Why do Role Perceptions Matter? A Qualitative Study on Role Conflicts and the Coping Behavior of Dutch Municipal Enforcement Officers

《Why do Role Perceptions Matter? A Qualitative Study on Role Conflicts and the Coping Behavior of Dutch Municipal Enforcement Officers》

打印

作者: Joëlle van der Meer

来源: URBAN AFFAIRS REVIEW,Vol.60,Issue2,P.

语言: 英文

关键字

作者单位

摘要: IntroductionThis paper focuses on municipal enforcement officers in the Netherlands (Buitengewoon Opsporingsambtenaren or BOAs), who are mostly appointed to supervise local neighborhoods and town centers and whose position has been extensively discussed (van Steden 2017). The main task of municipal enforcement officers has been to supervise local neighborhoods and town centers. However, municipal enforcement officers have been criticized for fulfilling a too narrow bureaucratic policing role (van Steden 2017; van Stokkom 2014). Especially since the Netherlands Court of Audit published a highly critical evaluation report about the functioning of officers in 2012, the position of municipal enforcement officers has received increased public attention (Rekenkamer 2012). The Court of Audit concluded that officers fulfilled a narrow role and lacked the communication skills necessary to connect with local inhabitants. As a result, municipal enforcement officers are nowadays no longer only expected to patrol the streets: they should also fulfill a broader and more social role as “city hosts” (van Steden 2017). It became their task to respond to the priorities of the communities in which they work by gathering information and cooperating with various parties such as the police, citizens, youth workers, and homeless shelters.The changing role of municipal enforcement officers, who can be regarded as street-level bureaucrats, reflects a broader shift in tasks and responsibilities of public organizations (Bullock 2013; Durose 2007). The introduction of New Public Management (NPM) and, later, New Public Governance (NPG) has reformed public organizations and subsequently what is expected of their employees (Kruyen and Van Genugten 2020; Rhodes 2016). With the rise of NPM, street-level bureaucrats are expected to become more entrepreneurial by focusing on results and treating citizens as customers (Noordegraaf and Steijn 2014; de Maillard and Savage 2022). With NPG, street-level bureaucrats are expected to increasingly collaborate with citizens and stakeholders in networks (Brandsen and Honingh 2013).While the influence of NPM and NPG have changed the expected role of street-level bureaucrats, there is only limited attention in the public administration literature, and especially in that concerning street-level bureaucrats, as to how street-level bureaucrats perceive their own role in an increasingly changing and complex context (Agger and Poulsen 2017; Sager et al. 2014; van der Meer, Vermeeren, and Steijn 2022). This insight is relevant given the critical role that street-level bureaucrats have in the policy implementation process (Tummers et al. 2012). The perceptions street-level bureaucrats have of their roles could impact whether and how policies are implemented. The term role perception refers to how individuals define their work role, such as how broadly they perceive their role, what tasks and goals they see as relevant, and how they believe they should deal with them (Parker 2007, 406). By empirically studying the role perceptions of municipal enforcement officers, a first contribution of this study is to provide insight into the consequences of new modes of governance for the role of street-level bureaucrats (Sager et al. 2014).Moreover, we link role perceptions to behavior by focusing on the role conflicts that municipal enforcement officers perceive and their coping behavior. It is often argued that the influence of NPM and NPG has increased demands stemming from policies and from the organization, but also from a changing relationship with clients and other stakeholders (Durose 2007; Thomann 2015). While street-level bureaucrats still have to respond to the demands of organizational policies and their professional norms, they now also have to respond to new demands coming from an increased complexity of relations and interactions between various actors (Agger and Poulsen 2017; Sager et al. 2014). This complexity can lead to role conflicts for street-level bureaucrats (Loyens and Maesschalck 2010). Hence, the second focus of this study is on role perceptions and their relationship with role conflicts and ways of coping at the street level. This will provide a better understanding of how street-level bureaucrats use their discretion in public service delivery in the contemporary public sector context (Agger and Poulsen 2017; de Graaf, Huberts, and Smulders 2016).From a policing scholarship perspective, this paper provides valuable insights into challenges related to alternatives to traditional police officers (Bittner 1990; Muir 1979). Today, cities increasingly look to alternatives to traditional police officers and face pressures to expand the role of officers in community-oriented ways (Cheng 2022; Gascón and Roussell 2019; Gordon 2022). By concentrating on municipal enforcement officers, we offer a deeper understanding into community-based policing alternatives.The study therefore answers the following research question: How do municipal enforcement officers perceive their role and how do these role perceptions influence role conflicts and coping behavior?To provide an answer, we qualitatively examined the perceptions of municipal enforcement officers in a large municipality in the Netherlands. Based on interviews, we provide in-depth insights into how officers understand their role. Further, we show that role perceptions influence the way municipal enforcement officers cope with role conflicts. Based on this, we argue that role perceptions are crucial to understanding coping behavior.