Futures in Public Management: The Emerging Relational Approach to Public Services

What a fascinating read to anyone in and between the practice and policy of public services, especially in the contexts of health, care and welfare! This thought-provoking edited collection increases much-needed understanding on how relational approach can foster a public management paradigm shift to better address the complex societal challenges of our societies. Importantly, the relational approach provides insights into the complex, dynamic and interconnected systems of practice and policy of public services.

We are at an inflection point in the future of public services and public service reform. The Emerging Relational Approach to Public Services is required reading for anyone interested in how we may learn from the failures of the New Public Management era to shape a period characterised by innovative relational approaches to designing and delivering public services. Wilson and colleagues’ work is at the bleeding edge of such thinking.

This book presents new international evidence on the relational approach to public services. It offers a refreshing analysis of what it takes to create an alternative basis for public management, both in theory and in practice.

There is a growing consensus that radical change is needed in the purpose, form and function of public policy and governance. The authors suggest that New Public Governance perspectives have generated unintended consequences which have “solidified NPM in practice, rather than supplanting it”. It brings together international evidence and new perspectives on relational approaches to public management. This book plants the relational “standard” in both the theoretical and practice field.

The time for relational public services is now. This rich and ambitious book provides essential conceptual and practical guidance for public managers, practitioners, and academics to co-create public services in an interconnected world.

This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how to improve public services in a context of complexity and a growing demand for more relational approaches.

This book makes a refreshing and compelling case for the need to move beyond New Public Management and fully embrace a relational approach to public management. It highlights the limitations and shortfall of existing ways of working and proposes an alternative approach, one that privileges relationships above all else, and as key to achieving better, effective and meaningful social outcomes. The book serves as a call to action for policymakers, practitioners, and academics to engage in a serious collaborative effort to redefine public service delivery underpinned and grounded in relational principles. It will take us all to make this happen and I for one am grateful for the academic expertise so carefully represented here.

This book provides a very timely set of perspectives on Relational Public Service, which will be useful to both academics and practitioners alike

Public services are crumbling under the weight of transactional approaches which frame service delivery as merely complicated, when it is in fact complex. It takes a volume like this to help others imagine how they could make changes in their own context. Full of international examples of a broad-based alternative to public service, this book makes a vital contribution to our adaptation to future challenges. It avoids simplistic analysis to show how relational public service management can and must be critically developed in situ.

Futures in Public Management is a must-read for anyone grappling with the limitations of transactional governance and searching for more effective, human-centred alternatives. It makes a compelling case for relational approaches as a fundamentally different way of thinking about public services, policy, and outcomes. This book brings together critical insights and practical examples that challenge conventional wisdom and offer a way forward for those of us working to reshape public management in service of real, meaningful change. Essential reading for policymakers, practitioners, and anyone invested in the future of public services.

Futures in Public Management: The Emerging Relational Approach to Public Services critically re-evaluates the role of public management in an era where public services are increasingly challenged by complex, interdependent issues. The authors engage in a timely and essential debate on the limitations of the New Public Management paradigm, advocating for a more relational approach that fosters transformative and effective public service delivery. Drawing on international empirical evidence, the editorial team have integrated contemporary public management theories, including Human Learning Systems and Complexity Theory of Outcome Creation, to offer fresh insights into navigating modern governance challenges. This book is a crucial resource for public management scholars, policymakers, and practitioners seeking to advance service innovation, embrace complexity, and enhance the impact of public services on citizens'' lives.

Relational approaches are gaining traction as an alternative to New Public Management but understanding of how to shift entrenched practices, capabilities and infrastructure is still embryonic. This edited collection explores important questions that have the potential to impact anyone working in and with public services – and everyone who accesses them. We can only develop and embed relational approaches to public services as a route to improving social outcomes through collective learning and critical reflection. This book makes a valuable contribution to this.

Drawing from wider literature to set out the emerging lessons and reflections on relatively long running attempts to create exemplars of what is broadly a relational approach to public service management, the chapters explore the systemic hinterland required to develop and sustain relational public service approaches.

• | Author: David Jamieson, Rob Wilson, Melissa Hawkins, Max French, Martin King, Jonathan Kimmitt, Hannah Hesselgreaves
• | Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• | Publication Date: Sep 01, 2025
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language:
• | Binding: Hardback
• | ISBN-13: 9781836081951
• | ISBN-10: 1836081952