Enrico Guarini

Public services management and co-production in multi-level governance settings

From a normative stance, co-production has been recommended at all stages of the public service cycle. However, previous empirical studies on co-production have neglected the question of how to make this happen. Moreover, little attention has been paid to how co-production might occur in multi-level governance settings. The aim of this article is to fill these gaps, identifying triggers and organizational and managerial issues that could support the adoption of co-production in multi-level governance settings. The empirical analysis is based on a case study of services for autistic children. The findings highlight that co-production was prompted by inter-organizational arrangements and that trust-building among the actors played a pivotal role in nurturing a co-production approach. Points for practitioners From an organizational perspective, our case study shows that, in order to foster co-production in multi-level governance settings, all stages of the public service cycle should be aligned and inspired by the same logic. From a managerial perspective it highlights that the implementation of co-production requires new managerial skills and tools. Public managers are asked to listen to community groups and individuals, to mobilize collective resources and knowledge, and exercise a meta-governance role. Finally, in order to have co-produced services, our findings point to the need to start thinking differently about the roles of civil society and government in satisfying the common good.

CSR Role in Public – Private Partnerships: Models of Governance

Besides CSR initiatives solely undertaken by private firms, forms of collaboration in the area of CSR are taking place with public sector organizations within public-private partnerships and policy networks. Focusing on the Italian state of the art of CSR public – private partnerships, five representative cases are analyzed. While public sector primary task concerns mapping societal and environmental needs, private sector firms engage primarily in financing and executing CSR interventions.

Measuring Public Value in Bureaucratic Settings: Opportunities and Constraints

Abstract Purpose In recent years, public management research has been focused at the public value paradigm. However, many discussions on this topic are motivated at least as much by theory as by evidence. We do not yet have a comprehensive empirical understanding of what happens when the public value paradigm is translated into practice within organizations. An important theoretical question is how to match the public value approach and measurement to specific contexts. Understanding barriers to effective implementation and identifying what might be done to overcome obstacles are interesting issues for advancing theory and practice. Design/methodology/approach By deploying and testing the same approach and method of measuring public value in two local governments, this article aims to shed light on barriers to implementing the public value paradigm in practice. Findings The study’s findings show little evidence to support claims for a paradigmatic shift towards the public value paradigm in the Italian case. Practical implications Managerial implications of public value measurement are also taken into consideration. Originality/value We know little about what conditions drive individual governments towards the adoption of a public value approach and measurement. Undoubtedly, this issue has huge practical relevance when introducing public value discourses in bureaucratic governmental settings.

Il processo di unificazione del Regno d’Italia e l’armonizzazione dei preesistenti sistemi contabili

This paper focuses on harmonization of government accounting in historical perspective. The study explores the case of Italian Unification and sheds light on how the first accounting system for the Kingdom of Italy was regulated by combining the accounting systems of seven pre-unitary States. Evidence shows that accounting harmonization was not a leading priority among government reforms. Several urgent issues required government response such as public debt consolidation and harmonization of the fiscal system. This circumstances accelerated the decision to extend the Kingdom of Sardinia’s accounting system to the entire Kingdom of Italy. Furthermore, the scarcity of accounting techniques and methods among the other pre-unitary States further propelled the extension of this model throughout the newly unified Italian Kingdom. From this point of view, the influence on accounting practices of a specific cultural tradition seems to be directly connected with its own permanence and establishment in a specific context.

An Anatomy of Governance Failures in Municipal Bankruptcy

Originality/value Municipal defaults around the world have indicated that regulations and audits are ineffective to prevent local governments from failing. A full understanding of complex mutual interactions between the mechanisms of governance and the behaviors of politicians and managers can provide valuable insights to prevent local governments from failing.

Performance-Based Funding and Internal Resource Allocation: The Case of Italian Universities

Management literature has emphasized the importance of performance measurement systems (PMS) that are consistent with the organization’s context and strategy. However, little attention has been paid to factors that explain the design of PMS not adequately reflecting an organization’s business model. We use the case of Italian universities to highlight how performance-based funding impacts resource allocation systems of faculty positions to academic departments. The findings show a variety of PMS in use. Differences across systems arise from different strategies and priorities. We have limited evidence that the systems’ features can explain the disparities in research performance and funding, which suggest that part of the explanation may reside in the size of the organization or in the power of academic disciplines.

Accounting for community building: the municipal amalgamation of Milan in 1873-1876

ABSTRACT This study analyses the accounting change that occurred as a consequence of the amalgamation of the municipalities of Milan and Corpi Santi in the years 1873–1876 and sheds light on the role played therein by accounting information. To explain the process of accounting change, the study adopts institutional theory, in particular, coercive isomorphism and the processual approach of Dawson. While coercive isomorphism shaped the process of municipal amalgamation, innovation in accounting practices also took place, greatly contributing to building the sense making of the new community. The accounting innovation consisted in the use of cost accounting logic to allocate revenues and expenditures between the two municipalities that in the end favoured the amalgamation and overcame the mandatory separation of published accounts. The study presents evidence that leading elected councillors and the chief accountant bolstered the process of accounting innovation. Apart from external organisational pressures posited by institutional theory, we suggest that, to explain accounting change within organisations, more emphasis should be given to the role played by individuals and contrasting interests during the institutionalisation process.

Microbiology Managers: Managerial Training in the RItrain Project

Leaders of research infrastructures (RIs) in Europe who are scientists require competencies in management. RItrain has addressed this issue by identifying skills required, locating relevant courses and finding gaps, whilst establishing a Master of Management programme. We describe how one contributing microbiology RI determined the most relevant skills.

Performance-based funding e sistemi di allocazione delle risorse ai dipartimenti: prime evidenze nelle università italiane

This article presents the results of an empirical research aimed to investigate the relationship between performance-based funding (PBF) systems and resource allocation systems within public sector organizations. This research is focused on the mechanisms for allocation of new faculty positions in Italian public universities, which are characterized by an increasing relevance of PBF over the last years. This context allows us to assess both the coherence between universities’ performance measurement systems and the PBF system and the awareness of its effects. Results show, with few exceptions, a high degree of maturity in the design of universities performance measurement systems. These systems have been primarily designed to be consistent with universities’ organizational context and strategies so avoiding a simplistic transposition of performance indicators drawn from the PBF system.

The day after: newly-elected politicians and the use of accounting information

Most democracies expect accounting information to be used by public managers and elected politicians to support decision-making and accountability to both the public and higher levels of government. This paper shows that Italian local government politicians also use accounting information to influence public opinion and to win political benefit after elections when there has been a change in the ruling party.