Organizations, Policies, and the Roots of Public Value Failure: The Case of For‐Profit Higher Education

• Author: Derrick M. Anderson,Gabel Taggart
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12606
• Published date: 01 September 2016
• Date: 01 September 2016

Organizations, Policies, and the Roots of Public Value Failure: The Case of For-Prof‌i t Higher Education 779

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 76, Iss. 5, pp. 779–789. © 2016 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12606.

Gabel Taggart is a doctoral candidate in

public administration and policy at Arizona

State University. His research interests

include public management, organization

theory, higher education management, and

science policy.

E-mail : gabel.taggart@asu.edu

Derrick M. Anderson is assistant

professor in the School of Public Affairs

and the Center for Organization Research

and Design at Arizona State University.

He studies the economic, political, and

managerial control of knowledge intensive

organizations.

E-mail : derrick.anderson@asu.edu

Abstract : While public value theory has emerged to offer important insights into the evaluation of social enterprises,

little is known about the origins of public value failure and even less about the role that organizations and public

policy play in creating public value failure. Accordingly, this analysis explores the origins of public value failure using

examples from for-profit higher education. A selection of organization and public policy concepts are integrated into

a public value mapping framework to develop a theoretical basis for public value “failure drivers.” In addition to

advancing public value theory, an understanding of the origins of public value failure and the role of failure drivers

has important implications for the design of public value–maximizing strategies and institutions.

Practitioner Points

• Many social enterprises are justified in terms of public value but evaluated through market-driven

frameworks.

• Public value mapping offers a mechanism for relating public value theory to organizational and policy

outcomes.

• In addition to understanding the types of public value failures, it is important to understand the root causes

of public value failure if remediation is a priority.

• Public value failure drivers are the attributes of public policies and organizations that play a role in creating

public value failure.

A wide spectrum of social enterprises, especially

but not exclusively public policies and

programs, are typically justified in terms of

their prospects for advancing or preserving public

value. Yet these same enterprises are generally

evaluated through the more narrowly focused logic of

market success or failure. In an attempt to reconcile

this discord, public value theory has emerged as a

supplement to prevailing market-based evaluative

paradigms. According to public value theory, an

enterprise may be evaluated along dimensions

of market failure or success as well as public

value failure or success (Bozeman 2007 ). Despite

application in assorted policy and organizational

domains, important theoretical and practical

critiques make the case that public values research

neglects consideration of the origins of public value

or the threats to the creation of public value (Jacobs

2014 ). In response to this criticism, the research

presented here explores some of the structural origins

of public value failure. Using examples from for-

profit higher education, this article asks, how do

public policy and organizational factors contribute

to specific instances of public value failure? We

focus specifically on public value failures relating

to imperfect public information, distribution of

benefits, provider scarcity, and short time horizons.

The case of for-profit higher education is particularly

relevant to theory and practice. For-profit universities

have been the subject of considerable public ire,

legal scrutiny, and regulatory inquiry. Yet little

attention is paid to the extent to which the reasons

for this unfavorable attention can be placed on the

organizations and their strategies or the policy and

regulatory environments in which they are situated.

Public value failure drivers are the attributes of public

policies and organizations that play a role in creating

public value failure. To develop a theory of public

value failure drivers, a selection of organization and

public policy concepts are applied to the case of for-

profit higher education. The twofold objective here

is to (1) establish a basis for a theory of public value

failure drivers and (2) to examine the differential

and interactive roles aspects of public policies and

organizations may play as drivers of public value

failure. Concepts from institutional logic and

organizational goal theories are used to examine the

organizational aspects of public value failure. Concepts

Derrick M. Anderson

Gabel Taggart

Arizona State University

Organizations, Policies, and the Roots of Public Value Failure:

The Case of For-Profit Higher Education