Placement Advisors as Innovators. How Professionals Use Enhanced Discretion in Germany’s Public Employment Services

Freier, Carolin; Senghaas, Monika

doi:10.1017/s0047279420000744

Cited by 8 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 38 publications

(2 reference statements)

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“…The first concerns task discretion: room for discretionary decision-making in the way in which street-level bureaucrats carry out their jobs. Although constrained by rules, for example, concerning the aims of social services, street-level bureaucrats often have considerable discretion in decisions concerning what types of services are offered, what clients are prioritized, the treatment of clients, and so on (Freier & Senghaas, 2021; Lipsky, 1980; Zhang et al, 2020). Second, street-level bureaucrats have value discretion.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing Street-Level Bureaucrats’ Performance by Promoting Professional Behavior Through HRM

Berkel

Vries

Knies

2021

Public Personnel Management

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This article connects human resource management (HRM) research to studies of street-level bureaucracies and public professionals. It investigates the intermediary role of professional behavior in the HRM–individual performance link in the context of public human service organizations. The article hypothesizes that human resources (HR) practices, aimed at enhancing street-level workers’ abilities, motivation, and opportunities, strengthen these workers’ professional behavior; that professional behavior and individual performance are positively related; and that professional behavior mediates the relationship between HR practices and individual performance. The analysis of findings from a survey study of street-level workers in local welfare agencies implementing welfare-to-work policies in the Netherlands shows support for the mediating role of professional behavior in the HRM–individual performance chain. Based on this evidence, the article concludes that the professional behavior of street-level workers in public human service organizations deserves scrutiny of both HRM scholars and HR practitioners who are interested in promoting the performance of public professionals.

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Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing Street-Level Bureaucrats’ Performance by Promoting Professional Behavior Through HRM

Berkel

Vries

Knies

2021

Public Personnel Management

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“…In these respects, information may be drawn from surveys of frontline employment services staff operating in contracted providers and public offices. Furthermore, more qualitative approaches, using exploratory interviews, may help to elicit information on how PES staff carry out the service delivery tasks required for assisting jobseekers to find work (Considine et al, 2011;Freier and Senghaas, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Outcome-based contracting and gaming practices in marketised public employment services. Dilemmas from the Italian case

Scarano

2023

J. Soc. Pol.

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Concerns about the unintended effects of marketised public employment services are increasingly expressed because there is mounting evidence that such services are frequently characterised by various gaming practices on the part of their providers. To prevent these unintended consequences, payment-by-result approaches have been progressively strengthened. The aim of the research reported in this article was to investigate the extent to which such approaches are able to make service providers accountable for client outcomes. The study used two Italian regional cases in order to compare different and alternative contracting arrangements: Lombardy (outcome-based payments), and Emilia-Romagna (fixed payments). Drawing on rich administrative databases, the analysis relied on a quantitative methodology based on propensity score matching and logistic regressions. Even if outcome-based contracting can make service providers financially accountable for the service outcome, the results of the analysis show that it does not sufficiently prevent gaming practices, resulting in inequity among the services provided.

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“…Both German and French PES use a specific software that allows them to electronically match jobseekers with vacancies (Clouet, 2021; Freier and Senghaas, 2022). The software relies on an electronic ‘case file’ containing jobseekers’ qualifications and formal degrees.…”

Section: The Purpose Of the Bureaucratic Encounters: Social And Cultu...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Which capital do you mobilise? How bureaucratic encounters shape jobseekers’ social and cultural capital in France and Germany

Clouet

Freier

Senghaas

2022

Critical Social Policy

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Based on participant observations in the French and German public employment services (PES), this article proposes a new way of analysing bureaucratic encounters following Bourdieu’s capital theory. We show that caseworkers who are supposed to support jobseekers into employment, force the allegedly needy jobseekers to accumulate capital, but only in its cultural or social form, and never both at the same time. While there are national differences in the accumulation process, the findings highlight the coexistence of two different strategies: accumulation of cultural capital for a long-term and stable return to employment or accumulation of social capital for a short-term and temporary access to employment. Caseworkers attribute different importance to each type of capital, which results in an uneven distribution that reproduces inequalities through social policy services.

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Placement Advisors as Innovators. How Professionals Use Enhanced Discretion in Germany’s Public Employment Services

Cited by 8 publications

References 38 publications

Managing Street-Level Bureaucrats’ Performance by Promoting Professional Behavior Through HRM

Managing Street-Level Bureaucrats’ Performance by Promoting Professional Behavior Through HRM

Outcome-based contracting and gaming practices in marketised public employment services. Dilemmas from the Italian case

Which capital do you mobilise? How bureaucratic encounters shape jobseekers’ social and cultural capital in France and Germany

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