Another size fits all? Public Value Management and Challenges for Institutional Design

Abstract

The talk is of a new public value paradigm that is challenging the dominance of the new public management. In some quarters, however, public value is criticized as a reheated version of other public administration narratives. This article supplements the debate with an assessment of the ramifications of public value for institutional design in the public sector. It scans the literature for premises that might inform the structuring of public agencies. An institutional prescription is advanced and appraised. The article concludes that, while promising, public value's institutional project remains incomplete.