Labour Input Logic of Street-Level Bureaucrats: Evidence from Chinese Market Supervision Commission

2021 ◽  
pp. 147892992110215
Author(s):  
Chunna Li ◽  
Jun Yang
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Climate ◽  
Time Allocation ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Chinese Market ◽  
Frontline Staff ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Labour Input ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats

The theory of street-level bureaucracy and its relevant data have proven the expected duties of the frontline staff of local government may be excessive but their time spent working remains quite low. Using data from participatory observations of street-level officials in a Chinese city, this study reveals the logic of this labour input paradox. Organizational climate incentive and promotional incentive jointly influence the time allocation of street-level bureaucrats. The organizational climate incentive reflects the weak incentive characteristic of the maintenance function of labour; promotional incentives have a strong impact on motivation, which is characteristic of the promotional function of labour. These findings reveal the costs of the New Public Management movement in an organization lacking an effective promotion mechanism and a positive organizational climate incentive. This is a snapshot of the dilemma faced by China’s public organization reforms, but it is also a problem other country must solve.

Policy Alienation and Street-level Bureaucrats’ Psychological Wellbeing: The Mediating Role of Alienative Commitment

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Usman ◽  
Moazzam Ali ◽  
Farooq Mughal ◽  
Peter Agyemang-Mintah
Keyword(s):  
Public Management ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Psychological Wellbeing ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats

Abstract In an era of New Public Management reforms, public sector policies often create a mismatch between social and economic values that can lead to public policy alienation—professionals’ feelings of disconnection from public policies. Policy alienation can create unrest among public professionals and carry several negative repercussions for their wellbeing and work-related attitudes. The negative repercussions of policy alienation are likely to inhibit public service delivery. However, existing research on policy alienation and its consequences for street-level bureaucrats’ wellbeing is scarce. Thus, it is unknown how policymakers can curb policy disconnect and counter its negative implications. To contribute to both general policy alienation theory and practice, our study hypothesized that the two dimensions of general policy meaninglessness—client meaninglessness and societal meaninglessness—are negatively related to street-level bureaucrats’ psychological wellbeing. We hypothesize this negative relationship is due to alienative commitment. A time-lagged survey data collected from 401 public professionals and analyzed using structural equation modeling supported our hypothesized relationships. The present study extends the nomological networks of the antecedents and consequences of alienative commitment and offers important implications that can help policymakers counter the issues related to public professionals’ alienative commitment and psychological wellbeing.

The Role of Interorganizational Competition in Motivating Street-Level Bureaucrats to Adopt Policy Entrepreneurship Strategies: The Case of Israeli Rabbis in Government Hospitals

2020 ◽  
pp. 027507402098269
Author(s):  
Niva Golan-Nadir
Keyword(s):  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Policy Entrepreneurship ◽  
Street Level ◽  
New Public ◽  
Government Hospitals ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Do So

What is the role of interorganizational competition in motivating street-level bureaucrats to adopt policy entrepreneurship strategies? What are their main goals in adopting such strategies? We argue that in the wake of New Public Management, interorganizational competition encourages street-level bureaucrats to adopt policy entrepreneurship strategies. We further suggest that three competition-oriented elements motivate entrepreneurial initiatives at the street level: (a) personal, (b) organizational (interorganizational and intraorganizational), and (c) cultural demographic. In addition, we argue that the goal of street-level bureaucrats as policy entrepreneurs is to influence public policy results for their own benefit. They do so because they and their organizations are rewarded financially as their clients’ satisfaction with the services provided increases. Using in-depth interviews, online questionnaires, and textual analysis, we test these claims by analyzing the case of Israeli rabbis in government hospitals. We demonstrate how their goal in entrepreneurship is mainly to attract patients to their organization.

