Strategic orientation in public services delivery: towards a service-dominant model for collaboration between public service organisations and with service Users

This is a theory driven paper. It interrogates the current conception of strategic management within strategic planning and management in Public Service Organisations (PSOs) that deliver public services to local communities and finds it not ‘fit for purpose’. In particular, the paper argues that the current approach to strategic planning and management by PSOs does not consider the core of a public service dominant logic that requires user and external orientation to set and achieve PSOs’ goals. The paper recalls key elements of the strategic planning and management in more traditional public management theories and discusses some missing link to fit them into new public governance in a public service dominant logic. Based on this it formulates some propositions to complement current literature on strategy to fit it for purpose.