Alessandro Sancino

The Open University · Department of Public Leadership and Social Enterprise

This essay suggests changes to the theory of public value and, in particular, the strategic triangle framework, in order to adapt it to an emerging world where policy makers and managers in the public, private, voluntary and informal community sectors have to somehow separately and jointly create public value. One set of possible changes concerns w...

This article contributes to the growing amount of literature on co-production, focusing on co-production of public outcomes and taking the perspective of local government and public managers. A model for explaining the dynamics of outcomes’ creation at the community level is provided. The core argument of the article is that community outcomes resu...

This Chapter offers a critical discussion of the concepts and practices of co-production and inter-organisational collaboration in the provision of public services. After presenting a theoretical backdrop, it describes four main relationships that may occur between co-production and interorganisational collaboration in the provision of public servi...

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 paper is to...

This study employs a single embedded case study design to investigate strategizing processes under conditions of Weberian bureaucracy and ethnic consociationalism. Drawing from a blend of secondary and primary sources, including semi‐structured interviews, observations, and focus group discussions, we harness thematic and narrative qualitative anal...

This editorial introduces the Special Issue on public value, urging scholars to ask fundamental questions about what public value organizing entails. It proposes key conceptual dimensions to foster public value thinking, highlighting the contested nature of the concept and the subjective understanding of public value among different publics. Themes...

This article offers evidence‐based understanding of public value creation in multi‐actor collaborations by presenting the results of a systematic literature review of empirical studies published within the public administration field. Specifically, it focuses on two primary research questions: How do multi‐actor collaborations generate public value...

In this introductory article to our PPA special issue we argue that the relation between wicked problems and collaborative governance is fraught with difficulties. Doing so, we take four steps: we maintain that wicked problems are better understood as wicked actor constellations; we delve into the collaborative governance-approach and posit that it...

This paper addresses the societal challenge of sustainably managing cultural heritage, a topic of great relevance for the sustainability of societies and their historical institutions. Specifically, it focuses on long-lasting collaborative systems set up between a public actor and civil society in response to the need for heritage asset preservatio...

Lack of progress in the area of global sustainable development and difficulties in crisis management highlight the need to transform the economy and find new ways of making society more resilient. The social economy is increasingly recognized as a driver of such transformations; it comprises traditional forms of cooperative or solidarity-based orga...

Public Value Co-Creation: A Multi-Actor & Multi-Sector Perspective addresses a fundamental gap in the scholarly field of Public Management relating to the advice and strategies available on what public managers can and/or should do to co-create public value. The book offers a timely and unique approach providing a map with the main actors and their...

This essay embraces a notion of critical scholarship concerned with proposing normative and actionable alternatives that can create more inclusive societies and focuses on the role of institutionalizing experimental places for inclusive social innovation as a bottom-up strategic response to welfare state reforms. By mobilizing the notions of utopia...

Purpose This paper aims to understand stakeholders' sentiments with respect to company policies in the water utilities (WU) sector and to explore if and how these sentiments could be a source for organisational learning. Design/methodology/approach This study investigates the use of social media in WUs’ and stakeholders’ reactions as a source of d...

The aim of this paper is to study the role of local political leadership and the use of emotions and rationality in public communication by focusing on the case study of Marco Borradori. The participation and the popular emotions shown by citizens from any political positioning after the death of Onorevole Borradori makes him an interesting charact...

What do leaders do when they interact with followers and stakeholders in a time of crisis? What networking behaviors do leaders manifest in such a context of emergency? We answer these questions through qualitative research and cluster analysis conducted on a sample of leaders involved in community management in the most affected region in northern...

IMPACT This article introduces a strategy that can be used by managers to (co)design, (co)analyse and (co)assess processes of public value co-creation. Actions for implementation by public managers are also recommended, such as keeping a register of co-creation processes; describing the settings and the material relations among the actors taking pa...

The capacity of public sector of co-creating with other stakeholders is challenged by the increasing presence of disruptive turbulent events, such as the COVID-19. At this regard, robustness has been identified as a suitable response to deal with this kind of events. Through a systematic literature review, we analysed how public sector organisation...

