Client Participation and Conditionality: Navigating Conflicting Normative Demands in Employment Services

Abstract

The further involvement of citizens in the processing of their own cases is attracting attention as a possible strategy for improving the quality of employment services across national borders. However, employment services are characterized by detailed regulation and strong elements of conditionality. This article utilizes Bernardo Zacka’s framework on morality at the street level, drawing on focus group interviews to analyze how caseworkers in Denmark experience and deal with such demands for increased client participation. (1) We map four normative considerations that are emphasized by our informants: legality, authenticity, realism, and resonance. (2) In doing so, we outline two central cross-pressures that arise as they strive to balance client participation with conditionality in practice, namely between legality and authenticity, on the one hand, and between realism and resonance, on the other hand. (3) Finally, we unfold three coping strategies pursued by caseworkers to dampen such tensions: dividing the self, dissolving contradictions, and disassembling clients’ wishes. We add to the literature by studying coping strategies from a perspective that carefully highlights the normative elements of employment service work—the values frontline workers attribute particular importance to and strive to actualize in their work.

Sustainable implementation of co-production: exploring conflicts and coping behavior employed by street-level professionals

“…The Danish context was chosen for this study because co-production is a prominent focus in Danish municipalities (Mortensen, 2020; Nielsen and Monrad, 2023). Co-production may have been adopted in the Danish setting more maturely than in other potential contexts, where it may offer more nascent insights (Mortensen and Needham, 2022).…”

“…The adoption of an organizational idea, such as coproduction, can add yet another demand to their already complex and ambiguous work (Mik-Meyer and Villadsen, 2013;Taylor and Kelly, 2006). To manage such organizational ambiguities and conflicts, street-level professionals employ coping strategies, some of which aim to balance conflicts, while others try to deconstruct them by favoring one demand over others (Nielsen and Monrad, 2023;Oliver, 1991;Tummers et al, 2015). Juggling conflicts caused or exacerbated by the adoption of a new organizational idea can also force translators to perform "window dressing ritualism," where a new organizational idea is decoupled from organizations' ongoing activities (Bromley and Powell, 2012).…”

“…The adoption of an organizational idea, such as co-production, can add yet another demand to their already complex and ambiguous work (Mik-Meyer and Villadsen, 2013; Taylor and Kelly, 2006). To manage such organizational ambiguities and conflicts, street-level professionals employ coping strategies, some of which aim to balance conflicts, while others try to deconstruct them by favoring one demand over others (Nielsen and Monrad, 2023; Oliver, 1991; Tummers et al. , 2015).…”

“…Conversely, top-down strategies are inherently challenging. This tension potentially explains why public service organizations often perceive co-production as too conflict-ridden to be successfully implemented, despite its popularity (Jasper and Steen, 2019;Nielsen and Monrad, 2023). Furthermore, the assumed The author would like to thank the participants at the IIAS study group on Co-production of Public Services 2023 and the "Rhythm is Gonna Get You: the Tempo of Care Policy and Practice" symposium at the Transforming Care Conference 2021 for valuable feedback on earlier drafts of this manuscript.…”

“…Conversely, top-down strategies are inherently challenging. This tension potentially explains why public service organizations often perceive co-production as too conflict-ridden to be successfully implemented, despite its popularity (Jasper and Steen, 2019; Nielsen and Monrad, 2023). Furthermore, the assumed effects of co-production, such as increased service quality, user empowerment and broader economic and social benefits, still require empirical confirmation (Pestoff, 2014; Voorberg et al.…”