Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 PhD student in public administration, majoring in decision-making and public policy making
2 , Department of Public Administration, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran
3 Department of Public Administration, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
The literature on Public Value Management emphasizes value, legitimacy, operational capacity, participation, and network governance, highlighting the role of interaction among government, citizens, civil society, and other actors in public value creation. However, this literature provides limited explanation of how diverse actors arrive at a shared or negotiable understanding of public problems, desirable values, responsibilities, and courses of action. To address this gap in interpretive coordination, the present study adopts a theoretical–analytical approach and draws on conceptual analysis and a purposive integrative review to synthesize the literature on Public Value Management and the Narrative Policy Framework. The findings suggest that “narrative alignment” can be conceptualized as an interpretive mediating mechanism between value plurality and public value realization. Narrative alignment refers to a process through which actors’ narratives concerning problem definition, causality, agency, normative values, and policy solutions reach a level of compatibility, overlap, or mutual translatability, thereby enabling legitimacy, collaboration, and collective action. Accordingly, the article proposes a conceptual framework and a process model of Public Value Management based on narrative alignment. The theoretical contribution of the study lies in shifting the discussion of public value creation from institutional coordination to interpretive coordination and in operationalizing the role of narrative in linking meaning, legitimacy, and collective action.
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