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New Zealand

Redefining public sector productivity – and improving it

At a time when politicians the world over have decided that public service funding must be cut because of the economic crisis, Public World’s work on building productivity and job satisfaction through workplace democracy has never been more relevant.

The New Zealand government’s Partnership Resource Centre asked us to look at how social partnership in the public sector could contribute to increasing productivity, and the first thing we had to do was ask: ‘What do you mean by productivity?’

The problem was that standard definitions and measures had migrated from commercial business practice. Though necessary in the public sector too, the simple output/input ratio is insufficient for democratically accountable services producing public value.

So we explored the wider meaning of productivity in public services and how building better and more cooperative relationships with public employees could increase it.

You can download our report’s executive summary and the full report.