Connecting Knowledge and Performance in Public Services
From Knowing to Doing

An exploration of how information about performance can be translated into improvements in public services.

Kieran Walshe (Edited by), Gill Harvey (Edited by), Pauline Jas (Edited by)

9780521195461, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 September 2010

314 pages, 6 b/w illus. 14 tables
25.4 x 18 x 2 cm, 0.8 kg

'We live in a world overrun by information, with an ever-increasing expectation that public actors will use it to make our lives better. But do they? Under what conditions? When does it lead to positive change? This volume addresses these questions, offering a broad array of insightful models, theories, and empirical findings. It should be read by all who are interested in better connecting knowledge with policy and management processes.' Donald P. Moynihan, University of Wisconsin-Madison

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.

List of figures
List of tables
List of boxes
Foreword Chris Hood
1. Introduction: knowledge and performance - theory and practice Kieran Walshe, Gill Harvey and Pauline Jas
2. Knowledge from inspection: external oversight and information to improve performance Steve Martin
3. How is information used to improve public performance? Exploring the dynamics of performance information Steven Van de Walle and Wouter Van Dooren
4. Citizens, users or consumers: the voice of the public and its influence on improving performance Ian Greener
5. Competition and contestability: the place of markets in connecting information and performance improvement Carol Propper and Deborah Wilson
6. The role of corporate governance and boards in organizational performance Chris Cornforth and Naomi Chambers
7. Change at the top: connecting political and managerial transition with performance George Boyne, Oliver James, Peter John and Nicolai Petrovsky
8. The role of leadership in knowledge creation and transfer for organizational learning and improvement Jean Hartley and Lyndsay Rashman
9. Process improvement and lean thinking: using knowledge and information to improve performance Zoe Radnor
10. Using evidence: how social research could be better used to improve public service performance Huw Davies, Sandra Nutley and Isabel Walter
11. Absorptive capacity: how organizations assimilate and apply knowledge to improve performance Gill Harvey, Pauline Jas, Kieran Walshe and Chris Skelcher
12. Knowing through doing: unleashing latent dynamic capabilities in the public sector Ann Casebeer, Trish Reay, James Dewald and Amy Pablo
13. Conclusions: a puzzle, three pieces, many theories and a problem Colin Talbot
Index.

Subject Areas: Civil service & public sector [KNV], Organizational theory & behaviour [KJU], Business & management [KJ]