Intended Involvement

Abstract

There is a need to explore new forms and organizations of service deliveries as public organizations are pressed between financial constraints and increased societal demands. The organization of public value creation through co-production has become a topic and this paper addresses the question of how public organizations can adapt to include citizens as co-producers of public values. To answer it an inductive and co-productive design was chosen where a collective author/analyst was formed, consisting of academics and public servants. The analysis revolves around the public servants' accounts of how their organizations approach the co-production of public values. The article concludes local governments' public organizations appear as willing but quite unable to adapt to a situation where citizens are treated as equal partners in the co-production of public values. Public sector organizations might thus need help to take lead in the change they claim to be striving for. If not, their intended involvement may not be realized as actual involvement.