Public value and public value managers: implications for different public administration traditions and systems 1 Julia Dahlvik 1 * and Michal Sedlacko 1 1 – University of Applied Science FH Campus Wien, Public Management, Vienna, AT (julia.dahlvik@fh-campuswien.ac.at, michal.sedlacko@fh-campuswien.ac.at) DRAFT; PLEASE DO NOT CITE Abstract: The purpose of the present paper is threefold: (i) to provide a critical overview of scholarly literature on public value with a focusing on different positions in the use of the concept, (ii), to analyse the fit of public value management to different public administration traditions, systems and cultures (iii) to provide a research agenda based on the preliminary findings of this paper. The public value approach was developed in reaction and reference to New Public Management and its attendant risks of neoliberalisation, and is resting on preference deliberation, plural and political processes providing a safeguard against uncertainty and change (Stoker 2005). Although a strong concern for common good and societal well-being provides a common thread, a more thorough review of the literature reveals several tensions and contradictions that characterize the discourse on public value, not the least the risks of producing a new variant of neoliberal rationality (Dahl and Soss 2014). In addition, it would also seem that the architecture of political-administrative relations and public administrative tradition plays a strong role in how the public value concept is being conceived and received, and vice versa, public value offers particular understandings of ‘public managers’, compatible with existing public administrative systems to varying degrees (Rhodes & Wanna 2007). Based on the literature review and the analysis of the possible use of the public value approach in different political-administrative settings, we identify a research agenda sensitive to the different understandings, objectives and functions of public value in various country contexts. Value for practitioners: The paper is of indirect value to the practitioner, by informing practice and providing a frame for reflection. Relevance for EU-accession: Since New Public Management (NPM) has been adopted and implemented in the CEE somewhat differently than in Western European countries (and in many NPM- 1 This paper was originally submitted and accepted under the title “Cutting through the thicket: tensions and positions in the public value debates”, and with a slightly different abstract.