How public leaders can promote public value through co-creation

• Published in: Policy and politics Vol. 49; no. 2; pp. 267 - 286
• Main Authors: Sørensen, Eva, Bryson, John, Crosby, Barbara
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Policy Press 01.04.2021
• Subjects: Co-Creation; Governance; Leadership; Leadership Strategy; Legitimacy; Nonprofit organizations; Political leadership; Politicians; Public Leadership; Public Management; Public Value; Public Value Triangle; Specification; public value triangle; leadership strategy; co-creation; public management; leadership; public leadership; public value; governance
• ISSN: 0305-5736; 1470-8442
• DOI: 10.1332/030557321X16119271739728

Governance researchers are increasingly interested in how co-creation can contribute to promoting public value in contemporary liberal democracies. While many have already argued for the potential benefits of employing co-creation in government strategies aiming to enhance public value, few have considered the implications of such a strategy for public leadership. Drawing on recent strands of theory on leadership and management, we specify how public leaders can use co-creation as a tool to achieve policy goals, and we illustrate this specification by showing how politicians and public and non-profit managers perform the public leadership of co-created public value in Gentofte, Denmark and Minneapolis‒St Paul, USA. The main proposition is that this kind of public leadership does not only involve a strategic effort to engage, inspire and mobilise actors with relevant governance assets - including legitimacy, authority and capabilities - but also to align their understandings of what is valuable for the public.