Processes in Public Sector Organisations – Like Flowing Water

Abstract: Seminar date: June 3, 2021 Course: BUSN 79 Authors: Filip Olsson and Justus Melin Advisor/Examiner: Anna Glenngård/Anders Anell Five key words: Efficiency, Effectiveness, TDABC, Stakeholder and Public Value Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and analyse how processes of public sector organisations can become more efficient and effective. Methodology: This thesis is conducted with an action research approach and is part of a R&D project in the public water sector. The thesis focuses in particular on a single case. Material is gathered from within the R&D project in forms of documents and meetings with the project members. Empirical findings are gathered by conducting semi-structured interviews. Theoretical perspectives: The starting point of the theoretical background is the stakeholder theory, which identifies the relevant stakeholders to the case study. The concept of public value is presented. Thereafter, the principles of Activity Based Costing (ABC) are explained in order to set the stage for the more refined version of the ABC, namely Time Driven Activity Based Costing (TDABC). TDABC is applied to the process of pipe installation works in order to achieve a cost perception of the process and to highlight potential cost savings. Empirical foundation: The empirical data is collected from several data sources, namely interviews, documents and meetings in order to acquire an in-depth understanding of the organisations involved and the case that is being investigated. Conclusions: We believe that the TDABC-model can be used to a larger extent in public sector organisations performing robust processes in order to solve practical problems and make processes more efficient. To benefit from the full potential of the model more detailed and comprehensive information needs to be acquired. Our analysis shows the importance of taking the perspective of stakeholders, and the creation of public value, into account in order to make the processes of public sector organisations more efficient and effective.