex change management process characterized by the decisive role of the human factor.

The New Public Management (NPM) has become a universal movement of public sector reform on a global scale. In this perspective, the article aims to analyze the adoption of NPM in Developing Countries. This topic is particularly important because the extensive literature on NPM is mainly focused on Western Countries. From a methodological standpoint, our research is based on two case studies (Sub-Saharan Africa and Mongolia). Data have been gathered by documentary analysis and by literature review. The research questions explored are the following: which factors affect the implementation of public management reforms in Developing Countries? What kind of reforms have been implemented in Developing Countries? How the context has impacted in Developing Countries on the public management reforms analyzed? The case studies analysis showed that the most common factors that have led the implementation of public management reforms are the institutional and organizational isomorphism and the role of “managerial fashion”. In the Sub-Saharan African Countries we analyzed NPM inspired reforms according to five perspectives: decentralization, privatization, bureaucracy reform, agentification and corruption. In Mongolia we found that the attempt to apply the full model of NPM (according to New Zealand NPM model) did not lead to the expected results, due to the initial heterogeneous conditions between the two Countries in terms of organizational culture and capacity building of public sector institutions. Finally, our study shown that the model of NPM is a useful framework for designing public management reforms but it must be combined and integrated with the contextual factors because they play a decisive role in influencing the entire process of reforms adoption and implementations. Implications of our study call for a better consideration of the concepts of "heterogenesis of ends" and "managerial fashion" in order to better understand the trajectories and the expected outcomes of public management reforms in Developing Countries since public management reforms are path dependent and need to be sensitive to “operational reality”.

The context of crisis requires to all types of organizations to introduce reforms and innovations in order to respond more effectively to the changes that are taking place. We can observe different effects from several perspectives. From an economic point of view, the crisis has created consequences on access to credit, on monetary policy, on industrial production, on the level of employment, and on the functioning of financial markets. From a political point of view, decision-making has been modified and made more centralized, more politicized and more visible to the public domain. From a social point of view, the crisis generated lower level of cohesion and increased the level of social problems in different forms: higher unemployment, lower family income, decrease in the degree of trust and the propensity to consume, growing precariousness and instability in labour and social relations. Lastly, from the public sector point of view, we can identify at least two important phenomena: 1) the crisis is changing the trajectory of the ongoing reforms; 2) the crisis has increased the level of financial stress that local governments have to face. In this perspective, the article analyses what role and what relationships can be established in the wake of the crisis between local governments and non-profit sector. In order to answer to this issue, the article presents and discusses several possible models through a matrix 2x2 that considers two dimensions: the level of financial stress that local governments face; and the level of managerial capabilities of the non-profit sector.

La necessità di rispettare i vincoli dettati dal Patto di Stabilità e Crescita (PSC) Europeo (1997) ha comportato non solo in Italia, ma anche negli altri Paesi dell’Unione Europea, una maggiore attenzione verso la situazione finanziaria delle amministrazioni locali che, pur non essendo ufficialmente chiamate in causa dal PSC nemmeno in caso di eventuali sanzioni, contribuiscono comunque all’equilibrio complessivo richiesto per il sistema delle amministrazioni pubbliche nazionali.

This article highlights the main reform trajectories put in place in French, Italian, German and Portuguese local governments during the recent crisis and identifies a number of important trends: for example increasing centralization of decision-making powers away from local governments. The authors explain why local governments have an opportunity to use reforms during the crisis to strategically reposition their value proposition.

The New Public Management (NPM) has become a universal movement of public sector reform on a global scale. In this perspective, the article aims to analyze the adoption of NPM in Developing Countries. This topic is particularly important because the extensive literature on NPM is mainly focused on Western Countries. From a methodological standpoint, our research is based on two case studies (Sub-Saharan Africa and Mongolia). Data have been gathered by documental analysis and by literature review. The research questions explored are the following: which factors affect the implementation of public management reforms in Developing Countries? What kind of reforms have been implemented in Developing Countries? How the context has impacted in Developing Countries on the public management reforms analyzed? The case studies analysis showed that the most common factors that have led the implementation of public management reforms are the
institutional and organizational isomorphism and the role of “managerial fashion”. In the Sub-Saharan African Countries we
analyzed NPM inspired reforms according to five perspectives: decentralization, privatization, bureaucracy reform, agentification and corruption. In Mongolia we found that the attempt to apply the full model of NPM (according to New Zealand NPM model) did not lead to the expected results, due to the initial heterogeneous conditions between the two Countries in terms of organizational culture and capacity building of public sector institutions. Finally, our study shown that the model of NPM is a useful framework for designing public management reforms but it must be combined and integrated with the contextual factors because they play a decisive role in influencing the entire process of reforms adoption and implementations. Implications of our study
call for a better consideration of the concepts of "heterogenesis of ends" and "managerial fashion" in order to better understand the trajectories and the expected outcomes of public management reforms in Developing Countries since public management reforms are path dependent and need to be sensitive to “operational reality”.

Serve o non serve lo spoils system nella pubblica amministrazione? Serve a portare nel settore pubblico talenti o manager di successo? In Inghilterra si è tentata una strada che punta su trasparenza e merito. La responsabilità ultima delle nomine al vertice dei "public bodies" resta dei ministri competenti. Ma la scelta avviene sulla base di una ristretta lista di candidati selezionati da un gruppo di esaminatori indipendenti. Che non rispondono al ministro, ma a un commissario altrettanto indipendente dal governo. E che ogni anno manda al parlamento un rapporto dettagliato.