Street-level bureaucrats implementing public policies have a certain degree of autonomy - or discretion - in their work. Following Lipsky, discretion has received wide attention in the policy ...implementation literature. However, scholars have not developed theoretical frameworks regarding the effects of discretion, which were then tested using large samples. This study therefore develops a theoretical framework regarding two main effects of discretion: client meaningfulness and willingness to implement. The relationships are tested using a survey among 1,300 health care professionals implementing a new policy. The results underscore the importance of discretion. Implications of the findings and a future research agenda is shown.
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BFBNIB, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Many public organizations implement teleworking: an organizational innovation expected to improve the working conditions of public servants. However, it is unclear to what extent teleworking is ...beneficial for public servants. This study adds to the literature by studying the effects of teleworking on a day-to-day basis. We used a daily diary methodology and followed public servants across five consecutive working days. Studies that apply a daily survey method are more accurate than cross-sectional measures because they reduce recall bias. The results highlight that public servants experience quite negative effects from teleworking, including greater professional isolation and less organizational commitment on the days that they worked entirely from home. Contrary to predictions, working from home did not affect work engagement. We also found that higher leader–member exchange (LMX) reduced the impact of teleworking on professional isolation. These findings not only contribute to the literature by showing the unfavorable effects of teleworking but also highlight that LMX can, to some extent, reduce these negative effects.
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NUK, OILJ, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Theoretical fragmentation in e-government studies hampers the further development of this field of study. This paper argues that a metatheory can reduce theoretical confusion. Ideas from the ...philosophy of the social sciences are used to develop a metatheory of e-government consisting of three dimensions: explaining/understanding, holism/individualism and change/maintenance. This metatheory is used to analyze a corpus of papers on e-government in both journals on public administration and information systems. The analysis of the 116 papers shows a bias towards explaining e-government (rather than understanding social constructions), analyzing holistic systems (rather than the behavior, attitudes and cognitions of individual actors) and studying incremental rather than transformational change. We conclude that the value of the metatheory lies in (1) facilitating debate about e-government between researchers with different perspectives, (2) enabling researchers to be clear about their social science perspective, and (3) developing educational programs that bring in various scientific perspectives.
•Identifies the theoretical fragmentation as a key problem to the further development of the field of e-government studies•Develops a metatheory of e-government on the basis of the philosophy of the social sciences•Tests the value of the metatheory in a systematic literature review of e-government publications•Demonstrates the need for a more comprehensive agenda for e-government research.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Although studies on policy transfer have expanded, a general and comprehensive understanding of policy transfer is lacking. This study offers an evidence-based explanation of policy transfer ...processes. We extracted constraining and facilitating factors from 180 empirical studies using PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis) and aggregated these factors into a conceptual framework. We synthesize our findings in four "transfer routes". We conclude that actors could shape a subset of those factors by taking certain decisions regarding transferability, adoptability and process design, albeit within the boundaries of the environment.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Today, many public professionals feel estranged from the policy programmes they implement; that is, they experience 'policy alienation'. This is of concern as, for satisfactory implementation, some ...identification with the policy is required. We conceptualize policy alienation based on the sociological concept of work alienation, and show how this can be used in policy implementation research. Studying a Dutch case of professionals implementing a new work disability decree, we observe how NPM practices increase policy alienation because of a perceived dysfunctional focus on efficiency and results. A large number of policy changes and stricter implementation rules further increased policy alienation.
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BFBNIB, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
This study identifies network management as a facilitator of effective policy transfer. We reconstruct the unconventional collaboration between Dutch private-sector experts and national governments ...of Vietnam and Bangladesh to develop multi-sectoral, long-term strategies (‘delta plans’). We identify the network management strategies used by the Dutch actors and use these to explain how problem perceptions of state and non-state actors were aligned in order to define solution pathways. Based on these cases, we argue that network analysis is a tool for policy transfer studies. This paper further concludes that the ‘soft’ nature of the transferred policy (in the form of principles, norms and ideas) increased its transferability, as being ambiguous and abstract left room for interpretation and translation to the local context.
This article brings together empirical academic research on public sector innovation. Via a systematic literature review, we investigate 181 articles and books on public sector innovation, published ...between 1990 and 2014. These studies are analysed based on the following themes: (1) the definitions of innovation, (2) innovation types, (3) goals of innovation, (4) antecedents of innovation and (5) outcomes of innovation. Based upon this analysis, we develop an empirically based framework of potentially important antecedents and effects of public sector innovation. We put forward three future research suggestions: (1) more variety in methods: moving from a qualitative dominance to using other methods, such as surveys, experiments and multi‐method approaches; (2) emphasize theory development and testing as studies are often theory‐poor; and (3) conduct more cross‐national and cross‐sectoral studies, linking for instance different governance and state traditions to the development and effects of public sector innovation.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, ODKLJ, OILJ, PILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Citizens are becoming increasingly likely to challenge the knowledge bases underlying policy programmes that deal with risks. This paper investigates how participants in online discussions engage in ...interactions between expert knowledge, 'commons knowledge' and policy assumptions. The concept of 'boundary objects', arrangements that allow different groups to work together without consensus, is used to analyse the role of online discussions in these interactions. Discussions on three Dutch online forums about the swine flu are investigated according to a framework for policy argumentation. Interaction between knowledge domains was limited, and it varied in focus and nature across the three forums. Each discussion functioned as a partial approximation of a boundary object. Government organizations should be more aware of the variety of online forums in which discussions about societal risks take place. Several practical options are presented for policy-making with regard to risks.
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BFBNIB, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
The influence of the virtual public sphere in the policy process is not only dependent on the power of online media and the stakeholders who are using them. The responsiveness of governments to ...online policy debate is important as well. While some studies show examples of governments' responsiveness to the virtual public sphere, others find that online participation is largely ignored. Such contrasting findings point at a contingency of governments' responsiveness to online public debate. This article offers a systematic literature review and meta-synthesis of empirical articles that provide insight in the factors accounting for governments' responsiveness to the virtual public sphere. A theory-based analytical framework served as guideline for qualitative analysis of the findings of 39 studies. We found that institutional characteristics, characteristics of the policymaker, characteristics of online participation and characteristics of the policy domain are relevant conditions for governments' responsiveness to the virtual public sphere.
•While the virtual public sphere has been studied extensively, its influence on the policy process is often left unstudied.•Governments' responsiveness to citizen-initiated and government-initiated virtual public spheres differs.•Policymaker, institutional, online debate and issue characteristics account for responsiveness to the virtual public sphere.•Practices and attitudes of policymakers are often overlooked as responsiveness is mostly conceptualized as a policy outcome.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
10.
Caught By Surprise? Bekkers, Victor; Edwards, Arthur; Moody, Rebecca ...
Public management review,
10/2011, Volume:
13, Issue:
7
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
New social network technology (Web 2.0) provides individuals and small groups with powerful resources for rapid political mobilization. This can create strategic surprises to policy-makers. Two cases ...of Web 2.0 driven micro-mobilization processes are considered. In both cases, new network technology helped the process of issue-expansion on which the emergence of these strategic surprises is dependent. Policy-makers were taken by surprise because their repertoires of action are focused primarily on official arrangements of consultation and on the news coverage by traditional media. Policy-makers' capacities and resources are not attuned to the political use of network technology by citizens.
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