Picture of Steven Parker

Dr Steven Parker

Lecturer In Public Management SFHEA

Department for Public Leadership & Social Enterprise

steven.parker@open.ac.uk

Biography

D.SocSci (Bristol); MA/CQSW (Leicester); BA Hons (Essex); PGCertHE.

Researcher in local government and public services.

Previously employed in local government as a social worker, strategic planner, and manager. Former lecturer at INLOGOV (University of Birmingham) and Senior Lecturer at De Montfort University.

Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Public Value, University of Western Australia .

Publications

Book Chapter

Embedding critical project management approaches into public entrepreneurship (2025)

Multi-Agency Safeguarding as a form of Public Entrepreneurship. (2025)

Leading and recognizing public value (2024)

Understanding renewed Public Service Ethos (PSE) in public management: policy, purpose, and pedagogy (2022)

Elected Officials in an Era of Austerity: Stewards, Mediators, and Catalysts (2020)

What Does Working in the Public Services Mean? Describing the public service ethos in practice (2016)

Digital Artefact

Public value in public values (2025)

Standardising multi-agency safeguarding hubs (MASH): Building a framework to effectively identify and manage risk (2023)

Journal Article

The contribution of project management to public management: developing conceptual linkages (2025)

Navigating co-production with disadvantaged service users: Local heritage as an agent of value co-creation (2025)

New development: Is Nolan enough? Why senior officers need to understand public values at the street-level perspective (2025)

From apothecary to ‘McPharmacist’? Skills utilisation amongst community pharmacists in England (2025)

The struggle for linking strategic and front-line outcomes in local government service delivery (2024)

Local government procurement in English regions: organisations, collaborations and mechanisms (2024)

Editorial: Public value for all? Considering the parameters of public value co-creation (2023)

A typology of dis/value in public service delivery (2023)

After the applause: understanding public management and public service ethos in the fight against Covid - 19 (2023)

Leading for public value in multi-agency collaboration (2023)

New development: Expanding public service value to include dis/value (2021)

Leading and recognizing public value (2019)

New development: What is the meaning of philosophy for local government officers? (2019)

New development: Reconnecting public service ethos and multi-agency collaboration. What are the possibilities and prospects for new local collaborative environments? (2016)

Debate: Public service motivation, citizens and leadership roles (2015)

Other

Researching the values of participants attending strategic boards in public services: Semi-structured interviews, documentary research and observation (2015)

Report

Enhancing Support of Diverse Motherhoods for Work Inclusion: A Policy Brief (2025)

Supporting Diverse Motherhoods for Work Inclusion (2025)

Responsible Hazardous Waste Management: Challenges and Opportunities for Small and Medium Businesses (2025)

The Future of Local Councils (2023)

The Twenty-First Century Councillor – Lessons from the Literature (2016)

The 21st Century Councillor (2016)