In recent years, goverments in Canada and around the world have transformed their approach to delivering public services. Making use of private sector service innovations, interactive Internet technology, and partnerships with for-profit and not-for-profit agenices, governments have invested heavily in citizen-centred service.
While these changes create great opportunities, they also present significatn challenges. This book probes the critical dimensions of service transformation from a variety of perspective and answers some pressing questions: How can we make better decisions about service delivery? How should we engage users of government services? How should we measure service delivery performance? Can we create a service culture? How can we hold government's service partners accountable? Can we better leverage the Internet and Web 2.0?
Approaching service delivery as not merely technical but inherently political and controversial, the authors look beyond the rhetoric of service transformation to see what has actually been achieved and what obstacles confront further improvements.
| Preface |
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ix | |
| Introduction Service Transformation in a Citizen-Centric World |
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1 | (11) |
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Chapter One Serving Whom: Customers, Clients or Citizens? |
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12 | (19) |
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Chapter Two Are We Satisfied and Is That the Point? |
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31 | (21) |
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Chapter Three Can We Create a Service Culture? |
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52 | (34) |
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Chapter Four Can We Meet the Governance Challenge? |
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86 | (20) |
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Chapter Five Can We Work Across Jurisdictional Boundaries? |
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106 | (22) |
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Chapter Six Will Web 2.0 Change Everything? |
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128 | (19) |
| Conclusion Now the Real Work Begins... |
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147 | (12) |
| Bibliography |
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159 | (20) |
| Index |
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179 | |
Patrice Dutil is associate professor of politics and public administration at Ryerson University. He is the author of Devil's Advocate (Robert Davies, 1994) and the editor of Searching for Leadership (University of Toronto Press, 2008). Cosmo Howard is assistant professor of public administration at the University of Victoria. He is the editor of Contested Individualization (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). John Langford is professor of public administration at the University of Victoria. He is the co-editor of Corruption, Character and Conduct (Oxford University Press, 1994). Jeffrey Roy is associate professor of public administration at Dalhousie University. He is the author of E-government in Canada (University of Ottawa Press, 2006) and Business and Government in Canada (University of Ottawa Press, 2007).
