La gestión de la innovación en la administración local: algunos resultados empíricos

La introducción de innovaciones ha sido una herramienta básica que los gobiernos de distintos países y administraciones han usado para mejorar los servicios públicos. Las presiones financieras, los controles burocráticos y las demandas de mejores servicios por parte de los ciudadanos hacen a la vez difícil y, por otra parte, necesaria a la innovación, como la única vía de responder eficientemente a las demandas ciudadanas. En el presente trabajo analizamos el nivel de implantación de innovaciones en los ayuntamientos españoles así como qué tipo de innovaciones son más comúnmente utilizadas. Además contrastamos la relación entre el comportamiento innovador y el tamaño organizativo. Por otra parte, puesto que las innovaciones deben darse no cómo un fenómeno aislado, sino como parte de la estrategia corporativa, contrastaremos el comportamiento innovador de los ayuntamientos analizados con sus tipologías o perfiles estratégicos.

Outsourcing and strategy in Spanish town halls: a field study

Purpose – This study seeks to analyse the links between strategies, structures and processes in the case of the largest Spanish town halls, using the Miles and Snow's models about organisational strategies, and asking the following questions: “What is the situation of municipal services' outsourcing in the largest Spanish town halls?”; “Do Spanish town halls follow the strategies suggested in Miles and Snow's model?”; and “Is there a relationship between the strategic position adopted by town halls and their stance on outsourcing?”. Design/methodology/approach – In order to achieve these aims a questionnaire was administered to the human resource managers in the town halls of the largest Spanish cities. Findings – The paper finds that outsourcing is a complement, which seeks to improve the services delivered, and local institutions do not resort to it due to a lack of internal resources but as a way to complement their own capabilities. Originality/value – The paper has identified three distinct strategic profiles in the town halls interviewed which coincide with the profiles that Miles and Snow call prospective, defensive and reactive strategies. It reveals that town halls which outsource to a greater extent are the ones which identify more with the prospective or reactive strategy, whereas those which outsource less are closer to the defensive strategy.

Innovation in public services: the case of Spanish local government

The present paper aims to determine the level of implementation of innovations in Spanish local government as well as to identify which types of innovations are most common. The paper also considers the link between innovative behavior and organizational size. However, since innovations cannot occur as isolated phenomena but rather as a part of corporate strategy, the study compares the innovative behavior of the local governments analyzed with their typologies or strategic profiles. In order to achieve the aforementioned aims, the paper uses a survey of the Human Resource Managers of Town Halls in the largest Spanish municipalities. The results of this survey show that the most frequent innovations in the local governments analyzed are collaborative; the largest town halls show more propensities to innovate and they focus on external relationships which are collaborative and on the basis on Information and Communication Technologies. The study reconfirms that town halls with a prospective profile are the most innovative.