Understanding the impact of value management in public services : setting up a value management framework academic year 2025

Abstract

The purpose of this research endeavour is to demonstrate how improving organisational performance and decision-making while taking quality and efficiency into account, aside cost, can still result in benefit for the public good. Presently, industry and commerce are experiencing substantial market upheavals owing to fierce competition, volatile markets, uncertain economies, and rapidly evolving technologies. The demands on public sector management in this context are significant, necessitating individuals with technical expertise and the capacity to adapt, innovate, and cooperate successfully as team members. Shifting from models that prioritise only cost-cutting and financial gains, this study advocates for public procurement through a formal, structured, value-based management methodology that involves stakeholders in a value mapping system to guarantee that strategy implementation encompasses projects genuinely required by the country, rather than merely serving as a public relations exercise. This research focused on investigating the use of Value Management (VM) approaches, including Value Engineering (VE), within the local context and, if absent, the potential advantages of creating a Value Management Framework in the local public service sector. Value Management has been greatly used and advocated in the public sector in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom in various industries and scenarios. However, in small states, especially in Malta, studies regarding Value Management and its potential are few if any, hence it should be understood whether public organizations, including government departments, utilise value management techniques to address challenges such as cost overruns, while taking into account the requirements of customers and consumers of the respective products or services, along with the environmental and social benefits stipulated by public procurement regulations. In order to discover this a mixed-method design using both quantitative and qualitative techniques for data collection in the context of Ambjent Malta was employed - quasiexperimental research design utilising the Value Management Approach and Value Management Workshops methodology. The research utilised a holistic case study design framework, namely Ambjent Malta, to form the intervention of the quasi-experiment method. This methodology employed three stages. During the first phase, baseline data was gathered to assess existing attitudes and use of Value Management techniques, with the objective of outlining the prerequisites for establishing the groundwork for a standardisation model. This was accomplished by a pre-test exploration. The second component of the study design was the intervention stage which included an information session using the same cohort of participants and a final stage post-test exercise to recalibrate the knowledge-sharing activity. The pre-test and post-test data were analysed using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Three cases (multiple units of analysis) were used throughout the whole framework. The analysis of post-test research outcomes encompassed five key pillars: the influence of job designation; the implementation of a systematic tool or framework to guarantee a cost- ii benefit analysis in public contract allocation; holistic value-based adjudication, moving beyond lowest cost criteria; the alignment of the project's original intent and technical solutions with client requests and long-term sustainability goals; and the improvement of communication levels within project teams and stakeholders. Conclusions indicate that by tackling identified problems and using strengths, organisations may improve project results and attain sustainable value via proficient Value Management strategies. The study concludes that Value Management techniques can markedly improve project efficiency, quality, and stakeholder satisfaction. By adopting a systematic Value Management framework, public organisations can attain improved alignment with client specifications and original objectives, decrease expenses, and establish effective communication channels among stakeholders. The research promotes the incorporation of a Value Management framework within the Maltese public service sector across several contributing domains, emphasising its capacity to provide sustainable and efficient project outputs amid fluctuating resource needs.