Respect and Dignity: Essential Guides to Successful Public Sector Innovation

Administration, Vol. 53, No. 3, pp.28-41, November 2005

17 Pages Posted: 25 Nov 2008

See all articles by Séamus Ó Tuama

Séamus Ó Tuama

National University of Ireland - University College Cork - Department of Government; ACE (Adult Continuing Education), UCC

Date Written: November, 24 2008

Abstract

Respect is an essential variable in appraising the success of public sector innovation. By contrast taking too instrumental an understanding of innovation pushes analysis in the direction of neo-liberalism. Neo-liberalism and innovation are distinct and are neither mutually exclusive nor mutually dependent.

To understand innovation, we need, borrowing a managerial phrase, to think outside the box. The box in this case is a neo-liberal new public management [NPM] one. Wayne Parsons is critical of anointing NPM as a creed, dependent on belief, with little tangible proof that it actually delivers salvation.

Frost and Egri (1991) separate innovation from a binary definitions emerging from economics. The binary construct makes innovation easily measurable, projecting it onto a stable polar calibration, contrasting profit-loss and by consequence good-bad. Public policy is not just a question of binary equations. Both Marx and Bentham, from entirely different perspectives, realized that government is essentially about the good life. While Bentham adhered to Smith's vision of the market, he was able to distinguish between 'sinister interests' and the proper function of government to deliver the greatest happiness for the greatest number. Like Marx he agreed that life is about 'justice, freedom, harmony, beauty and self-fulfillment'. The terminology may have been different, but emerging from the quintessential liberal and the quintessential socialist is that economic activity is a 'means' and not an 'end'.

The greatest innovatory task in public policy is to define innovation in terms of real human values, not just in an ever-revising menu of services. It is about engaging citizens in a meaningful process by which they can play a role in both society and state. It is in reimagining the state and the citizen in the context of a changed and changing civil society. This is not about stripping citizens down to customers or even stakeholders. Innovation needs to be measured not just in terms of a binary code of delivery or value for money, but also in the very old fashioned notions of Bentham and Marx. It is not just about questionnaires and quality reviewes. It requires a deeper qualitative analysis and openness to spontaneous popular concern and genuine needs of citizens. A critical aspect of this is respect for individuals, even prior to their citizenship.

Respect and disrespect are not just labels, they are (often neglected and misrepresented), concepts and analytical tools for measuring public sector innovation. Honneth (1994) defined human disrespect as violations of notions of justice associated with feelings of dignity, honour, and integrity. Human identity depends on social recognition; its denial - disrespect - threatens the loss of personality. Being innovative in these terms is about value for humans. And efficiency while recognizing the imperatives of value for money needs to be utilitarian too about human happiness and respect.

Keywords: respect, dignity, innovation, public policy

JEL Classification: H83

Suggested Citation

Ó Tuama, Séamus, Respect and Dignity: Essential Guides to Successful Public Sector Innovation (November, 24 2008). Administration, Vol. 53, No. 3, pp.28-41, November 2005, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1306364

Séamus Ó Tuama (Contact Author)

National University of Ireland - University College Cork - Department of Government ( email )

The Laurels
Univerity College Cork
Cork, Cork
Ireland
0214904714 (Phone)

ACE (Adult Continuing Education), UCC ( email )

The Laurels
Univerity College Cork
Cork, Cork
Ireland
0214904714 (Phone)

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