Conceptual model of stakeholders' investment- engagement in public services' design

Abstract

Public sector organisations increasingly engage people in collaborative designing of public services and highlight the benefits of public involvement. However, users' and other stakeholders' contribution in the design process are seldom accounted for. In this paper, we address the challenges of public service development by presenting a study that conceptualises different stakeholders' investments in design activities. We introduce the key elements of a new conceptual Stakeholder Investment-Engagement (SI-E) Model and provide a tentative application of it to an existing case of a Digital Library. The initial application shows that the model can uncover significant effort that endusers and partners invest in design activities. The new conceptual model enriches our theoretical and practical understanding of collaborative design management by recommending 1) critical examination of existing conceptualisations and practices of cost-justification in the public sector, 2) acknowledgement of various stakeholders' investments, and 3) temporal evaluation of stakeholders' engagement to design activities.