If it ain't broke, don't fix it: When collaborative public management becomes collaborative excess
Collaboration is a commonly prescribed method of public service improvement. If collaboration fails, blame is typically ascribed to transaction costs, organizational inertia, or premature evaluation. However, drawing on a notable case of collaborative failure in England, we show that misdiagnosing p...
Gespeichert in:
Veröffentlicht in: | Public administration review 2023-11, Vol.83 (6), p.1737-1760 |
---|---|
Hauptverfasser: | , , |
Format: | Artikel |
Sprache: | eng |
Schlagworte: | |
Online-Zugang: | Volltext |
Tags: |
Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
|
container_end_page | 1760 |
---|---|
container_issue | 6 |
container_start_page | 1737 |
container_title | Public administration review |
container_volume | 83 |
creator | Elston, Thomas Bel, Germà Wang, Han |
description | Collaboration is a commonly prescribed method of public service improvement. If collaboration fails, blame is typically ascribed to transaction costs, organizational inertia, or premature evaluation. However, drawing on a notable case of collaborative failure in England, we show that misdiagnosing public service problems as being of a type likely to be cured by joint working can also generate poor results, and belongs conceptually prior to many “go‐to” explanations of failure. Using stacked difference‐in‐difference estimators on 11 years of performance data relating to subnational tax administration, we show that inter‐municipal cooperation produced no cost or quality improvements in the administration of this public service, contrary to reformer expectations. Supplementary testing attributes this failure less to governance problems, inertia, or precipitate evaluation than to a basic lack of interdependence—the specific “problem” to which collaboration is the “solution”—between partnering councils. Having already exhausted scale economies internally, partners experienced no mutual reliance warranting their attempt to further economize through collaborative tax administration. |
doi_str_mv | 10.1111/puar.13708 |
format | Article |
fullrecord | <record><control><sourceid>proquest_cross</sourceid><recordid>TN_cdi_proquest_journals_2889826076</recordid><sourceformat>XML</sourceformat><sourcesystem>PC</sourcesystem><sourcerecordid>2889826076</sourcerecordid><originalsourceid>FETCH-LOGICAL-c3378-44ea2455ce0bbf49a823f56e7762cac2c5788c60b36fd07da8ca3c44baf798523</originalsourceid><addsrcrecordid>eNp9kE1LAzEQhoMoWKsXf0HAgyBuzdduUm-l-FEoKGLxGJJ0olv3y2RX23_v1nry4FyGYZ53Bh6ETikZ0b6ums6EEeWSqD00oKkgScYo2UcDQjhPOE_ZITqKcUUIZVSoAbIzj_MWm7w6b7EN9Ttc4mW9HXy-7jfX-OUNKuzqojC2DqbNPwE3nS1yh0tTmVcooeqT4OoS4h8O1g5iPEYH3hQRTn77EC1ub56n98n84W42ncwTx7lUiRBgmEhTB8RaL8ZGMe7TDKTMmDOOuVQq5TJieeaXRC6NcoY7IazxcqxSxofobHe3CfVHB7HVq7oLVf9SM6XGimVEZj11saNcqGMM4HUT8tKEjaZEbx3qrUP947CH6Q7-ygvY_EPqx8XkaZf5BrrxdGg</addsrcrecordid><sourcetype>Aggregation Database</sourcetype><iscdi>true</iscdi><recordtype>article</recordtype><pqid>2889826076</pqid></control><display><type>article</type><title>If it ain't broke, don't fix it: When collaborative public management becomes collaborative excess</title><source>PAIS Index</source><source>Worldwide Political Science Abstracts</source><source>EBSCOhost Business Source Complete</source><source>Access via Wiley Online Library</source><source>EBSCOhost Political Science Complete</source><source>EBSCOhost Education Source</source><creator>Elston, Thomas ; Bel, Germà ; Wang, Han</creator><creatorcontrib>Elston, Thomas ; Bel, Germà ; Wang, Han</creatorcontrib><description>Collaboration is a commonly prescribed method of public service improvement. If collaboration fails, blame is typically ascribed to transaction costs, organizational inertia, or premature evaluation. However, drawing on a notable case of collaborative failure in England, we show that misdiagnosing public service problems as being of a type likely to be cured by joint working can also generate poor results, and belongs conceptually prior to many “go‐to” explanations of failure. Using stacked difference‐in‐difference estimators on 11 years of performance data relating to subnational tax administration, we show that inter‐municipal cooperation produced no cost or quality improvements in the administration of this public service, contrary to reformer expectations. Supplementary testing attributes this failure less to governance problems, inertia, or precipitate evaluation than to a basic lack of interdependence—the specific “problem” to which collaboration is the “solution”—between partnering councils. Having already exhausted scale economies internally, partners experienced no mutual reliance warranting their attempt to further economize through collaborative tax administration.