New public management evolving agenda: risk management in Italian municipalities

• Date: 17 May 2024
• Pages: 161-180
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-06-2023-0210
• Published date: 17 May 2024
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management,Politics,Public adminstration & management
• Author: Monia Castellini,Caterina Ferrario,Vincenzo Riso

New public management evolving

agenda: risk management in

Italian municipalities

Monia Castellini

Department of Economics and Management, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy

Caterina Ferrario

Department of Law “Cesare Beccaria”, University of Milan, Milan, Italy, and

Vincenzo Riso

Department of Management, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

Abstract

Purpose –Since the 1980s, New public management has fostered the introduction of managerial approaches

similar to those of the private sector in public administrations. Recently, the advantages of performing risk

management in the public sector have been recognized; however, to the best of our knowledge, research on

risk management in public administrations is underdeveloped, and there is a need to understand how risk

management is performed. This paper addresses these issues and investigates whether and how risk

management is performed in Italian public administration.

Design/methodology/approach –This study focused on a sample of 503 Italian municipalities and used a

mixed research method. Through a qualitative content analysis of documents published on municipalities’

websites, data and information were collected and elaborated using quantitative indicators.

Findings –The main results are that a high percentage of large Italian municipalities perform risk

management and comply with theoretical provisions on risk management, sometimes displaying isomorphic

behavior in risk management practices.

Originality/value –This study provides a new perspective on risk management in Italian municipalities,

contributes to filling a gap in the literature and suggests a theoretical perspective on municipalities’approaches

when introducing new managerial practices.

Keywords New public management, Risk management, Italian municipalities, Quality content analysis,

Isomorphism

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

Since the late 1980s, New Public Management (NPM) has fostered the introduction of

managerial behaviors similar to those of the private sector into public sector organizations

(Hood, 1991) to improve quality, efficiency and effectiveness in public service delivery

(Newmann and Clarke, 1994). Indeed, public administrations in many countries have

introduced new procedures and process innovations and have changed their bureaucratic

culture, embracing a new managerial attitude (Rana and Parker, 2023) committed to the

effective and efficient achievement of organizations’goals (Parker et al., 2019) and more

concerned with delivering to citizens-customers (Osborne et al., 2012).

Private organizations’approaches and techniques were successfully transferred and

applied in public organizations, generally with adjustments due to the different institutional

Risk

management in

Italian

municipalities

161

© Monia Castellini, Caterina Ferrario and Vincenzo Riso. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited.

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may

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The authors are listed in alphabetical order. Each author participated equally in the work.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

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Received 18 July 2023

Revised 3 November 2023

24 January 2024

19 February 2024

Accepted 21 February 2024

International Journal of Public

Sector Management

Vol. 38 No. 2, 2025

pp. 161-180

Emerald Publishing Limited

0951-3558

DOI 10.1108/IJPSM-06-2023-0210

settings (Bouckaert and Van Dooren, 2003). Indeed, public managers have adopted private

sector techniques and tools, such as management by objectives, developed management, total

quality management and performance management (Boyne, 2002). This transformation

implied a shift from the traditional bureaucratic approach, primarily concerned with

adherence to rules and regulations, to a new focus on delivering public services (Capalbo et al.,

2017;Osborne, 2006), financial sustainability and the efficient allocation of public resources

(O’Flynn, 2007).

Risk management practices integrated into the management control system were

introduced in the private sector in the early 2000s (McRae and Balthazor, 2000) in response to

the need to prevent financial crises and to actively respond to risks (Spira and Page, 2003).

Consistently, international organizations created the first frameworks and standards (e.g.

CoSO (2004) Framework or ISO 31000). Later, the International Organization of Supreme

Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) provided guidelines for risk management in the public sector

(Hatvanti, 2015;INTONSAI, 2007).

The importance of risk management in the public sector is recognized from different

perspectives (Rana and Parker, 2023;Hatvani, 2015). First, risk management boosts the

achievement of public organizations’objectives (Bullock et al., 2019;Keban, 2017); second,

risk management is critical for ensuring effective service delivery, improving performance

(Gates et al., 2012), and increasing public organizations’accountability (Mahama et al., 2020).

Finally, it allows public administrations to manage risks rather than trying to avoid them

(Eckerd, 2014;Hutter, 2006).

The first examples of risk management in the public sector date back to the early 1980s

(Black, 2005). However, it expanded significantly in the 21st century, and it has been

described as the most recent strand of NPM (Lapsley, 2009, p. 6). In the public sector, risk

management initially focused on terrorism, health, transport, the environment, climate

change and corruption (McPhee, 2005).

Similarly to other countries, in Italy NPM has also significantly influenced public

administration reform since the late 1990s (Deidda Gagliardo and Saporito, 2021;Hinna and

Ceschel, 2021;Reginato et al., 2010). In particular, the legislative obligation to implement a

management control system in public organizations with an internal auditor was introduced

in 2000 (Legislative decree 267/2000). In 2012, law 190 introduced aframework to prevent the

risk of corruption and illegality in public administrations (Castellini and Riso, 2023). However,

no specific law obliges public organizations to implement risk management for all risks. In

practice, many public administrations in Italy are introducing risk management. This

suggests that risk management is useful and effective. Thus, public administration in Italy

provides an interesting case study of risk management introduction in the public sector

(Hinna et al., 2018). The evidence presented is significant also from an international

perspective, in particular as an example of risk management introduction in the public sector

when no specific legal requirements or detailed legal frameworks exist (Vinnari and

Skærbæk, 2014).

This paperaims to analyze the extent of risk managementimplementation by Italianpublic

administration, using evidence from Italian municipalities (“comuni”). It also investigates

whether thecore process of risk management,namely, risk assessment,is effectively deployed

in Italian municipalities. The analysis focuses only on the municipal level of government to

eliminatebiases due to the differing roles,competencies and financialendowments of different

levels of government. We restrict our focusto Italian municipalitiesbecause of their significant

responsibilities in service provision, as opposed to planning or programming competencies,

which mostly rest with higher levels of government (regions or state). Total annual

expendituresby Italian municipalitiesamount to approximately30% of the total public budget

and covera wide span of services,from urban transportationto health care and socialactivities,

from education and research to public support to businesses, and from public housing to

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