On Justification Work: How Compromising Enables Public Managers to Deal with Conflicting Values
01 Jan 2014-Public Administration Review (Wiley Subscription Services, Inc.)-Vol. 74, Iss: 1, pp 52-63
TL;DR: In this article, a qualitative study of daily practices of Dutch health care managers (executives and middle managers) is presented, where the authors show how compromises are constructed and how managers are able to solidify compromises, creating temporary stability in times of public sector change.
Abstract: ____
In the public administration literature, a variety of
responses to value confl icts have been described, such
as trade-off s, decoupling values, and incrementalism.
Yet little attention has been paid to the possibility of
constructive compromises that enable public managers to
deal with confl icting values simultaneously rather than
separately. Th e authors use Luc Boltanski and Laurent
Th evenot’s theory of justifi cation to extend current conceptualizations
of management of confl icting values. On
the basis of a qualitative study of daily practices of Dutch
health care managers (executives and middle managers),
they show how compromises are constructed and
justifi ed to signifi cant others. Because compromises are
fragile and open to criticism, managers have to perform
continuous “justifi cation work” that entails not only the
use of rhetoric but also the adaption of behavior and
material objects. By inscribing compromises into objects
and behavior, managers are able to solidify compromises,
thereby creating temporary stability in times of public
sector change.
Citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors suggest changes to the theory of public value and, in particular, the strategic triangle framework, in order to adapt it to an emerging world where policy makers and managers in the public, private, voluntary and informal community sectors have to somehow separately and jointly create public value.
Abstract: This essay suggests changes to the theory of public value and, in particular, the strategic triangle framework, in order to adapt it to an emerging world where policy makers and managers in the public, private, voluntary and informal community sectors have to somehow separately and jointly create public value. One set of possible changes concerns what might be in the centre of the strategic triangle besides the public manager. Additional suggestions are made concerning how multiple actors, levels, arenas and/or spheres of action, and logics might be accommodated. Finally, possibilities are outlined for how the strategic triangle might be adapted to complex policy fields in which there are multiple, often conflicting organizations, interests and agendas. In other words, how might politics be more explicitly accommodated. The essay concludes with a number of research suggestions.
280 citations
Cites background from "On Justification Work: How Compromi..."
...There is no doubt more mechanisms should be added, including simple compromise (e.g. Oldenhof, Postma, and Putters 2014)....
[...]
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that organizational tasks are not always new, but can be inherent to professional work and that professionals increasingly engage in new organizational issues and incorporate those into their professional work.
Abstract: Organizational and professional logics are often viewed as intrinsically conflicting. Organizational influences either encroach on professional work or professionals resist change and evade organizational rules. Increasingly however, this dualistic view is supplemented with the perspective of organized professionalism, which focuses on the negotiated and reciprocal relationship between organizational and professional logics. In this perspective, professionals increasingly engage in new organizational issues and incorporate those into their professional work. We build on these insights, but take the debate on organized professionalism one step further. Using the sociological concept of articulation work, we show that organizational tasks are not always ‘new’, but can be inherent to professionalism. In a study of Dutch neighbourhood nurses (NNs), we find three types of articulation work: intraprofessional, interprofessional, and lay articulation work. NNs perform articulation work to provide and organize care at the same time. They integrate taylorized home care services, coordinate the work of different professionals, and stimulate informal care. We conclude that articulation work traditionally lies at the heart of professionalism, but is not static and acquires new meaning because of changing organizational conditions and policy reforms.
54 citations
TL;DR: This article analyzed four best-practice cases in which public value was created through the integration of community indicators and government performance management, and identified an iterative process of participation, legitimation, and implementation with institutional innovations across boundaries between civil society, politics and administration.
Abstract: Public value creation has become a critical challenge, but existing approaches have limitations and it is unclear how they can be integrated. This article addresses this issue by analyzing four best-practice cases in which public value was created through the integration of community indicators and government performance management. It identifies an iterative process of participation, legitimation, and implementation, with institutional innovations across boundaries between civil society, politics, and administration. These institutional innovations help integrate the often fragmented arenas of participation, legitimation, and implementation.
44 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the fact that moral judgements are likely involved when individuals face a plurality of logics within organizations and analyse the moral micro-finance of these logics.
Abstract: Research on institutional complexity has overlooked the fact that moral judgements are likely involved when individuals face a plurality of logics within organizations. To analyse the moral microfo...
39 citations
Cites background or methods from "On Justification Work: How Compromi..."
...Through this analysis, we could identify four groups of responses that reflected distinct types of ‘justification work’ (Jagd, 2011; Oldenhof et al., 2014), and that we present in detail after having contextualized the strategic shift in sustainability through an EW lens....
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...Despite showing promise for understanding how actors manage the moral dimension of institutional complexity, the EW concept of compromise has remained relatively under-studied in organizational analysis (Jagd, 2011; Oldenhof et al., 2014; Reinecke et al., 2017), although organizations have been described by EW scholars as ‘compromising devices’ (Thévenot, 2001, p....
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TL;DR: In this paper, a systematic review of published ethnographic studies in the field of public management is presented, which investigates how ethnography has been conceptualized and employed by the scholarly community in the past 25 years (1990-2014).
36 citations
Cites background from "On Justification Work: How Compromi..."
...…conditions and work of street-level bureaucrats and middle-range officials (Boll 2014; Chalfin 2010; Cooney 2007; Dubois 2010; Durose 2009; Huising and Silbey 2010; Maynard-Moody and Musheno 2003; Meershoek 2012; Oldenhof, Postma, and Putters 2013; Rich 1996; Sandfort 2000; 2003; Wilkinson 2011)....
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