Implementation of Co-Production Through Sensemaking

2021 ◽  
pp. 100-117
Author(s):  
Anja Overgaard Thomassen ◽  
Sverri Hammer
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Public Governance ◽  
Frontline Staff ◽  
Turn On ◽  
New Public ◽  
New Public Governance ◽  
Hybrid Management ◽  
Processual Approach

Co-production is increasingly outlined as an approach for operationalizing the shift from new Public Management to New Public Governance. In particular, the literature discusses the implications of co-production on frontline staff and the change in relations to citizens. This chapter focuses on a less developed area, namely the implications of the co-production turn on management. Specifically, the authors focus on how Karl Weick's notion of sensemaking when operationalized into sensemaking-tools is helpful in facilitating an organizational change towards co-production. The application of sensemaking as a processual approach to co-production leads to a discussion of how management in public organizations seems to be evolving into what can be termed hybrid management.

scholarly journals Street-level bureaucrats under new managerialism: a comparative study of agency cultures and caseworker role identities in two welfare state bureaucracies

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerstin Jacobsson ◽  
Ylva Wallinder ◽  
Ida Seing
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Professional Autonomy ◽  
Occupational Training ◽  
Role Identities ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Organizational Demands ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats

Abstract Officials in welfare state bureaucracies face the challenge of negotiating their role identities in the context of changeable organizational priorities and managerial styles. Previous studies have found that the professional values may mediate top-down demands and enable the preservation of professional autonomy also under public management reforms. But how do street-level bureaucrats who lack a common professional or occupational training respond to shifting organizational demands? Based on comparative ethnography, the present article investigates how caseworkers’ role identities are conceived and practised in two of the largest state bureaucracies in Sweden, the Social Insurance Agency (SIA) and the Public Employment Service (PES). The article identifies two radically different agency cultures, resulting in rather opposite caseworker role identities. These role identities affect how front-line staff respond to organizational demands, either by focusing externally on client-related outcomes (PES) or internally on organizational output (SIA). The analysis suggests that agency culture may shape caseworker responses to governance in patterned ways, also in the absence of joint professional training or strong occupational communities.

Australian welfare workers and street-level discretion when working with clients from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds

2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 372-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tran Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Culturally And Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Welfare To Work ◽  
Cultural Understanding ◽  
Street Level ◽  
New Public ◽  
Welfare Workers

This article explores street-level discretion of Australian welfare workers when working with clients from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. The research is situated within the context of New Public Management (NPM) and neoliberalism in the welfare sector. Findings suggest that workers’ discretion oscillates between extra support for clients, or further scrutiny and sanction. Such contradictory patterns of discretion highlight workers’ capacity to resist neoliberalism while concurrently upholding it. The article argues that cultural understanding, recognition of the limitations in welfare-to-work policies and neoliberalism, and how those factors, together with ethnicity, may influence street-level discretion are necessary for welfare workers to support CALD clients effectively.

scholarly journals Quasi-Markets and Service Delivery Flexibility Following a Decade of Employment Assistance Reform in Australia

2011 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 811-833 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARK CONSIDINE ◽  
JENNY M. LEWIS ◽  
SIOBHAN O'SULLIVAN
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Frontline Staff ◽  
Social Service Delivery ◽  
Desirable Outcome ◽  
Employment Assistance ◽  
The Impact

AbstractIn 1998, we were witnessing major changes in frontline social service delivery across the OECD and this was theorised as the emergence of a post-Fordist welfare state. Changes in public management thinking, known as New Public Management (NPM), informed this shift, as did public choice theory. A 1998 study of Australia's then partially privatised employment assistance sector provided an ideal place to test the impact of such changes upon actual service delivery. The study concluded that frontline staff behaviour did not meet all the expectations of a post-Fordist welfare state and NPM, although some signs of specialisation, flexibility and networking were certainly evident (Considine, 1999). Ten years on, in 2008, frontline staff working in Australia's now fully privatised employment sector participated in a repeat study. These survey data showed convergent behaviour on the part of the different types of employment agencies and evidence that flexibility had decreased. In fact, in the ten years between the two studies there was a marked increase in the level of routinisation and standardisation on the frontline. This suggests that the sector did not achieve the enhanced levels of flexibility so often identified as a desirable outcome of reform. Rather, agencies adopted more conservative practices over time in response to more detailed external regulation and more exacting internal business methods.

