Perceptions of the Frontline Craft: Assessing Value Convergence Between Policy Makers, Managers, and Street-Level Professionals in the Prison Sector

• DOI: 10.1177/0095399720933815
• Published date: 01 February 2021
• Date: 01 February 2021
• Author: Hester L. Paanakker
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399720933815

Administration & Society

2021, Vol. 53(2) 222 –247

© The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/0095399720933815

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Article

Perceptions of the

Frontline Craft: Assessing

Value Convergence

Between Policy Makers,

Managers, and Street-

Level Professionals in the

Prison Sector

Hester L. Paanakker1

Abstract

From the unique perspective of perceptions of the frontline craft, this study

examines value convergence between policy makers, managers, and street-level

professionals (N = 55). Toxic stereotyping between staff levels, exacerbated

by restrictive organizational conditions, are shown to overshadow positive

value convergence from socialization processes. In this Dutch prison study,

public officials are consistently biased to believe that the management above

them prioritizes targets (values that support the organization) over content

(values that serve prison inmates). This explains how perceived role and

value differences impact the actualization of shared values in public service

delivery much more negatively than the actual differences.

Keywords

public values, public craftsmanship, street-level professionals, value

convergence

1Radboud University, The Netherlands

Corresponding Author:

Hester L. Paanakker, Department of Public Administration, Nijmegen School of Management,

Radboud University, Attn. H.L. Paanakker, PO Box 9108, 6500 HK Nijmegen,

The Netherlands.

Email: h.paanakker@fm.ru.nl

933815AASXXX10.1177/0095399720933815Administration & SocietyPaanakker

research-article2020

Paanakker 223

Introduction

A growing body of literature is taking what Beck Jørgensen and Rutgers

(2015) call a “Public Values Perspective (PVP),” outlining the public values

that uniquely characterize the public sector. Taking a generalist view of the

public official, many of these studies map the role and relevance of values in

public governance on an aggregate level (Beck Jørgensen & Bozeman, 2007;

Huberts & Van der Wal, 2014; Perry et al., 2014; Wang & Wang, 2020).

Values are commonly understood as “qualities that are appreciated for con-

tributing to or constituting what is good, right, beautiful, or worthy of praise

and admiration” (De Graaf, 2003, p. 22), with public values referring to

desired and praiseworthy public sector conduct, processes, and outcomes

(Beck Jørgensen & Bozeman, 2007). Fewer studies address how such rather

general and abstract values apply to professional ideals and practices of good

work at implementation level and how, within specific domains of public

service delivery, such values are similarly or differently perceived and

expressed from policy level down to shop floor (Paanakker, 2019, 2020).

To address this gap, we examine how values relate to and can be seen from

the perspective of frontline “craft.” That is, we examine perceptions of crafts-

manship to see which values they describe, with craftsmanship referring to

the application of the concrete skills, knowledge and practices that, according

to public officials, are needed to deliver good work in street-level public ser-

vice delivery. As such, we inductively derive value patterns from the key

qualities that public officials deem relevant in the context of frontline work

and its objective (in this case, the concrete public service delivered; Paanakker,

2019, 2020), and we conduct explorative research into whether and how pub-

lic officials who operate at different hierarchical levels, but in the same pub-

lic sector domain, have a shared notion of frontline craft and the values that

attach to it. To examine convergence or divergence in the values that describe

such street-level craftsmanship, this article selects the Dutch prison sector as

a case study and discusses the central research question:

Research Question: How convergent are value perceptions of street-level

craftsmanship between policy makers, managers, and street-level profes-

sionals in the Dutch prison sector, and what explains mutual perceptions

between them?

In doing so, this article aims to advance public values research in two ways.

First, it aims to scrutinize the level of value convergence from the perspective of

professional sectors. The observation that values are likely to be perceived very

differently in different cultural and organizational settings, situations, or periods