Is There More To Moore? Public Value Theory and Human Services: Moving Beyond Public Sector

In his pivotal 1995 work “Creating Public Value” (CPV), Professor Mark Moore of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government posited that public sector managers have an obligation to the community to create public value outcomes from their work. Moore acknowledged that the conceptualisation of this idea is relatively straightforward but that acting on it becomes far more complex due to challenges of assessing what the public values, how we measure public value outcomes and as a result of the impact of political and democratic actions and corruptions. We explore subsequent revisions of public value theory which encompass a more aspirational perspective.
As such, this paper provides an overview of the definition of public value as originally developed by Moore. It then examines what public value is and how it may be applied in a wider public policy setting. Of particular importance, we are concerned to understand how public value can be achieved without consideration of the impact of the nonprofit human services sector. Therefore, the second key aspect in this presentation evaluates the extent to which public value is considered in the development of public policy, how the discourse is shaped and what the advantages, disadvantages, strengths, weaknesses and opportunities there might be inherent in pursuing public value in this broader context. It concludes by proposing a new perspective of Moore’s important schema which we call “Public Value 2.0.”