The Hitchhiker's Guide to Public Service Logic

Over the past decade, CenSE Director Stephen Osborne has been working on evolving the theory of Public Service Logic ©. This radical approach to the management of public services starts from the premise that contemporary public management theory, notably the New Public Management, treats public services as if they are manufactured goods; a product-dominant approach. In fact, though, public services are indeed services.

Consequently, Stephen has drawn upon, adapted, and integrated service management theory with public administration and management theory to evolve a new approach to understanding and managing public services.

This approach is based on four premises:

• The purpose of a public service should be to add value to the lives of citizens and public service users
• This value comprises five elements:
  • short-term satisfaction and wellbeing
  • medium- and long-term outcomes
  • whole-life experience
  • capacity creation to take control of one's life in the future
  • societal value
• The role of public services is to offer resources to citizens to combine with their needs to co-create such value in their lives
• This value can be co-created through the co-design, co-production, and use of public services

Stephen Osborne expands on this theory in his newest publication, Public Service Logic: Creating Value for Public Service Users, Citizens, and Society Through Public Service Delivery. This book explores the design, delivery, management, and use of public services. It offers an innovative new approach to the understanding and management of public services that has significant implications for both public management research and theory and for public service policy and practice.

Stephen P. Osborne (2021). Public Service Logic: Creating Value for Public Service Users, Citizens, and Society Through Public Service Delivery (Routledge, London).