Public Sector Communication: Closing Gaps Between Citizens And Public Organizations

A comprehensive guide to future-proofing public sector communication and increasing citizen satisfaction

How to communicate with the citizens of the future? Why does public sector communication often fail? Public Sector Communication combines practical examples from around the world with the latest theoretical insights to show how communication can help bridge gaps that exist between public sector organizations and the individual citizens they serve. The authors—two experts in the field with experience from the public sector—explain how public entities, be they cities, governments, foundations, agencies, authorities, municipalities, regulators, military, or government monopolies and state owned businesses can build their intangible assets to future-proof themselves in a volatile environment.

The book examines how the recent digitalization has increased citizen expectations and why one-way communication leaves public sector organizations fragile. To explain how to make public sector communication antifragile, the authors map contributions from a wide variety of fields combined with illustrative examples from around the world. The authors propose a research-based framework of different intangible assets that can directly improve communication in the public sector.

This important resource:

• Helps explain the sector-specific conditions and why communication is often challenging in the public sector
• Summarizes all relevant literature on the topic across disciplines and includes the most popular management ideals of the recent decades
• Explores how public sector organizations can increase citizen satisfaction with effective communication
• Presents new approaches to both the study and practice of communication in the public sector 
• Provides international examples of successful public sector communication 
• Offers realistic guides to building intangible assets in practice

Written for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, as well as public managers and leaders, Public Sector Communication offers an illustrative, research-based guide to improving communication and engaging citizens of today and the future.

Maria-José Canel, University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Vilma Luoma-aho, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland