Coping With Public Value Conflicts

Abstract

Good governance involves managing conflicting values, leading to the main research question, which consists of three parts: Which public value profiles do public administrators have, which value conflicts do they experience, and which coping strategies are used? Here, previous literature on public value conflicts is discussed first and linked to the literature on street-level bureaucrats and on coping strategies. Then two case studies are presented: a municipality and a hospital. The findings show six different value clusters that administrators adhere to and clarify which value conflicts are typically experienced in various public sector organizations and which different coping mechanisms are used.

Handling Paradoxical Tensions through Conventions: The Case of Performance Appraisal

“…However, this research lacks deeper insights into how conflicting logics are aligned in performance appraisal systems. And in line with recent research about conflicting values in public organisations (de Graaf, Huberts, & Smulders, 2014) it is assumed that actors find solutions to conflicts individually. It is unlikely that this explains the full story due to the coordination needs of operating performance appraisal systems (see e.g.…”

Government facilitation of external initiatives: how Dutch water authorities cope with value dilemmas

“…Customization is a lambda value. This can conflict, however, with theta values such as the state's legality, reliability and impartiality (de Graaf, Huberts, & Smulders, 2016). The theta value, transparency, can also be jeopardized when authorities and the facilitated external actors come up with tailor-made solutions behind closed doors.…”

“…Building firewalls means that conflicting values are assigned to different departments; the values are decoupled, and each department is made responsible for realizing only one of the values (Steenhuisen & van Eeten, 2008). Casuistry entails public officials making decisions for each particular value conflict on the basis of their experiences in similar cases (de Graaf et al, 2016). In hybridization, conflicting values coexist in different policies or practices.…”

“…In hybridization, conflicting values coexist in different policies or practices. This occurs, for example, when additions that reflect different values are made to existing policies (de Graaf et al, 2016). Incrementalism means that value conflicts are mitigated by incremental changes, for example small norm deviations.…”

Without Blinders: Public Values Scholarship in Political Science, Economics, and Law—Content and Contribution to Public Administration

“…In daily practice, desirable PVs conflict, so choices have to be made ( Van der Wal, De Graaf, & Lawton, 2011;De Graaf, Huberts, & Smulders, 2014;De Graaf & Paanakker, 2015);De Graaf, 2015). Most accounts of the policy process give little prominence to the role of values (Stewart, 2006), and even less to the conflicts of values.…”