Activeringswerk in uitvoering. Bureaucratische en professionele dienstverlening in drie sociale diensten

Abstract

This study explores the frontline delivery of activation services in three Dutch municipal social assistance agencies, aimed at stimulating unemployed people to find work. Further, the study explores how the delivery of activation work can be understood from policy and organisational choices regarding activation. The study develops ideal types for bureaucratic and professional activation work to characterise the activation practices. Empirical data comes from interviews with workers and key-informants as well as from observations of interactions of workers with clients. The research finds considerable variation which is conceptualised as three types of activation work: •a professional ‘interventionist’ type, consisting of individualised guidance to the unemployed to find work, primarily based on ‘professional’ norms regarding effective activation; •a mixed bureaucratic/professional ‘director’ type, consisting of the selection of external activation programmes and administrative monitoring. In this type, some workers primarily act as bureaucrats, following guidelines whenever possible. Others use their own ‘professional’ judgement to select external services; •a bureaucratic ‘administrator’ type, in which workers primarily focus on benefit administration and consider activation work to be a marginal task. They refer clients to a limited number of programmes based on policy guidelines. Rule bending and rationing are identified as coping strategies used by all three types. The professional standards the workers adhere to are interpreted as ‘pre-professional’ because they lack a general professional legitimacy that transcends local practices. This can be understood given the lack of specific professional qualifications for activation work and the limited professional institutionalisation of activation work. The study finds the following policy and organisational choices to be stimulating the bureaucratic or professional nature of the work and the occurrence of coping strategies. Professional service delivery is stimulated by: •the policy choice for individualised service delivery; •the absence of strict regulation of the service delivery; •output steering based on activation results. Bureaucratic service delivery is stimulated by: •the choice for a limited number of activation programmes; •outsourcing of service delivery in combination with administrative monitoring tasks; •the combination of activation tasks, benefit administration and high caseloads; •output steering on the number of activation plans, referrals to certain activation programmes and standard review meetings with clients. Coping strategies can be understood given: •strict steering on administrative accountability in combination with high workloads; •high caseloads; •output steering based on number of activation plans, referrals to certain activation programmes and standard review meetings with clients. These results show that the nature of activation work is not self-evidently bureaucratic or professional. Therefore, the role of bureaucracy and professionalism in activation work and possibly other new types of frontline work needs careful attention. These variations contribute to a lack of transparency regarding the norms that workers follow. In combination with the pre-professional activation norms this raises normative accountability issues. The study gives recommendations regarding the further development of activation work in the Netherlands. It is argued that developing activation as a professional, rather than a bureaucratic, function is the most viable option.