Trui Steen

Dutch civil service leadership torn between managerial and policy oriented leadership roles

NPM-reforms are assumed to have led to a professional managerial, entrepreneurial model of public sector leadership. We discuss the impact of a generic managerial focus of the senior civil service on the original balance in the double role of bureaucratic leadership, namely to act both as the manager of the department and to help shape politics within the departments’ sectoral policy field. We use the case of the Dutch senior civil service to examine to what extent public sector leaders are taking up a new role as ‘managerialist leaders’ and, if so, what are the implications for government. We discuss the danger of stimulating what will be called a ‘vicious cycle of managerialisation’ that decreases bureaucracy’s capacity to take up a (generalist) policy expert and policy advisory role and might also lead to a (new) impetus towards the politicization of part of the administrative summit through increasing the role and size of political and personal advisors to the political executives.

Introduction: Special issue on the coproduction of public services

This introductory article discusses the topic of coproduction and outlines the special issue. In particular, we explain some different uses of the concept of coproduction, outline our focus on coproduction as the collaboration between public service agents and citizen-users in the provision of public services, and contextualize coproduction, specifically looking at the legal context in which coproduction takes places. We then portray the international collaboration that has been set up within the International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IIAS) Study Group on Coproduction of Public Services. Next, we highlight the included articles and explain what they teach us about coproduction and what we must still learn.

Fiscal consolidation in federal Belgium

This article analyses fiscal consolidation policy in federal Belgium in the period 2009–14, until the initial 2014 budget. It relies on documentary analysis and interviews to examine the intensity, content and decision-making process of this policy. Explanations for this particular fiscal consolidation policy are looked for in the macro-economic context, the political-administrative system, and external influences. We find generally modest budget cutbacks punctuated by an exceptionally significant budget exercise. This pattern is best explained by the tensions within the Belgian political-administration, generating policy continuity, and by external pressure, that allowed policymakers to overcome these tensions. Points for practitioners Beyond providing insight into the specifics of fiscal consolidation in federal Belgium, this article allows a better understanding of why governments engage in fiscal consolidation the way they do. Emphasizing that fiscal consolidation is an essentially political process influenced by national and international factors, our analysis helps practitioners to understand how national and international arguments can be mobilized in national political contexts to trigger policy changes.

Civil Service Systems in Western Europe: A Comparative Analysis

According to available geological information, Europe started off as a collection of smaller tectonic plates situated somewhere in the southern hemisphere. Slowly drifting northwards, forces of nature molded these smaller entities over time into the continent we know. On the basis of this historical geological information we are relatively safe to presume that Europe has, at least, a geographical identity. Comparing civil service systems during earlier phases in the Civil Service project, it was more or less implicitly taken for granted that Western Europe possesses more than a geographical distinctiveness from other regions. In Van der Meer (2012) extensive attention is paid to the historical institutional dimension of Western European civil service systems. The historical paragraphs highlighted many common features in the development of Western European civil service systems, without underestimating existing national particularities. Most Western European civil service systems show continuous reform efforts. Using the framework developed by Bekke, Perry and Toonen (1996) we will assess (the implications of) recent empirical research.

Waarom burgers coproducent willen zijn: Een theoretisch model om de motivaties van coproducerende burgers te verklaren

Coproductie is een vorm van publieke dienstverlening waarbij burgers en professionals samenwerken bij het managen en leveren van diensten en samen zorgen voor kwali‐ teitsborging. De overheid biedt verschillende mogelijkheden voor burgers om als copro‐ ducent op te treden, maar niet iedere burger besluit ook daadwerkelijk mee te doen. Hoewel er een groeiende belangstelling bestaat voor coproductie, zijn de inzichten in de motivaties van coproducerende burgers beperkt. Dit artikel richt zich op het individuele niveau om de motivatie van burgers te verklaren en maakt hierbij gebruik van inzichten uit verschillende literatuurstromingen. Het model wordt getoetst aan de hand van een casus over Nederlandse buurtpreventieteams.1

The combined impact of professional role identity and public service motivation on decision-making in dilemma situations

Working in the public sector implies the need to make decisions in the face of dilemmas. As consistent decision-making is highly desirable for organizational performance, the question arises: what do public service professionals base their decisions on? This study aims to increase our understanding of whether public service motivation and professional role identity are useful concepts by which to predict what decisions public service professionals will make in complex situations. Using survey data, this research investigates the impact of these two concepts on the decision-making of veterinary inspectors working at the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority. The results support the hypothesis that decision-making is influenced by the way in which veterinary inspectors interpret their professional role. Public service motivation, in contrast, seems to have neither a direct nor a moderating effect on decision-making in the context of dilemma situations. Points for practitioners Two important conclusions of this study are of interest for managers working with professionals. Our findings should urge them to consider the different views that employees have about their job when teams are formed or when specific combinations of tasks are assigned. For example, attention should be paid to the question of which mixture of professional role identities is most suitable to accomplish organizational objectives. Second, the construct of public service motivation can be used by human resource managers to assess whether public professionals are motivated to provide public services. However, the results also indicate that the operationalization of public service motivation needs to be adapted to the professional context of public service providers.

Reaching Out to Sub-Municipal Decentralization: An Ongoing Challenge in Belgium

Today, Belgium counts one local government with sub-municipal units on its territory: Antwerp. Its nine SMUs—labelled districts—are operational from the 1st of January 2001 onwards in the fields of public affairs; youth, culture and sports policy; senior policy; traffic policy; public works; festivities; and communication. Over the years, the Antwerp city government has granted more autonomy to the districts, be it little by little. The chapter explores this historic and unique pathway towards sub-municipal decentralization, thus revealing why typical issues concerning the districts’ governing capacity, their finances and communication with the city centre still pop up today.

Realizing public values: enhancement or obstruction? Exploring value tensions and coping strategies in the co-production of social care

ABSTRACT We examine the potential of co-production to enhance or obstruct the realization of public values by analysing what value tensions co-producers experience and what coping strategies they follow. In-depth study of a social care initiative in Flanders shows that co-production enhances the realization of values relating to services delivered, relationships between public servants and citizens, and the democratic quality of the service delivery process. However, public servants and citizen co-producers experience tensions between values, such as efficiency, individual freedom of co-producers, reciprocity, and inclusion. In trying to deal with these value tensions, public servants are found to follow a variety of coping strategies, whereas citizen co-producers tend to escalate tensions or avoid coping with them. The type of coping strategy followed, however, influences if and what values are ultimately represented in the service delivery process and its results.