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LOCAL AUTHORITY E‐GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIPS IN ENGLAND: A CASE STUDY
Author(s) -
Hodges Ron,
Grubnic Suzana
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
financial accountability and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.661
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1468-0408
pISSN - 0267-4424
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0408.2009.00490.x
Subject(s) - general partnership , public administration , corporate governance , business , local government , scope (computer science) , sustainability , consistency (knowledge bases) , government (linguistics) , politics , performance management , performance measurement , new public management , public relations , accounting , political science , finance , public sector , marketing , ecology , linguistics , philosophy , geometry , mathematics , computer science , law , biology , programming language
This paper uses a case study of an e‐government partnership of ten local authorities to consider how governance structures, financial arrangements and performance management systems may promote or inhibit successful collaborative working. The case is considered within the contexts of continuing new public management reforms including the balance between formal performance measurement indicators imposed by higher authorities and the scope for dialogue in the development of performance management systems. The case supports a view that collaborative working can benefit from a governance structure supporting a consistency of objectives of the partners operating within similar political and regulatory environments. Externally imposed performance indicators are significant to the partner authorities but their influence does not exclude the possibility of more dialogue‐driven performance management systems being developed within the partnership. Sustainability of the partnership is never assured and tensions develop as a result of developing priorities of individual authorities, the possibility of local government reorganisation and changing national policy initiatives.