This paper studies how mayors engage with citizens, public managers and politicians across the policy cycle and specifically in four local governance processes: agenda setting, decision-making, public services design and delivery. Drawing from a survey of 1,067 Italian mayors, we identify four clusters of engagement: Centralized Leadership, Semi-In...

This work aims to highlight the importance of the co-creation of public value and how the lack of integrated territorial networks of care have impacted in the management of the COVID-19 emergency. It shows how decisions made in response to wicked problems must consider different policy areas (clinical, social, economic) that are highly correlated a...

Sustainability is becoming the main character of the financial industry in Europe, especially after the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) 2019/2088, which came into force on March 10th, 2021. However, despite the top‐down indications for disclosing and reporting sustainability practices provided by this new policy, financial actors s...

This paper sheds light on what city leaders can do about climate change in the context of the complex extra-territorial challenges they face. We created an original database of those actions implemented by members of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and investigated which boundary organizations, objects and experiences (‘boundary cooperative...

Responding directly to the themes of the Special Issue, this paper addresses a surprising absence to date of the voluntary sector’s important role in the constitution of place leadership. Drawing on an empirical study of locally rooted voluntary sector organisations in a district of the Midlands of England, we aim to untangle the complex relationsh...

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the strategic governance of the digital transformation of the accounting environment in cultural organizations, with a specific focus on practices of social responsibility and stakeholder engagement in virtual museums. Design/Methodology/Approach By adopting a multiple case study approach, this study investig...

In this programmatic essay, we argue that public governance scholarship would benefit from developing a self-conscious and cohesive strand of “positive” scholarship, akin to social science subfields like positive psychology, positive organizational studies, and positive evaluation. We call for a program of research devoted to uncovering the factors...

As a group of fifteen scholars from different sub-fields, countries, and generations, we argue that public administration would benefit from launching a self-conscious and cohesive strand of ‘positive’ scholarship, akin to social science subfields like positive psychology, positive organisational studies, and positive evaluation. We call for a prog...

Purpose This paper aims to analyse stakeholder sentiment about the corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions implemented by Italian companies between February 20, 2020 and April 20, 2020, which was the first peak in the outbreak of the COVID-19 health emergency in Italy. Design/methodology/approach Using sentiment analysis, the impact of COVID...

Purpose The paper discusses the evolution of leadership practices performed by local political leaders in the last decade (2009–2019, a period which we might call post-global financial crisis and pre-COVID-19). It offers some new theoretical concepts to make sense of emerging contemporary public leadership practices, namely: leaders-hip hop; charis...

The current transformations in society, the economy and the public sector call for the development of more unified theoretical frameworks. This article takes the literature on strategic management as a theoretical entry angle and aims to better understand how the adoption of models of strategic management can enable processes of public value co-cre...

This study explores how certain characteristics of the network structure, such as autonomization and connectivity, differently combine with individual leadership in order to produce high network performance. Data gathered through a survey of 265 networks for homecare assistance shed light on three different paths simultaneously leading to network s...

Co-production of public services is attracting growing attention, although little is known regarding its outcomes. This paper aims to examine how the management of co-production can enhance the principles of good governance, which are intended as its potential outcomes. To this purpose, the research investigates the key issues in managing co-produc...

Individuals and organisations within civil society play a crucial role in our cities, but little direct research has been carried out on their leadership role. By employing a place-based leadership approach, this article aims to identify the leaders of civil society in two cities, one in Italy (Padua) and one in the UK (Peterborough). We draw our r...

Only relatively recently, place leadership has become an important debate in the leadership studies and public administration literatures. From a place leadership perspective, there is clearly a potential role for third sector organisations and the voluntary engagement that citizens can play for places through different activities, such as for exam...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review previous research on public appointments to systematize existing knowledge, identify gaps and discuss implications for future research in this field. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on a systematic literature review, carried out using the Scopus database. We selected academic articles...

Drawing on a survey of 25 mayors of municipalities belonging to the Metropolitan City of Milan, Italy this paper presents an investigation into the main problems they faced during Phase 1 (lockdown) and Phase 2 (post-lockdown, pre-vaccine); the leadership actions they implemented in Phases 1 and 2; and the leadership actions they would prioritize i...

What leadership practices can be enacted in contexts of public values failure and with low social capital to enact positive social change? This article studies public management and leadership dynamics in the “Land of Fires” (Italy), a place where waste management has historically been affected by mafia infiltration. Our research is based on a mult...

