Governing Wicked Problems: The Role of Self‐Organising Governance in Fostering the Problem‐Solving Capabilities of Public Sector Organisations

For coping with such wicked problems as climate change and poverty, problem-solving capabilities need to be cultivated in policy- and decision-making. A cross-sectoral collaboration is needed which includes public officials as well as citizens in order to make adequate use of their knowledge, skills and resources. This paper theoretically conceptualizes how governance mechanisms can be innovatively used to this end. In a governance framework, existing concepts and ideas (notably in New Public Governance and Public Value Management) are combined with organizational theory and the concept of knowledge governance. It is shown that self-organizing governance mechanisms in policy-making and service-delivery may usefully complement existing authoritative and output-based mechanisms. We focus on behavioral antecedents (a minimum of participants’ understanding and willingness to co-operate). They as well as self-organization itself can affect how problem-solving capabilities are put to use for tackling wicked problems and thus creating public value. (Co-author Michèle Morner, GRIP Speyer)