Partnership Government (F-5)

At the local level, partnership in government involves citizens’ participation in decision making processes around issues that affect their quality of life. This brings to public officials a wider perspective on citizens’ needs and expectations, and gives them more information on which to determine the types of policies to pursue in the public’s interest. Public organizations, therefore, face the challenge of setting up systems to enable deliberation among citizens and to allow them to dialogue with their representatives in government, so as to derive the benefits of citizens’ participation.

From the organizational standpoint, scholars of public administration have emphasized the importance of labor-management partnerships for over-coming tensions that could impinge on the efficient delivery of public goods and services and obstruct their effectiveness. In a wider frame, inefficiency in labor management can impact productivity, affect economic growth, and reduce government revenues and resources for public policy implementation. According to Holzer and Schwester in their text “Public Administration: An Introduction” (2011) partnerships in labor management can be facilitated by open communications, sharing of previous success stories and the support of upper management. Partnership government is conceptualized not only between organizations within and across sectors, but also between employees and their employers, as well as between employees and the citizens they serve.

A broader assessment of the importance of partnership government occurs in the national and international arenas, where there is a growing appreciation for the role of partnerships among sectors (public, private and nonprofit) in the delivery of public goods and services. Consequently, the term ‘governance’ has developed, representing the participation of stakeholders from all three sectors in shaping a world we would all want to live in. Similar to partnership government at the local level, information sharing, sharing of best practices and leadership support are essential factors contributing to successful partnerships in larger national jurisdictions and between countries.