Swiss public servants' perceptions of performance in a fast-changing environment

2008 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yves Emery ◽  
Carole Wyser ◽  
Noemi Martin ◽  
Joelle Sanchez
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Performance Management ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Shared Vision ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Public Sector Organization ◽  
New Public

The notion of performance is central in all the modernization processes that have been conducted during the last 20 years, notably under the New Public Management (NPM) movement. Since the models and notions of performance analysed in research nearly always reflect the vision of top management, this article proposes to consider the vision of personnel at the street level, specifically Swiss civil servants. A highly capable public sector organization, focused on efficiency, quality services provided for the citizens and outcomes needs motivated employees to achieve these ambitious objectives. But how is `performance' perceived by civil servants without any management responsibilities? Using the typology of Boltanksi and Thévenot, the article highlights several reference worlds to which civil servants refer when speaking of performance, revealing the dominant influence of the industrial world over that of the civic world, with the domestic and commercial worlds placed third and fourth in importance, respectively. It details the evolution of performance as seen by civil servants, allowing us to better understand their reactions when faced with the transformations under way as well as the identity crisis caused by the contradictory worlds they currently face. Points for practitioners Under the NPM-banner, performance management has been introduced in almost every public sector organization. Performance must be clearly operationalized at all levels of the hierarchy, which is a difficult process because NPM has introduced new values that potentially conflict with traditional public sector values. This article highlights and analyses the way Swiss civil servants at the street level perceive performance, providing useful insight into their dominant value framework. Their perception of a `highly capable public sector' must be set against actual standards in order to achieve a shared vision of the main dimensions and criteria of performance, a prerequisite for effectiveness in every performance management system.

scholarly journals “You’ve Just Cursed Us”: Precarity, Austerity and Worker’s Participation in the Non-Profit Social Services

2017 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 370-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Cunningham ◽  
Donna Baines ◽  
John Shields
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Chief Executive ◽  
Governance Structure ◽  
Service Development ◽  
Frontline Staff ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Labour Process

Though not monolithic, the non-profit social services sector has been an arena where workers and management participated in various forms of shared planning, service development and organizing the labour process. This included: 1- formal participation processes such as collective bargaining with union representation, and 2- practice-profession or task participation. Drawing on 34 qualitative interviews undertaken with a variety of actors (Chief Executive/Senior Directors, senior operational management, Human Resource Managers, frontline staff, and, where available, union representatives) in two non-profit social service agencies in Ontario (Canada), the article traces how these forms of participation have changed as a result of government austerity policies alongside the expansion of precarious employment and funding in the non-profit sector. Using exemplar quotes and qualitative analysis, the article shows that worker’s participation in each form has declined, while management simultaneously has extended greater control over the labour process and removed or reduced forums and opportunities for input from staff. In terms of task participation, measurement and governance structure of New Public Management (NPM) and austerity have led to less autonomy and choice, especially in the area of working time. The study also found that unitarist approaches, intolerant of staff voice and possible dissent, have displaced earlier representative participatory approaches that either utilized the management chain, or embraced and worked constructively with unions. Though these pressures existed prior to the introduction of austerity policies, the data show that decreased worker’s participation coincides and is further undermined by the financial and governance processes associated with NPM and austerity-linked cuts in government and other forms of funding. Overall, the data and analysis suggest that participation in the Non-profit Social Services (NPSS) may be another casualty of this current wave of neoliberalism.

The Street-Level Bureaucracy at the Intersection of Formal and Informal Water Provision

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Hélène Zérah
Keyword(s):  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Service Improvement ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
Discretionary Power ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Evaluation Procedures ◽  
Social Settings ◽  
New Public ◽  
Water Provision

Street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) interact directly with users and play a key role in providing services. In the Global South, and specifically in India, the work practices of frontline public workers—technical staff, field engineers, desk officers, and social workers—reflect their understanding of urban water reforms. The introduction of technology-driven solutions and new public management instruments, such as benchmarking, e-governance, and evaluation procedures, has transformed the nature of frontline staff’s responsibilities but has not solved the structural constraints they face. In regard to implementing solutions to improve access in poor neighborhoods, SLBs continue to play a key role in the making of formal and informal provision. Their daily practices are ambivalent. They can be both predatory and benevolent, which explains the contingent impacts on service improvement and the difficulty in generalizing reform experiments. Nevertheless, the discretionary power of SLBs can be a source of flexibility and adaptation to complex social settings.

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