</description><identifier>ISSN: 0033-3352</identifier><identifier>EISSN: 1540-6210</identifier><identifier>DOI: 10.1111/puar.13708</identifier><language>eng</language><publisher>Hoboken, USA: Wiley Subscription Services, Inc</publisher><subject>Ascription ; Blame ; Collaboration ; Cooperation ; Councils ; Governance ; Interdependence ; Joint working ; Management ; Misdiagnosis ; Public administration ; Public Service ; Tax administration ; Taxation ; Transaction costs</subject><ispartof>Public administration review, 2023-11, Vol.83 (6), p.1737-1760</ispartof><rights>2023 The Authors. published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society for Public Administration.</rights><rights>2023. This article is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.</rights><lds50>peer_reviewed</lds50><oa>free_for_read</oa><woscitedreferencessubscribed>false</woscitedreferencessubscribed><citedby>FETCH-LOGICAL-c3378-44ea2455ce0bbf49a823f56e7762cac2c5788c60b36fd07da8ca3c44baf798523</citedby><cites>FETCH-LOGICAL-c3378-44ea2455ce0bbf49a823f56e7762cac2c5788c60b36fd07da8ca3c44baf798523</cites></display><links><openurl>$$Topenurl_article</openurl><openurlfulltext>$$Topenurlfull_article</openurlfulltext><thumbnail>$$Tsyndetics_thumb_exl</thumbnail><linktopdf>$$Uhttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111%2Fpuar.13708$$EPDF$$P50$$Gwiley$$Hfree_for_read</linktopdf><linktohtml>$$Uhttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111%2Fpuar.13708$$EHTML$$P50$$Gwiley$$Hfree_for_read</linktohtml><link.rule.ids>314,780,784,1417,27866,27924,27925,45574,45575</link.rule.ids></links><search><creatorcontrib>Elston, Thomas</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Bel, Germà</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Wang, Han</creatorcontrib><title>If it ain't broke, don't fix it: When collaborative public management becomes collaborative excess</title><title>Public administration review</title><description>Collaboration is a commonly prescribed method of public service improvement. If collaboration fails, blame is typically ascribed to transaction costs, organizational inertia, or premature evaluation. However, drawing on a notable case of collaborative failure in England, we show that misdiagnosing public service problems as being of a type likely to be cured by joint working can also generate poor results, and belongs conceptually prior to many “go‐to” explanations of failure. Using stacked difference‐in‐difference estimators on 11 years of performance data relating to subnational tax administration, we show that inter‐municipal cooperation produced no cost or quality improvements in the administration of this public service, contrary to reformer expectations. Supplementary testing attributes this failure less to governance problems, inertia, or precipitate evaluation than to a basic lack of interdependence—the specific “problem” to which collaboration is the “solution”—between partnering councils. Having already exhausted scale economies internally, partners experienced no mutual reliance warranting their attempt to further economize through collaborative tax administration.</description><subject>Ascription</subject><subject>Blame</subject><subject>Collaboration</subject><subject>Cooperation</subject><subject>Councils</subject><subject>Governance</subject><subject>Interdependence</subject><subject>Joint working</subject><subject>Management</subject><subject>Misdiagnosis</subject><subject>Public administration</subject><subject>Public Service</subject><subject>Tax administration</subject><subject>Taxation</subject><subject>Transaction costs</subject><issn>0033-3352</issn><issn>1540-6210</issn><fulltext>true</fulltext><rsrctype>article</rsrctype><creationdate>2023</creationdate><recordtype>article</recordtype><sourceid>24P</sourceid><sourceid>WIN</sourceid><sourceid>7TQ</sourceid><sourceid>7UB</sourceid><recordid>eNp9kE1LAzEQhoMoWKsXf0HAgyBuzdduUm-l-FEoKGLxGJJ0olv3y2RX23_v1nry4FyGYZ53Bh6ETikZ0b6ums6EEeWSqD00oKkgScYo2UcDQjhPOE_ZITqKcUUIZVSoAbIzj_MWm7w6b7EN9Ttc4mW9HXy-7jfX-OUNKuzqojC2DqbNPwE3nS1yh0tTmVcooeqT4OoS4h8O1g5iPEYH3hQRTn77EC1ub56n98n84W42ncwTx7lUiRBgmEhTB8RaL8ZGMe7TDKTMmDOOuVQq5TJieeaXRC6NcoY7IazxcqxSxofobHe3CfVHB7HVq7oLVf9SM6XGimVEZj11saNcqGMM4HUT8tKEjaZEbx3qrUP947CH6Q7-ygvY_EPqx8XkaZf5BrrxdGg</recordid><startdate>202311</startdate><enddate>202311</enddate><creator>Elston, Thomas</creator><creator>Bel, Germà</creator><creator>Wang, Han</creator><general>Wiley Subscription Services, Inc</general><general>American Society for Public Administration</general><scope>24P</scope><scope>WIN</scope><scope>AAYXX</scope><scope>CITATION</scope><scope>7TQ</scope><scope>7UB</scope><scope>8BJ</scope><scope>DHY</scope><scope>DON</scope><scope>FQK</scope><scope>JBE</scope><scope>K9.