Public Policy and Organisations

About the research group

Public policy as a cornerstone of the functioning of society and the well-being of citizens.

The Public policy and organisations research group brings together an active group of researchers from Regional Studies, Public Management, Public Law, and Social and Health Management. In the field of science, we all represent Administrative Sciences.

Traditionally, public policy covered what public organisations (the state, municipalities and regions) do to promote the functioning of society and the well-being of citizens.

Now, many things are done by leveraging the input of for-profit and not-for-profit private organisations. Public organisations have also set up organisations that can be classified as private for many of their tasks. Similarly, many seemingly public organisations are in fact hybrid organisations combining the features of the public and the private.

It still makes sense to understand public policy as activities that promote politically decided goals, and at least mainly through the use of tax money. In principle, it does not matter now in the same way whether organisations which promote the goals and use the tax money are private or public. Due to public goals and resources, even private activities are not normal business or civic activities in this reconstructed framework of public action. We examine the role of private organisations as an indication of diversifying public action. The fact that new opportunities come with new challenges to solve is also taken into account in our examination.

In addition to the perpetual issues of public action and organisations – such as politics vs. administration, public vs. generic management models, management as science vs. skill, professional management vs. profession-based management, efficiency vs. effectiveness, public monopolies vs. market conformity, detailed steering and regulation vs. self-direction and self-regulation, etc. – our research topics comprise the current challenges of public policy in particular. These include complexity, wicked problems and the need to promote democracy, the functioning of service and governance systems, safeguarding good governance and basic rights of citizens, creating effective links between innovation policy, regional development and smart regional specialisation as well as the many challenges of management values and ethics that the diversification of public policy has further increased.

Old means and models are not enough to solve problems. New types of means and new combinations of existing means are needed. There is a need for innovative research that exploits and, where appropriate, questions the dominant research tradition.

Tutkimusryhmän johtajana toimii julkisjohtamisen professori Esa Hyyryläinen.

Current news and events

News

10/08/2020 - Research

More effective support for innovation – ELVIS explores new ways to evaluate the impact of innovation policy

Society has taken an active role in supporting innovation, but do the invested tax euros create enough value for money? How should the impact of research, development and innovation policy measures, i.e. the various…

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Publications

Publications in SOLECRIS research database

Research projects

Project	Duration	Actors
FAIR – FINDING INNOVATIONS TO ACCELERATE IMPLEMENTATION OF ELECTRIC REGIONAL AVIATION	05/2020 - 06/2022	InnoLab, Management, Public policy and organisations
The liability of civil servants	04/2020 - 12/2021	InnoLab, Public policy and organisations
InnoDigi-driven inter-organizational network solutions	01/2020 - 01/2022	InnoLab, Public policy and organisations, Digital Economy, Management
Making Sense of Climate Change: Perspectives of Citizens, Business Leaders and Political Decision-Makers	09/2019 - 10/2020	InnoLab, Public policy and organisations

Research group members

Regional Science

Tuomas Honkaniemi

Doctoral Student

School of Management, Regional Studies

firstname.lastname@univaasa.fi
Fabriikki F322