Great attendance at the mini conference on motivation, steering and deliverance of public welfare

Mini conference on motivation, steering and deliverance of public welfare

Last Friday CBS Public-Private Platform and KORA held a conference on motivation, steering and deliverance of public welfare at CBS. 150 people from actors the country and from different sectors were gathered for the event.

Though many arguments has been put forward about the perception that 'trust is good - control is better', research argues that this isn’t always the case. Even though high motivation toward providing good service exist among employees, rules and economic incentives can ruin this motivation if the dimensions do not support each other. On the other hand, blind trust isn’t the way forward either. Finding this balance and strengthening the use of governance and rules has by research shown to be a question directed much more to the creation of effective public goods than to the conception of the employees.

Taking this point of departure the conference presented among others key-notes Ken Meier, Professor of political science at Texas A&M University, and Marie Munk, Deputy permanent secretary at the Danish Ministry of Economic and Interior Affairs. Marie Munk stepped in at the last moment due to a cancellation from the Minister for Economic Affairs and the Interior, Margrethe Vestager.  

During the day, the participants rotated between the workshops: Leadership and motivation in high schools, Practical implications of research on motivation and performance, Public service motivation as a hidden potential in the public sector, Employee motivation, user capacity and models of public service provision and Public Values.

The workshop on Public Values were held and presented by professor Torben Beck Jørgensen and professor Karsten Vrangbæk. They afterwards elaborated on the conference:

‘A number of interesting topics were discussed at the workshop on public values. It was debated whether it is possible and needed to develop an ethos for public servants and if, which themes should then be included. Another central theme was whether we already now can get a glimpse of the contours of such generally accepted values across administrative spheres and levels and maybe even across countries. A number of methodological and interpretive related challenges linked to these investigations were outlined. However it was at the same time stressed that there exists a need for more research based knowledge on how collective public values influences the individual 'public service motivation' which were the theme of the remaining workshops of the day.’

In the afternoon Lise Nordvig Rasmussen, Manager at Rambøll Management and Simon Calmar Andersen, Associate Professor at Aarhus University held a presentation on Performance Improvements: Research and Practice.

Focus was on the ways of using evidence based knowledge in policy development. Through a description of the development of methods within the sector of education, they stressed how qualitative and minor empirical studies have characterized the market. Not until 2004 an OECD report underlines unfulfilled potentials in the Danish education system, as the resources allocated to research in education does not correlate to actual knowledge and evidence within the field.  New R&D guidelines integrated in the Ministry of Education result in faster implementation of new research in practice and more quantitative research is combined with the qualitative approaches. Even though national test makes it easier to follow practice, there still exist current challenges on answering the concrete questions. Often the political interests are to broad leaving a question mark with actual benefits of different kinds of performance argues Lise and Simon. On a broader note, Lise elaborated on the conference:

‘The conference confirmed my experience, that great and interesting development is taking form at the agenda for public innovation in Denmark. Researchers and practitioners investigate and bring together new ways of collaborating about developing the public sector. This is also the case in the area of the primary and lower secondary school, where an increasing interest for quantitative research including RCT studies is present. It is great to see that a new generation of young researchers is eager to take part in this research area. Furthermore the conference provided me with new knowledge on concrete investigations on management, which absolutely is productive in relation and brings new perspectives to my own current work.’

Professor and expert in the area Ken Meier ended the day with a presentation on Public Management, Motivation and Organizational Performance. Meier is a front runner on research within public management especially in the area of education. For a number of years he has been editor and the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JPART).

Lene Holm Pedersen, Professor at CBS and KORA, one of the main organizers behind the conference, said after the productive day:

‘We should do this more. Bring research and practice closer together. The conference made it clear that there is a need to rethink how steering and motivation interacts. Research has made progress on the mechanisms and associations between steering, motivation and public sector performance, and the practitioners contributed with real life examples and consequences for public management.’

Presentations

Download all the presentations of the day:

Presentations in plenum:

Lene Holm Pedersen & Lotte Bøgh Andersen: dk_lotte_bogh_andersen_lene_holm_pedersen_styring_og_motivation_af_offentligt_ansatte_key_findings.pdf

Lise Nordvig Rasmussen & Simon Calmar Andersen: lise_nordvig_rasmussen_simon_calmar_andersen_performance_improvements.pdf

Ken Meier: uk_ken_meier_public_management_motivation_and_organizational_performance.pdf

Presentations from workshops:

Lene Holm Pedersen,Public Service Motivation – et skjult potentiale i den offentlige sektor?, DK: dk_lene_holm_pedersen_public_service_motivation_et_skjult_potentiale_i_den_offentlige_sektor.pdf

Lotte Bøgh Andersen, Practical implications of the research motivation and performance, UK:uk_lotte_bogh_andersen_practical_implications_of_the_research_motivation_and_performance.pdf

Lotte Bøgh Andersen, Practical implications of the research motivation and performance, DK:dk_lotte_bogh_andersen_praktiske_implikationer_af_forskningen_i_motivation_og_performance.pdf

Christian Bøtcher-Jacobsen, Leadership (and motivation) in Danish High Schools, UK: uk_christian_botcher-jacobsen_leadership_and_motivation_in_danish_high_schools.pdf

Christian Bøtcher-Jacobsen, Leadership (and motivation) in Danish High Schools, DK: dk_christian_botcher-jacobsen_lederskab_og_motivation_pa_danske_gymnasier.pdf

Torben Beck Jørgensen & Karsten Vrangbæk, Public Values, DK: dk_karsten_vrangbaek_torben_beck_jorgensen_en_forvalteradministrator-etos.pdf

Nicolai Kristensen, Employee motivation, user capacity and models of public service provision, DK: dk_nicolai_kristensen_samspillet_mellem_borgerene_og_de_offentligt_ansatte.pdf