</scope></search><sort><creationdate>202311</creationdate><title>If it ain't broke, don't fix it: When collaborative public management becomes collaborative excess</title><author>Elston, Thomas ; Bel, Germà ; Wang, Han</author></sort><facets><frbrtype>5</frbrtype><frbrgroupid>cdi_FETCH-LOGICAL-c3378-44ea2455ce0bbf49a823f56e7762cac2c5788c60b36fd07da8ca3c44baf798523</frbrgroupid><rsrctype>articles</rsrctype><prefilter>articles</prefilter><language>eng</language><creationdate>2023</creationdate><topic>Ascription</topic><topic>Blame</topic><topic>Collaboration</topic><topic>Cooperation</topic><topic>Councils</topic><topic>Governance</topic><topic>Interdependence</topic><topic>Joint working</topic><topic>Management</topic><topic>Misdiagnosis</topic><topic>Public administration</topic><topic>Public Service</topic><topic>Tax administration</topic><topic>Taxation</topic><topic>Transaction costs</topic><toplevel>peer_reviewed</toplevel><toplevel>online_resources</toplevel><creatorcontrib>Elston, Thomas</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Bel, Germà</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Wang, Han</creatorcontrib><collection>Wiley Online Library Open Access</collection><collection>Wiley Online Library Free Content</collection><collection>CrossRef</collection><collection>PAIS Index</collection><collection>Worldwide Political Science Abstracts</collection><collection>International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS)</collection><collection>PAIS International</collection><collection>PAIS International (Ovid)</collection><collection>International Bibliography of the Social Sciences</collection><collection>International Bibliography of the Social Sciences</collection><collection>ProQuest Health & Medical Complete (Alumni)</collection><jtitle>Public administration review</jtitle></facets><delivery><delcategory>Remote Search Resource</delcategory><fulltext>fulltext</fulltext></delivery><addata><au>Elston, Thomas</au><au>Bel, Germà</au><au>Wang, Han</au><format>journal</format><genre>article</genre><ristype>JOUR</ristype><atitle>If it ain't broke, don't fix it: When collaborative public management becomes collaborative excess</atitle><jtitle>Public administration review</jtitle><date>2023-11</date><risdate>2023</risdate><volume>83</volume><issue>6</issue><spage>1737</spage><epage>1760</epage><pages>1737-1760</pages><issn>0033-3352</issn><eissn>1540-6210</eissn><abstract>Collaboration is a commonly prescribed method of public service improvement. If collaboration fails, blame is typically ascribed to transaction costs, organizational inertia, or premature evaluation. However, drawing on a notable case of collaborative failure in England, we show that misdiagnosing public service problems as being of a type likely to be cured by joint working can also generate poor results, and belongs conceptually prior to many “go‐to” explanations of failure. Using stacked difference‐in‐difference estimators on 11 years of performance data relating to subnational tax administration, we show that inter‐municipal cooperation produced no cost or quality improvements in the administration of this public service, contrary to reformer expectations. Supplementary testing attributes this failure less to governance problems, inertia, or precipitate evaluation than to a basic lack of interdependence—the specific “problem” to which collaboration is the “solution”—between partnering councils. Having already exhausted scale economies internally, partners experienced no mutual reliance warranting their attempt to further economize through collaborative tax administration.</abstract><cop>Hoboken, USA</cop><pub>Wiley Subscription Services, Inc</pub><doi>10.1111/puar.13708</doi><tpages>24</tpages><oa>free_for_read</oa></addata></record> |
fulltext | fulltext |
identifier | ISSN: 0033-3352 |
ispartof | Public administration review, 2023-11, Vol.83 (6), p.1737-1760 |
issn | 0033-3352 1540-6210 |
language | eng |
recordid | cdi_proquest_journals_2889826076 |
source | PAIS Index; Worldwide Political Science Abstracts; EBSCOhost Business Source Complete; Access via Wiley Online Library; EBSCOhost Political Science Complete; EBSCOhost Education Source |
subjects | Ascription Blame Collaboration Cooperation Councils Governance Interdependence Joint working Management Misdiagnosis Public administration Public Service Tax administration Taxation Transaction costs |
title | If it ain't broke, don't fix it: When collaborative public management becomes collaborative excess |
url | https://sfx.bib-bvb.de/sfx_tum?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-8&ctx_tim=2024-12-25T22%3A34%3A44IST&url_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_ctx_fmt=infofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rfr_id=info:sid/primo.exlibrisgroup.com:primo3-Article-proquest_cross&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=If%20it%20ain't%20broke,%20don't%20fix%20it:%20When%20collaborative%20public%20management%20becomes%20collaborative%20excess&rft.jtitle=Public%20administration%20review&rft.au=Elston,%20Thomas&rft.date=2023-11&rft.volume=83&rft.issue=6&rft.spage=1737&rft.epage=1760&rft.pages=1737-1760&rft.issn=0033-3352&rft.eissn=1540-6210&rft_id=info:doi/10.1111/puar.13708&rft_dat=%3Cproquest_cross%3E2889826076%3C/proquest_cross%3E%3Curl%3E%3C/url%3E&disable_directlink=true&sfx.directlink=off&sfx.report_link=0&rft_id=info:oai/&rft_pqid=2889826076&rft_id=info:pmid/&rfr_iscdi=true |