Collaborative Public Management: Assessing What We Know and How We Know It

TLDR

Collaborative public management research is flourishing, with growing attention to the process and impact of collaboration in the public sector and promising results. The article reviews collaborative public management literature, synthesizing recent and longstanding findings. It examines collaboration prevalence, emerging structures, unique managerial skills, and collaborative effects. The research contributes findings that supplement established public management theory.

Abstract

Collaborative public management research is flourishing. A great deal of attention is being paid to the process and impact of collaboration in the public sector, and the results are promising. This article reviews the literature on collaborative public management by synthesizing what we know from recent research and what we’ve known for quite some time. It addresses the prevalence of collaboration (both recently and historically), the components of emerging collaborative structures, the types of skills that are unique to collaborative management, and the effects of collaboration. Collaborative public management research offers a set of findings that contribute to an emerging knowledge base that supplements established public management theory.