Leadership and structure in the co-production of public services

This paper aims to initiate a debate about the utility of the concept of co-production in developing a better understanding of contemporary challenges to leadership and management in the provision of public services. The central argument made here is twofold: First, leadership must be shared to some extent for co-production to take effect, which supports current conceptual developments but also points to the need to focus future research more on relational dynamics and on institutional structures. Second, to develop models of leadership which reflect the nature of the co-production process, institutional concepts based on hybridity and blurred boundaries are likely to provide a useful starting point.