Public Values Theory: What Is Missing?

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Author	Barry Bozeman,Eriko Fukumoto
Published date	01 August 2019
DOI	10.1177/0275074018814244
Date	01 August 2019
Subject Matter	Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074018814244

American Review of Public Administration

2019, Vol. 49(6) 635 –648

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DOI: 10.1177/0275074018814244

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Article

Introduction

Public values research has during the past decade become a

significant focus in public administration scholarship (e.g.,

Alford & O’Flynn, 2009; Beck Jørgensen & Bozeman, 2007;

Beck Jørgensen & Rutgers, 2015; Bozeman, 2007; Bryson,

Crosby, & Bloomberg, 2014; Moore, 1995; Nabatchi, 2010,

2018; Prebble, 2018; Rutgers, 2015; Talbot, 2009; Van der

Wal, Nabatchi, & de Graaf, 2015; Williams & Shearer, 2011).

Its popularity perhaps owes to the belief that it can prove a

complement to public interest theory (Bozeman, 2007) and

its potential to be a guiding concept in theory and in practice

of public administration (Moore, 1995; Rutgers, 2015, p.

30). Public values research has taken at least two primary

streams, converging only occasionally. On one hand, there is

a stream of public value studies starting with Moore (1995).

These studies are more focused on management issues and

public employees’ values, and the title of Moore’s book,

Creating Public Value, suggests the intent of the literature,

namely, helping public managers better serve public value.

On the other hand, studies of public values have emerged

with distinctly normative foci and with more concern about

identifying and enacting those values qualifying as public

values. In the public values stream (e.g., Beck Jørgensen &

Bozeman, 2007; Beck Jørgensen & Rutgers, 2015; Bozeman,

2002, 2007; Nabatchi, 2012), scholars seek to highlight and

achieve public values not only by enhancing the work of

public managers but also as a critical agenda issue for politi-

cians, citizens, organizations, and society. Although the latter

stream is the primary focus in this study, our study addresses

both streams, especially their intersecting aspects.

Public values researchers seek to define, identify, and

classify public values, difficult tasks requiring attention to

concept definitions, boundaries, and origins (Beck Jørgensen

& Bozeman, 2007; de Graaf, Huberts, & Smulders, 2016;

Rutgers, 2015). Converging with the Moore (1995) focus,

the empirical literature tends to focus on the public values

preferences of public employees and administration. In addi-

tion to the identification and ordering of values among public

administrators (Beck Jørgensen & Sørensen, 2013; Witesman

& Walters, 2015), studies examine how governments and

public managers can better serve the public values (Bruijn &

Dicke, 2006; Moore, 1995; Rosenbloom, 2014) or investi-

gate a more specific but public value–related focus such

as the integrity of public employees and administration

in tax administration (Blijswijk, Breukelen, Franklin,

Raadschelders, & Slump, 2004). In managerially focused

studies, public value is regarded as an approach employed to

shape the principles, practices, and premises of public

employees and public organizations, an approach often set in

contradistinction to traditional public management and New

Public Management (Alford & Hughes, 2008; Bryson et al.,

2014; O’Flynn, 2007; Stoker, 2006). Thus, public values

have long been an important part of the scholarly work in

public administration, although some public values seem

814244ARPXXX10.1177/0275074018814244The American Review of Public AdministrationFukumoto and Bozeman

research-article2018

1Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan

2Arizona State University, Phoenix, USA