Collaborative cost-cutting: productive efficiency as an interdependency between public organizations

Thomas Elston, Muiris MacCarthaigh and Koen Verhoest

Public Management Review, 2018, vol. 20, issue 12, 1815-1835

Abstract: Collaboration between public sector organizations is typically understood as a response to complexity. Agencies collaborate in order to address complex, cross-cutting policy needs that cannot be met individually. However, when organizational size is a constraining factor in public service efficiency, collaboration can also reduce costs by capturing scale economies unavailable to organizations of sub-optimal size. Using organization theory, the article conceptualizes these two different triggers for public sector collaboration, and builds a framework for tracing their wider impact upon the formation, operation, and outcome of inter-agency partnerships. The framework is illustrated, and its implications for future research are explored.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1080/14719037.2018.1438498

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