Trust in times of crisis: opportunities and pitfalls of cooperation between volunteers and local governments

Abstract

During the so-called refugee crisis of 2015/16 an estimated 25% of the German population was actively engaged as volunteers. Volunteers thus constitute a group of citizens who are high stake actors in crisis management due to their personal experience and direct interaction with the local public administration. This paper scrutinizes how the interaction between volunteers and local administrations in crisis management affects volunteers’ trust in the local public administration. Following the literature on administrative crisis management and cross-sector collaboration, the paper defines relevant features of crisis management performance. Methodologically, the paper relies on regression analysis using online survey data from a snowballing sample comprising 900 volunteers who engaged during Germany’s 2015/16 migration crisis. The results show that performance perception of the local administration, and the formalization of the different volunteer organizations explain how volunteers’ trust in the public administration changes over the course of the crisis.

Drivers Fostering Citizens to Participate in Co-Creation Process for Public Service Quality

“…Citizens' involvement into decision-making processes for public services is one of the ways to achieve the goal. According to social capital research and stakeholder interaction theory, volunteering and civic engagement in general also promotes social trust in public institutions (Lenz, 2022). Here, co-creation can serve as a form of collaboration between the public administration organizations and its stakeholders for a more efficient and better-quality public service delivery (Puksas et al, 2019).…”

“…Trust in government is an important factor influencing citizens' involvement in co-creation of public services. Trust in institutions is a key element in the functioning of democratic systems and influences citizens' political behaviour (Lenz, 2022). Scholars exploring the links between welfare conditionality and co-creation have found that distrust of the public system and citizens is an obstacle to co-creation (Larsen & Caswell, 2020).…”

“…Volunteering focuses on social and economic exchanges to achieve personal and shared social goals. Volunteering does not automatically lead to increased trust in the public sector, but it can create functioning communication channels that facilitate processes (Lenz, 2022). Volunteering can serve as an alternative to public services (Grönroos, 2011).…”