Author:

Keywords:

Change, Public Sector, Innovation, Feedback, Accountability, Learning

Abstract:

Ombudsmen and Supreme Audit Offices can form a source for innovation in the public sector. Their recommendations constitute an external pressure for organizations to improve and innovate. Since these recommendations are usually not compulsory, their effect is highly dependend on organizational factors at the receiving end. This paper discusses the facets of three of the most complex and all-encompasing concepts to influence receptiveness and effectiveness of policy recommendation: feedback, accountability and learning. Based on an exensive literature review the authors explain the many aspects of these factors, and show how they cause and influence change and innovation, with a specific focus on the public sector. The authors conclude with recommendations for further research, based on the explanatory model that feedback, accountability and learning could form for differentiation in change and innovation patterns, failures and successes.