Abstract
This new edited volume from Stephen Osborne and Louise Brown is concerned with public service innovation. Frequently invoked in policy terms as though it were self-evidently desirable, innovation has long been in need of rigorous analytical attention. This book serves a valuable purpose in beginning to provide this searching analysis of innovation, a term that remains highly problematic for both theory and practice.
The editors’ introduction opens the discussion by discerning three ‘flaws’ that detract from our understanding of public service innovation. First, there has been a lack of understanding of the precise nature of innovation, variously seen as continuous improvement, innovation ‘product’ or developmental change. The editors make a contrasting case for innovation as discontinuous change, distinct from the baggage of other superficially similar processes. Second, innovation has been regarded uncritically as a normative ‘good’ (with taken-for-granted prescriptions for policy), but reality has stubbornly remained more complicated than that. Just because innovation is a key part of service improvement, it does not at all follow that every innovation is positive. The authors provide several examples of this: a simple yet strong point that needed to be made. The modernisation agenda of New Labour is briefly referred to here, and it would be tempting to expand the point further to examine critically the political assumption that ‘new’ and ‘modern’ equate, without further evidence, to positive change. Third, the prevailing model of public service innovation has borrowed from manufacturing industry rather than from the service sector, thus distorting the understanding of what it means to innovate. This third point is developed at more length in a separate substantive chapter by Osborne. The introduction goes on to say more of the nature and sources of public service innovation, written in a sharp and condensed style that communicates much in its relatively few pages.
The adopted format for the book comprises 37 fairly short chapters, grouped into seven parts. The different parts of the book deal variously with the context of public service modernisation, innovation and change, the management of innovation, information and communication technology (ICT) and e-governance, collaboration and networks and innovation in practice. For the most part, this provides an effective organising framework, although the second of these parts – ‘innovation and change in public services’ – is brief and its chapters could easily have been re-distributed elsewhere in the book.
Given the stated remit of the book, do its separate chapters live up to the initial promise? The opening chapter from Joe Wallis and Shaun Goldfinch explores the overall diffusion of public management reforms within which innovation has arguably been a central element. To some degree, it is disappointing to see change filtered yet again through the well-worn lens of New Public Management (NPM), but the authors usefully explore some of the ways in which reforms have spread differently in different countries, and they link this to the innovation agenda of governments. Kerry Brown and Jennifer Waterhouse contribute a thoughtful chapter on management of change. Their discussion is a helpful antidote to the uncritical treatment of ‘change management’ that tends to be found in mainstream organisational behaviour (OB) and human resource management (HRM) texts. Brown and Waterhouse revisit selected theories of change, where they find continuing merit in some of these familiar theories for the contemporary world of public service provision. Their short chapter will be of value to students who are becoming acquainted with this area. For academics, it is a useful source to recommend in the classroom. The same could be said of the chapter by Michael Macaulay and David Norris on ‘ethical innovation’ in the public services, a neglected area that receives a succinct treatment here. Elsewhere in this collection, the authors seek to engage with contentious topics that are not so easily summarised. Brian Head’s chapter, for instance, argues for an approach to innovation that is rooted in knowledge. Hence, he argues, policy should be ‘evidence based’ or, at least, ‘evidence informed’. Yet, this emphasis on the neutral power of evidence implies a rational model of policy, which has been subject to extensive critique (e.g. Parsons, 2010) and which is far removed from the political processes within which policy is actually formulated. Indeed, policy may not always be explicitly formulated at all. It may instead emerge as a practical or expedient way of responding to or coping with perceived problems. In a political process (which is of course the engine for public management reform as a whole), little or no thought may be given to the evidence-base, even where there is one. Indeed, evidence may be the last thing politicians wish to be confronted with when ‘innovating’.
