The Projectification Of The Public Sector

In recent decades, we have witnessed an increasing use of projects and similar temporary modes of organising in the public sector of nations in Europe and around the world. While for some this is a welcome development which unlocks entrepreneurial zeal and renders public services more flexible and accountable, others argue that this seeks to depoliticise policy initiatives, rendering them increasingly technocratic, and that the project organisations formed in this process offer fragmented and unsustainable short-term solutions to long-term problems. This volume sets out to address public sector projectification by drawing together research from a range of academic fields to develop a critical and theoretically-informed understanding of the causes, nature, and consequences of the projectification of the public sector. This book includes 13 chapters and is organised into three parts. The first part centres on the politics of projectification, specifically the role of projects in de-politicisation, often accomplished by rendering the political “technical”. The chapters in the second part all relate to the reframing of the relationship between the centre and periphery, or between policy making and implementation, and the role of temporality in reshaping this relation. The third and final part brings a focus upon the tools, techniques, and agents through which public sector projectification is assembled, constructed, and performed.

This report discusses how steering innovation investment in public sector organisations through a portfolio approach can help governments respond to the multi-faceted challenges they face. Portfolio management is a well-known device in the financial sector, allowing for dynamic decision-making processes involving regular reviews of activity and ensuring a coherent distribution of resources among strategic options.

This book is about projectification – a concept that captures the increasing reliance on “the project” in contemporary societies, governance and economies. Despite its significance, this development and transformation, not only of public and private organizations but also our working environment and way of living, has received little scholarly attention compared to other major societal movements. Since its conceptualization in 1995 the phenomena of projectification has grown in scope, and researchers beyond management and organization studies have argued for and applied a broader and critical perspective to what projects are and how we are to understand the term. This volume gathers researchers who critically examine the function and effects of “the project”, and analyzes the logic, politics, discursive practices and contexts of projectification. The book consolidates this research field by illustrating theoretical perspectives on, and empirical implications of, projectification. It also highlights the need for more research, and provides encouragements for other disciplines to scrutinize this phenomenon from other perspectives.

Practitioners operate in a necessary reality. We work in a space where project performance is above theory or methodology. In the best environments, delivery and an affirmative culture are what matter most. In the worst, it is politics and survival. In any environment we are challenged to adopt best practices and adapt our style to the environment in which the project is occurring. This is a book about those best practices and practitioner experiences. It is a must have reference and guide book for project managers, general managers, business leaders and project management researchers. This book is the result of the hard work and dedication of more than 35 authors from more than 15 countries across four continents. It brings a diversity of experience, professional and personal. It includes practitioners, leading academics, renowned theorists and many who straddle those roles. The chapters cover experiences in software, large scale infrastructure projects, finance and health care, to name a few. The chapters themselves take many forms. Check out the table of contents to get a deeper sense of the topics included. All provide real-world guidance on delivering high performing projects and show you how to build, lead and manage high performing teams. The Practitioners Handbook of Project Performance is complete in itself. It can also be an enticing start to an ongoing dialogue with the authors and a pleasurable path to get deeper into the subject of project performance. Find your favorite place to begin learning from these chapters, to begin taking notes and taking away nuggets to use in your everyday. But don’t stop there. Contact information and further resources for this diverse team of experts authors are found throughout. The Practitioners Handbook is a modern guide to the leading edge of project performance management and a path to the future of project delivery.

Although, over time, numerous articles and books have been published on New Public Management (NPM), it is still being investigated with a sense of great urgency, as its effects, whether positive or negative, have not yet been fully gauged and comprehended. Given the rather controversial nature of the phenomenon of interest, the purpose of this edited volume is to re-invigorate and revisit the ongoing debate on NPM by providing a fresh perspective and novel insights into how NPM-driven changes have been approached and, more importantly, the effects they have produced in the context of Norway. The current volume comprises seven contributions penned by scholars and experts from all over Norway with a keen interest in NPM. Five of them are geared towards assessing the effects of NPM-style reforms on the Norwegian public healthcare sector in general and nursing in particular, one deals with the impacts of NPM on Norwegian primary and lower secondary education, and one traces the relationship between NPM and the most influential management accounting innovations of the last few decades. It is our profound hope that the book will trigger fruitful discussions and broaden our understanding of NPM and its effects by providing lessons from the empirical evidence presented in the different chapters. Captivating and instructive, it will be of great interest for all readers keeping an eye on NPM, including but not limited to students and scholars of public administration, practitioners and policymakers.

The Routledge Handbook of Public Sector Accounting explores new developments and transformations in auditing, management control, performance measurement, risk management and sustainability work in the contemporary world of the public sector and the functioning of accounting and management in that realm. It focuses on critical analysis and reflection with respect to changing risk and crisis management patterns in the public sector in the current Covid- 19 and post- Covid- 19 era, across diverse social, political and institutional settings globally. This research-based edited book, targeted at scholars, professionals, teachers and consultants inthe fields of public sector accounting, auditing, accountability and management, offers high-level insights into the new architecture and execution of such activities in the emerging post-pandemic world. The chapters are written by leading scholars in the accounting and public administration disciplines internationally and provide important assessments, frameworks and recommendations concerning a wide variety of institutions, practices and policies with a view to addressing the many emerging societal, governmental and professional issues. Spanning theoretical, empirical and policy discussion contributions, the book’s chapters will be readily accessible to accounting, auditing and management audiences alike.

A selection of leading authorities on project organizing explore the effects, opportunities and challenges of a project society.

The era of hybrid governance is here. More and more organizations occupy a position between public and private ownership. And value is created not through business or public interests alone, but through distinct forms of hybrid governance. National governments are looking to transform their administrative systems to become more business driven. Likewise, private enterprises are seeing value gains in promoting public interest in their corporate social responsibility programs. But how can we conceptualize, evaluate and measure the value and performance of hybrid governance and organizations? This book offers a comprehensive overview of how hybrids produce value. It explores the drivers, obstacles and complications for value creation in different hybrid contexts: state-owned enterprises, urban policy-making, universities and non-profits from around the world. The authors address several types of value contents, for instance financial, social and public value. Furthermore, the book provides a novel way of understanding multiple forms of doing value in hybrid settings. The book explains mixing, compromising and legitimising as important mechanisms of value creation. Aimed at researchers and students of public management, public administration, business management, corporate social responsibility and governance, this book provides a theoretical, conceptual and empirical understanding of value creation in hybrid organizations. It is also an invaluable overview of performance evaluation and measurement systems and practices in hybrid organizations and governance.