Abstract
The notion of working across boundaries receives considerable attention from
scholars and practitioners of public management and policy. In recent times,
much emphasis has been placed on notions of inter- organizational, interjurisdictional
and inter- sectoral working, and a range of terms have emerged to
capture this phenomenon: horizontal coordination, joined- up government,
whole- of-government, holistic government, collaborative governance, to name
just a few. Despite the flurry of terms, the core element that binds them is the
sense that boundaries must be traversed in order to achieve goals.
Most of the post- New Public Management (NPM) models which have
emerged over the last decade or so have put the notion of boundary crossing
front and centre: the new public service model articulated by Denhardt and Denhardt
(2000) focuses on collaborative structures and shared leadership; the new
public governance model set out by Osborne (2006) includes a notion of interorganizational
management, inter- dependent agents and ongoing relationships;
there is a strong relational, collaborative thread running through the public value
management approach articulated by Stoker (2006); and Halligan’s (2007) work
on integrated governance demonstrates that new models of governing place horizontal
collaborative, boundary- spanning ways of operating at their centre.
Indeed, Kelman (2007) has argued that the topics of collaboration across government
agencies (‘connect the dots’) and between government, private and nongovernment
organizations (networks, or collaborative governance) are the
‘most- discussed questions involving the performance of public institutions and
achievement of public purposes’
Original language | English |
---|---|
Title of host publication | Crossing Boundaries in Public Management and Policy |
Editors | Janine O’Flynn, Deborah Blackman, John Halligan |
Place of Publication | New York |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 11-44 |
Edition | 1 |
ISBN (Print) | 978-0-203-10690-7 |
Publication status | Published - 2014 |