This article discusses the concept of ‘publics’ and provides a case example related to Covid-19 to show the importance of strategically managing with and for publics. Specifically, the publics of local governance in lockdown are identified from two focus groups with local leaders conducted in Lombardy, Italy. Identifying, designing and visualizing...

This paper focuses on a process of citizens and stakeholders’ engagement promoted by a local authority to co-design the city vision with multiple actors (politicians, public managers, consultants, citizens and other external stakeholders). The setting for this research is provided by a municipality in Sweden and our theoretical perspective is the d...

Both leadership and public value are increasingly seen as concepts highly relevant to public administration, not only because of complex societal challenges but also as ways to address pluralistic interests in society. This article explores the varied conceptualisations of public value and of public leadership in detail. Furthermore, we argue that...

Drawing on the results of a systematic literature review of empirical studies, this paper sheds light on six broad factors that facilitate the initiation and implementation of coproduction in public services. The factors are classified into two overarching categories: (1) organizational factors, including organizational arrangements, professional r...

Public administration-as a field of both academic study and professional practice-would benefit greatly from a more systematic and cohesive strand of research that is explicitly geared towards systematically studying the successes and positive contributions of government. At present, the citizenry at large is ill-informed about what government does...

The book uses critical theories to discuss the relationship between technology, society and politics. Through a critical journey into recent turning-point world events such as the global financial crisis and the rise of populism, it illustrates four social technologies for governing market, society and politics: the Capitalist Technopoly, Techno-Po...

This paper analyses leadership in, of and for smart cities. Using a multi-case study research design and Mode 2 research (based upon collaboration between a scholar and a practitioner) we explore smart cities initiatives in Europe (Amsterdam, Bristol & Milton Keynes), North and South America (Chicago & Curitiba) and Australia (Melbourne). We undert...

Between patronage and good governance: Organizational arrangements in (local) public appointment processes This article investigates whether certain organizational arrangements in (local) public appointment processes could encourage the use of appointments as a tool of good governance rather than as a tool of patronage. Specifically, we studied the...

This book chapter uses structuration theory and aims to study cross-sectoral collaborations for co-creating public value and their implications in terms of the role and the relationships of the public sector with the private and third sector.Our research is exploratory and our main research question is: What are the modalities of structuration of c...

Purpose This article studies effects of mandatory inter-municipal cooperation (IMC) in small Italian municipalities. Data from 280 small Italian municipalities on effects of IMC in terms of higher efficiency, better effectiveness of local public services, and greater institutional legitimacy of the small municipalities participating in IMC have be...

The relationships between politics and administration (the plural form is intentional) represent a long-standing theme and have been one of the most widely debated issues since the early days of public administration studies (Goodnow, 1900; Waldo, 1948; Weber, 1922; Wilson, 1887). According to one of the most prominent scholar in this field, ‘the r...

The objective of this paper is to fill a gap in the literature on place leadership by examining variation in the practices of place leadership across six countries in order to distinguish those features that appear common, and those that are context dependent. It makes use of regional economic development issues, and does so in recognition of both...

Public collaborative networks have been used across Europe to deal with challenges in public service delivery. However, running inter-organisational structures requires suitable management accounting and control systems. There are packages of mechanisms that help these networks build and maintain collaborative relationships between partners, enabli...

In this chapter, we aim to give a contribution discussing what types of city leadership can contribute towards promoting social regeneration of communities focusing in particular on the roles of public managers and politicians. The structure of the chapter is as follows: the second section sets out a fold-four classification of city leadership; the...

This paper compares place-based leadership patterns of five European cities that have different administrative and socio-cultural traditions in order to understand the role that context plays in shaping city leadership patterns in the policy domain of sport. This paper uses an exploratory approach to analyse the city as a complex adaptive system. I...

Despite an international resurgence of interest in coproduction, confusion about the concept remains. This article attempts to make sense of the disparate literature and clarify the concept of coproduction in public administration. Based on some definitional distinctions and considerations about who is involved in coproduction, when in the service...

