Leadership for public value: Political astuteness as a conceptual link
| Author | Jean Hartley,Mark Bennister,Sandra L. Resodihardjo,Alessandro Sancino |
| Date | 01 June 2019 |
| Published date | 01 June 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12597 |
SYMPOSIUM INTRODUCTION
Leadership for public value: Political astuteness as
a conceptual link
Jean Hartley
1
| Alessandro Sancino
1
| Mark Bennister
2
|
Sandra L. Resodihardjo
3
1
Department of Public Leadership and Social
Enterprise, Open University Business School,
The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
2
School of Social and Political Sciences,
University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK
3
Department of Public Administration,
Radboud University, Nijmegen, The
Netherlands
Correspondence
Jean Hartley, Department of Public
Leadership and Social Enterprise, Open
University Business School, Walton Hall, The
Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA,
UK.
Email: jean.hartley@open.ac.uk
Abstract
Both leadership and public value are increasingly seen as
concepts highly relevant to public administration, not only
because of complex societal challenges but also as ways to
address pluralistic interests in society. This article explores
in detail the varied conceptualizations of public value and of
public leadership. Furthermore, we argue that political
astuteness provides an important conceptual linkage
between leadership and public value, enabling actors to
read, understand and foster coalitions around diverse and
sometimes competing interests. In this introduction to the
symposium, we analyse the different conceptualizations of
public value, of leadership, and also show how the six arti-
cles explicitly or implicitly draw on the linking concept of
political astuteness. The article assesses how the six articles
of the symposium contribute to each of these three
concepts.
1|INTRODUCTION
Profound societal, political and institutional changes driven by rapid technological and economic transformation are
pushing scholars and practitioners of public administration to address new, complex, urgent and often wicked chal-
lenges (Head and Alford 2015). Public leadership has been advocated as a key element in addressing these chal-
lenges, potentially discerning, shaping, nurturing and facilitating public value (Pedersen and Hartley 2008; 't Hart
2014; Bennister 2016). Emerging ideas about ‘polycentric’,‘pluricentric’or decentred governance, based on
interdependence, negotiation and trust, have been welcome approaches in the field (see Bevir 2011; Sørensen and
Torfing 2016) and contribute to the sense that it is timely to be examining the concepts of public value and of
leadership.
Received: 1 February 2019 Revised: 12 March 2019 Accepted: 16 March 2019
DOI: 10.1111/padm.12597
Public Administration. 2019;97:239–249. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/padm © 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 239
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