Governing Cross-Sector Collaboration

Governing Cross-Sector Collaboration tackles the issues inherent in partnerships with nongovernmental actors for public service delivery, highlighting the choices available and the accompanying challenges and opportunities that arise. Based on research, interviews with public, private and nonprofit sector leaders, and considerable analysis of organizations involved in public-private-nonprofit collaborations, the book provides insight into cross-sector collaboration at the global, federal, state, and local levels. Through an examination of the primary modes of cross-sector collaboration, including collaborative contracting, partnerships, networks, and independent public services providers, the book presents a clear case for how public managers can assess the trade-offs and use these options to improve public service delivery. Nonprofit organizations, businesses, and third-party contractors are increasingly partnering with government to deliver public services. Recognizing the types of collaborative approaches, and their potential to solve public policy problems is quickly becoming a major task for public managers, with new methods and techniques constantly emerging. Governing Cross-Sector Collaboration provides specific examples and a framework for public managers to make strategic choices about how to engage private and nonprofit actors in delivering public goods and services while ensuring the public interest. The book provides effective methods for choosing, designing, governing, and evaluating networks, partnerships, and independent public-services providers, with in-depth discussion encompassing:

• Analysis and engagement of cross-sector organizations
• Fostering democratic accountability in the public interest
• Collaborative approaches (including contracts, networks and partnerships) and the issues associated with each type of arrangement
• Leadership and organizational learning in cross-sector collaboration

Included case studies illustrate effective application of the concepts and methods described, providing both practicing public and nonprofit managers and public policy/administration students with insight into these emerging strategic alliances. The first comprehensive guide to public governance collaborations, Governing Cross-Sector Collaboration is an important and timely contribution to the field of public management.

James (Jed) E. Kee is Professor of Public Policy and Public Administration in George Washington University's Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration. He holds a BA (History and Political Science) from University of Notre Dame; MPA and JD from New York University. Kee has had an extensive career in state government administration in New York and Utah. He was counsel to the New York State Legislature and served under two Utah governors as state planning coordinator, state budget director, and executive director of the Department of Administrative Services. His publications include "Out of Balance" (with Scott Matheson, 1986); "The Crisis and the Anticrisis Dynamic: Reshaping the American Federal System" (1992) in Public Administration Review, and "Benefit-Cost Analysis", in Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation.

John Forrer is Associate Director of GW's Institute for Corporate Responsibility and Associate Research Professor of Strategic Management and Public Policy. Prior to that he was Director of GW's Center for the Study of Globalization and Executive Director of the Institute for Global Management and Research (IGMR). He has an MPA from Syracuse's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. His recent publications include "Public-Private Partnerships and the Public Accountability Question" (Public Administration Review), "Not Your Father's Pulic Administration" (Journal of Public Affairs Education), and "Privitization and Organizational Change: Lessons from Cross-National Research" (The International Journal of Business and Public Administration).