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Shared Services in Government: Game-Changer or Gaming the System?

Governance
Local Government
Public Administration
Public Policy
P320
Muiris MacCarthaigh
Queen's University Belfast
Thomas Elston
University of Oxford
Open Section

Building: James Watt South, Floor: 3, Room: J361

Saturday 16:00 - 17:40 BST (06/09/2014)

Abstract

In recent years, and in the context of fiscal consolidation, an increasingly prominent strategy for administrative reform has been the pursuit of inter-organisational collaboration and ‘sharing’ in back-office corporate services, such as HR, payroll, procurement and estates management. This follows a long tradition of private sector emulation in public service delivery, but also represents a specific, targeted and austerity-driven expansion of previous, largely sub-national efforts to drive efficiencies from non-core organisational processes. Shared service arrangements are often pursued to generate financial and procedural efficiencies, improve service quality and encourage modernisation and innovation within government. Although questions have been raised about the achievement of some of these goals, the continuing enthusiasm with which national governments across the OECD are now pursuing back-office consolidations indicates that the concept is likely to outlive the current fiscal crisis. This challenges scholars to better understand the governing and operational consequences of the new standardisation, contractualisation and interdependencies engendered by shared service arrangements. This Panel provides an opportunity to build an ambitious research agenda by considering shared services developments internationally at different levels of government, and in different policy and functional domains. In so doing, it will help build greater theoretical and analytical frames for understanding this emerging phenomenon and its effects on both politics and government.

Title Details
Shared Services in Australian Local Government: Theory and Evidence View Paper Details
Introduction of Shared Service Centres for the Public Sector: The Case of Estonia View Paper Details
How Can We Explain SSC-Adoption? The Flemish Case View Paper Details
Short-Term Solutions or Durable Horizontal Management? View Paper Details
All Things to All Governments? Using Cultural Theory to Explain the Shared Services 'Mega-Trend' View Paper Details