The public sector is continuously facing reforms and renewals related to for instance, administration, service production and strengthening civic democracy. These development activities or reforms have not, however, traditionally been called innovations.
The use of the word 'innovation' in the public sector has increased since 2000, and at the same time innovation activities have surfaced in the national innovation policy debate. The new national innovation strategy puts more emphasis than before on growing productivity in the public sector by renewing services and service capabilities in an innovative way.
There is fairly little research-based knowledge of public sector innovation activities. When considering public sector innovativeness, its special characteristics have to borne in mind, for instance, those concerning the drivers of innovation activities and the nature of innovation processes. There are also special features in how the innovation processes are organized in the public sector. (Pekkarinen, Tura, Hennala & Harmaakorpi 2006).
The Initiators of innovation processes in the public sector are, on the one hand, politicians at the state level and, on the other hand, users of services in the actual service situations – without forgetting organization-driven or profession-driven innovations. In the public sector, the innovation processes are characterized by the fact that there are so many different kinds and levels of customers with their own interests to safeguard.
At the moment, the need to innovate in the public sector is justified solely by different threats such as an ageing population and pressing needs such as national competitiveness. Competition has not, however, been a primary motivator for innovation activities in the public sector (Hartley 2006).
The challenge in public sector innovation activity, besides recognizing the threats, is in understanding how to make good use of the opportunities that are offered. It is a question of changing ways of action from reaction to more active ways, which means preparing for and anticipating changes in order to derive benefit from them before they happen. At the moment, these opportunities can be identified, for instance, in the changing behaviour of the staff of public service organizations as well as in information and communication technologies and in the interfaces where different sectors meet.
From the perspective of productivity, changing innovation activity means shifting the focus from industrial efficiency to emphasizing the effects of the activities or, in other words, the impact of the input. As productivity is an important indicator in the public sector because of the limited resources related to existing needs, the use of such resources should be as economical and effective as possible.
The challenges to productivity measurement in the public sector are connected to the way the measuring can both take into consideration the quantitative and especially qualitative changes in the structure of the input, process and output as well as bind the quality to the impact. Measuring, therefore, needs broad understanding and knowledge as to what “the output” means in different service environments. For instance, with many services it is necessary to take a separate view on productivity based on performance and on effects.
Further information:
Helinä Melkas
Satu Pekkarinen