The Public Services under Reconstruction: Client experiences, professional practices, managerial control

by Gastelaars; Marja

• ISBN13: 9780415472425
• ISBN10: 0415472423
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-12-16
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book examines the services in and around the public domain, analysing a number of socio-cultural changes relevant to these services, includingthe rationalising efforts of the New Public Management and the introduction of IT.

Table of Contents

Preface and acknowledgements	p. xiii
The public services are under debate	p. 1
What is going on?	p. 1
The Dutch Railways, for example	p. 3
What are 'organizations' all about?	p. 5
What is a 'service'?	p. 6
The permanent debate	p. 7
Diversifying 'service'	p. 9
This book: the services in and around the public domain	p. 17
Meanwhile, in society
The outside world is in	p. 21
Rationalization	p. 22
Bureaucratization, state formation and 'juridical form'	p. 26
Profssionalism and professional privilege	p. 29
Individualizing effects	p. 35
Domestic life and 'normality'	p. 38
The private sphere as the 'realm of liberty'	p. 42
Conclusion: the production of legitimacy as a permanent concern	p. 44
'Why are we here?' Core services and client relationships	p. 46
The services should mind their cores!	p. 46
Supplying as a core service: anonymous encounters	p. 46
Processing as a core service: the dominance of procedure	p. 50
Expert intervention as a core service: the inevitability of professional domestication	p. 53
Negotiation and co-production as a core service: performing partnership	p. 57
Providing care and surveillance as a core service: the management of dependence	p. 59
Maintaining individual commitment and collective zeal as a core service: encouraging client ownership	p. 63
Conclusion: the indispensability of the core	p. 65
The (re)construction of the services: (re)routing the clients	p. 66
The primary process is under reconstruction	p. 66
Recruiting potential clients	p. 67
Selecting clients: the yes or no at the front door	p. 73
Client classification: 'what are we going to do?'	p. 75
Client transformation: organizing around the core service	p. 81
Winding up (and starting over again)	p. 89
Conclusion: the inevitable complexity of the service chain	p. 91
'Whatever it takes!' The organizational relevance of professional responsibilities	p. 93
The service professionals at work	p. 93
First think, then act: knowledge work and cognitive skills	p. 94
Professional expertise: well-considered interventions under a great deal of pressure	p. 99
Managing client relationships: relational skills and relational expertise	p. 102
Managing complexities and power effects: process skills and process expertise	p. 108
The relevance of elementary skills	p. 113
(Re)assembling professional repertoires, (re)negotiating professional responsibilities	p. 113
Conclusion: professional status under debate	p. 119
'What am I doing here?' The client experience	p. 121
The ultimate 'other'	p. 121
The relevance of 'everyday life'	p. 122
The mutual construction of 'demand'	p. 125
Performing the core service as a client: enduring organizational domestication	p. 132
Winding up (and starting over again) for clients	p. 141
Conclusion: the clients' experiences matter (or maybe not)	p. 142
The new management: about 'process' and 'control'	p. 143
'How do you manage?'	p. 143
Flexible streamlining: delivering services by design	p. 144
Design and redesign	p. 145
The impact of standards	p. 148
Managing the services' accountabilities: evaluative standards-in-use	p. 153
Inventing 'culture' to keep 'people' under control	p. 154
Conclusion: process skills for managers	p. 159
Conclusion: where are we now?	p. 161
Flexible streamlining vis-a-vis the permanent debate	p. 161
Flexible streamlining and the paradoxes of managerial control	p. 162
The (re)production of legitimacy: the inevitability of public debate	p. 163
Manageability for all	p. 165
References	p. 167
Subject and author index	p. 176
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.