The chapters dealing with specific sectors are relatively straightforward, representing a positive addition to the available sources. It is particularly pleasing to see several chapters devoted to the third sector, given the importance placed on voluntary and community provision under both New Labour and the coalition in the United Kingdom, and, of course, internationally. Paul Windrum deals systematically with the third sector role in several different national contexts, concentrating attention on health innovation networks. Celine Chew and Fergus Lyon’s UK-focussed chapter considers the third sector, innovation and social enterprise more broadly, exploring a number of case organisations in England and Wales. Here, the wider role of citizen and user involvement – which has become a well-trodden path for all students of public service reform – is linked to innovation in separate chapters by Michelle Farr and Birgit Jæger. Aspects of health care are dealt with by Gill Harvey, while Paul Cunningham provides a discussion of National Health Service (NHS) Direct as a UK innovation case-study. The health service, in a UK context at least, is an interesting and in a sense troubling site for debates about innovation for it surely points up very clearly the difference between change and innovation, illustrating Osborne and Brown’s initial observation that innovation is not necessarily equivalent to positive change.
Richard Walker considers the capacity for innovation in local government as it has been addressed in previous research. Drawing from a systematic search of existing research studies, particularly those from the United States, Walker offers an analysis of both internal and external influences on innovation. Local government in the United Kingdom is discussed by Rhys Andrews and George Boyne who focus specifically upon structural innovation. Clearly, UK local government is no stranger to structural changes, not least in the recurrent episodes of local government reorganisation that seem to obsess central government. However, it is again striking that innovation should be distinguished here from mere change. While structural change seems endemic in local government – and indeed in the health service – it is unconvincing to assume that this necessarily constitutes innovation. It might just involve doing the same old thing in a different type of committee with a different name: what then has been the innovation? This remains a live topic for UK local government, for instance, in the introduction of directly elected mayors in a small number of council areas (Copus, 2006; Elcock and Fenwick, 2012) and internationally (e.g. Svara and Watson, 2010). The theme of leadership is also addressed within this collection, notably in the chapter by James Svara, which also concentrates on the local level of public services. Paul Joyce looks at leadership through the lens of strategic management. While strategic planning has sometimes been seen as the rather stifling enemy of innovation, Joyce presents a good case for invoking strategic management as a powerful, if challenging, ally of change.
A collection that is billed as a ‘handbook’ sets itself a demanding task. It has to be useful as a source of reference for a number of audiences. It needs to present complex and sometimes unresolved debates with clarity and grace. It might reasonably be expected to draw from research and practice in a number of national settings. Not least, it should implicitly invite its readers to find out more about these rich areas of enquiry. Overall, this handbook succeeds in its task. It is produced to the high physical standard that would be expected from this publisher. It adds to the stock of resources on public service innovation. Whether it accommodates, as claimed, the needs of practitioners as well as researchers and students is open to debate. In parts – the discussions, for instance, of ethics, of service users and international experience – it does indeed offer something for practice as well as theory. Other chapters would be of greater interest to researchers or would serve as useful sources for students. There was scope throughout for a more direct engagement with the political bases of public service reform. The style of individual chapters varies, with some styles more effective than others. It is difficult to be persuaded by Laurence Lynn’s chapter featuring an opening and closing dialogue with an imaginary friend. The majority of chapters are written to what one may assume to be the brief provided: a succinct, clear, scholarly and readable review of the chosen aspect of innovation.
Additionally, the book as a whole may serve to stimulate further thought on the difficult and elusive, yet often unexamined, nature of innovation. It should become more acceptable to say that innovation can be bad. This is not only because one might disagree with its political inspiration, or perhaps suspect its political masters’ true motives, but simply because innovation may produce demonstrably bad results – even by the criteria of its originators. The Child Support Agency was a public service innovation. It produced, on balance, bad results. Similarly, Osborne and Brown in their introduction to this book refer to the technological innovation behind the development of biometric identity cards, noting that many people would not see this as a normative or public good at all. Innovations in technology now allow governments to collect data about personal electronic telecommunication on an unprecedented scale, yet, again, such undoubted innovation may be entirely unwelcome. The banks, prior to the international financial crisis, were highly innovative in their manipulation of markets and creation of unsustainable products. The global arms trade is full of innovation. This book potentially unlocks such important debates, and on this basis alone, demonstrates its value.