Despite an international resurgence of interest in coproduction, confusion about the concept remains. This article attempts to make sense of the disparate literature and clarify the concept of coproduction in public administration. Based on some definitional distinctions and considerations about who is involved in coproduction, when in the servic...

This chapter compares the Italian and the Spanish case discussing the influence of having elected or appointed mayors on local government systems. Five elements of the local government systems are compared: the electoral system and its influences on the political composition of the local government; the local government structure and the distributi...

This article investigates whether certain organizational arrangements in (local) public appointment processes could encourage the use of appointments as a tool of good governance rather than as a tool of patronage. Specifically, we studied the role of six organizational arrangements in 10 case studies of intra- and inter-organizational public appoi...

Local governments’ activities are very relevantin the European economic context: Kuhlman and Wollman report (2014, p.22) that they represent about 16 per cent of the entire gross domestic product of allEuropean Union (EU) countries as well as about 34 per cent of their total publicexpenditures. Nowadays, local governments across many EU countries h...

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-product...

More than 20 years after their introduction, directly elected mayors are key players in Italian urban governance. This article explains the main effects of this reform on local government systems and provides lessons for other countries considering directly elected mayors.

This paper discusses the role of city leadership in the current multilevel governance settings and provides a conceptual framework for understanding the main elements of city leadership. Forms of political, managerial and civic leadership have been distinguished within city leadership and the main actors, structures, processes and followership patt...

The topic of co-production of public services has gained a lot of appeal among academics and practitioners. However, there is a lack of studies that investigate the role of co-production of public services throughout the cycle of public services management. This paper aims to fill this gap by analyzing a case study of co-production of services for...

Local public management is undergoing a period of great complexity. We identify three main challenges in the existing situation: achieving higher efficiency in the operations; building and managing public networks for improving the effectiveness of policy making and service delivery; engaging citizens and stakeholders in order to co-create public o...

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the behaviour of city managers in the ongoing context of city leadership in Italy where there are high levels of political, economic and social turbulence. Design/methodology/approachA survey was administered to 140 Italian city managers, with a response rate of 56%. The main research questions were the following:...

The aim of this paper is to formulate some recommendations for the currently undergoing reform of Italian metropolitan areas. This case is particularly relevant since it clearly represents how, even if expected by law, reforms might not happen on the implementation side. We draw the recommendations from some basic assumptions of the collaborative g...

The paper analyzes in five local governance case studies: i) the processes and tools employed for engaging stakeholders in different phases of the 'stakeholder management cycle' and ii) the role played by public managers. The case studies deal with experiences of co-consultation, co-decision, co-design, co-delivery and co-evaluation. Findings highl...

This article highlights the main reform trajectories put in place in French, Italian, German and Portuguese local governments during the recent crisis and identifies a number of important trends: for example increasing centralization of decision-making powers away from local governments. The authors explain why local governments have an opportunity...

The context of crisis requires to all types of organizations to introduce reforms and innovations in order to respond more effectively to the changes that are taking place. We can observe different effects from several perspectives. From an economic point of view, the crisis has created consequences on access to credit, on monetary policy, on indus...

PUBLIC MANAGEMENT REFORMS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES BETWEEN HETEROGENESIS OF PURPOSE AND MANAGERIAL FASHION). The New Public Management (NPM) has become a universal movement of public sector reform on a global scale. In this perspective, the article aims to analyze the adoption of NPM in Developing Countries. This topic is particularly important beca...

Zusammenfassung Die Zusammenarbeit der Gemeinden ist in der Schweiz ein populäres Phänomen. Dies wirft die häufige Frage auf wie erfolgreich Netzwerke gebildet warden können. Um dies zu beantworten, führten wir eine mehrfache Fallstudie durch, welche die Zusammenarbeit der Gemeinden im Kanton Tessin im Bezug auf die Bereitstellung des Pflegedienste...

The article analyzes the status quo of the use of spoils system in local government and highlights a theoretical model for the application of spoils system, labelled “competitive spoils system”. This model - based on UK experience - mixed up democratic, meritocratic and managerial concerns and is characterized by extended responsibility for appoint...

The article highlights some contemporary challenges local governments are facing. In particular, it argues that local governments should redirect public intervention toward “less hard public, more soft public”. It shows how public management should play a key role in addressing the question of “more soft public”, for example in terms of handling so...