Governments and nonprofits exist to create public value. Yet what does that mean in theory and practice?

This new volume brings together key experts in the field to offer unique, wide-ranging answers. From the United States, Europe, and Australia, the contributors focus on the creation, meaning, measurement, and assessment of public value in a world where government, nonprofit organizations, business, and citizens all have roles in the public sphere. In so doing, they demonstrate the intimate link between ideas of public value and public values and the ways scholars theorize and measure them. They also add to ongoing debates over what public value might mean, the nature of the most important public values, and how we can practically apply these values. The collection concludes with an extensive research and practice agenda conceived to further the field and mainstream its ideas.

Aimed at scholars, students, and stakeholders ranging from business and government to nonprofits and activist groups, Public Value and Public Administration is an essential blueprint for those interested in creating public value to advance the common good.

PrefaceIntroductionJohn M. Bryson, Barbara C. Crosby, and Laura Bloomberg

1. Discerning and Assessing Public Value: Major Issues and New DirectionsJohn M. Bryson, Barbara C. Crosby, and Laura Bloomberg

Part I: Helping Managers Focus on Creating Public Value

2. Political Astuteness as an Aid to Discerning and Creating Public ValueJean Hartley, John Alford, and Owen Hughes

3. Building Deliberative Capacity to Create Public Value: The Practices and Artifacts of the Art of HostingJodi Sandfort and Kathryn S. Quick

4. Joining Minds: System Dynamics Group Model Building to Create Public ValueGeorge Richardson, David F. Anderson, and Luis F. Luna-Reyes

5. Weighing the Public Value of Alternative Methods of Providing Public Services: Toward a Contingency FrameworkJohn Alford

6. The Creation of Public Value through Step-Change Innovation in Public OrganizationsJean Hartley

Part II: Measuring and Assessing Public Value

7. How Can Cost-Benefit Analysis Help Create Public Value?Clive Belfield

8. Creating a Public Value Account and ScorecardMark H. Moore

9. Public Value MappingJennie Welch, Heather Rimes, and Barry Bozeman

10. Public Value: Turning a Conceptual Framework into a ScorecardTimo Meynhardt

Chapter 11. In the Eye of the Beholder: Learning from Stakeholder Assessments of Public ValueJohn C. Thomas, Theodore H. Poister, and Min Su

Part III: Measuring and Managing Performance

12. Creating Public Value Using Performance InformationAlexander Kroll and Donald P. Moynihan

13. Putting Public Value to Work: A Framework for Public Management Decision MakingAnthony M. Cresswell, Meghan Cook, and Natalie Helbig

14. Shared Responsibility for the Common Good: Measuring Public Value across Institutional BoundariesEnrico Guarini

ConclusionsJohn M. Bryson, Barbara C. Crosby, and Laura Bloomberg

ReferencesList of ContributorsIndex

John M. Bryson is McKnight Presidential Professor of Planning and Public Affairs at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota.

Barbara C. Crosby is an associate professor at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota.

Laura Bloomberg is associate dean at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota.