Connecting knowledge and performance in public services : from knowing to doing / edited by Kieran Walshe, Gill Harvey, Pauline Jas.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Walshe, Kieran, editor.

Harvey, Gill, 1963- editor.

Jas, Pauline, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Municipal services--Management.

Municipal services.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xviii, 295 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Other Title:

Connecting Knowledge & Performance in Public Services

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Summary:

The performance of public services is now more closely scrutinised than ever before. Every teacher, doctor, social worker or probation officer knows that behind them stands a restless army of overseers, equipped with a panoply of league tables, star ratings, user opinion surveys, performance indicators and the like with which to judge them. This increased scrutiny and performance measurement has undoubtedly produced improved public services. Yet we still have a limited understanding about how this information can be best used to bring about improvements in performance. What goes on inside the 'black box' of public organisations to move from information to action, or from 'knowing' to 'doing'? This book tackles this important question by reviewing a wide range of performance mechanisms. It explores how information about performance can be translated into improvements in services and, conversely, why this does not always happen in practice.

Contents:

Introduction: knowledge and performance

theory and practice / Kieran Walshe, Gill Harvey and Pauline Jas

Knowledge from inspection: external oversight and information to improve performance / Steve Martin

How is information used to improve performance in the public sector? Exploring the dynamics of performance information / Steven Van de Walle and Wouter Van Dooren

Citizens, users or consumers: the voice of the public and its influence on improving performance / Ian Greener

Competition and choice: the place of markets in connecting information and performance improvement / Carol Propper and Deborah Wilson

The role of corporate governance and boards in organizational performance / Naomi Chambers and Chris Cornforth

Change at the top: connecting political and managerial transitions with performance / George Boyne, Oliver James, Peter John and Nicolai Petrovsky

The role of leadership in knowledge creation and transfer for organizational learning and improvement / Jean Hartley and Lyndsay Rashman

Process improvement and lean thinking: using knowledge and information to improve performance / Zoe Radnor

Using evidence: how social research could be better used to improve public service performance / Huw Davies, Sandra Nutley and Isabel Walter

Absorptive capacity: how organisations assimilate and apply knowledge to improve performance / Gill Harvey, Pauline Jas, Kieran Walshe and Chris Skelcher

Knowing through doing: unleashing latent dynamic capabilities in the public sector / Ann Casebeer, Trish Reay, James Dewald and Amy Pablo

Conclusions: a puzzle, three pieces, many theories and a problem / Colin Talbot.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780511762000

0-511-86184-2

1-107-20503-4

1-282-94187-9

9786612941870

0-511-85947-3

0-511-85860-4

0-511-85773-X

0-511-86034-X

0-511-85686-5

OCLC:

693761298