I´m currently looking to recruit a PhD student (paid position). In the project we will study what drives civil servants´ willingness, incentives and ability to collaborate with other actors in processes of policy design and service delivery. More information on http://icts.kuleuven.be/apps/jobsite/vacatures/54139644#close
Organisational socialization in public administration
As part of the NWO vidi project on the interaction between public officials an citizens, we just published this systematic review in ARPA on organizational socialization in public administration. Organizational socialization is the process of mutual adaptation between an organization and its new members. We are now collecting panel data in two national tax administrations. A preprint is also available.
Trust at risk?
I contributed a chapter on trust in public services to the report ´Trust at risk: implications for EU policies and institutions´, edited by the European Commission´s DG Research. It identifies signals that trust may be at risk, and what may happens when trust declines. Download the full report here.
Cutbacks as change management
The financial crisis forces public managers to implement cutbacks within their organization. In this new paper, to appear in PMR, Eduard Schmidt, Sandra Groenveld and I argue that adopting a change management perspective contributes to our understanding of cutback management by adding a focus on managerial behaviour regarding cutback-related organizational changes. Relying on change management literature, this paper develops a framework for the analysis of cutback management connecting the context, content, process, outcomes and leadership of cutback-related change.
PI use in Chinese local government
In this new paper in PPMR, we look at whether public managers´ trust (perceived ability, benevolence, integrity) in the organisation that creates performance metrics influences their internal and external use of performance information. The analysis uses data from Chinese local government.
Agenda-setting by the European Commission. Seeking public opinion?
In this article for JEPP, we used the codebook of the Comparative Agenda Setting Project to code the content of special Eurobarometers. We found a steep increase and a curvilinear pattern: public opinion is rarely invited in areas of exclusive European Union competencies and exclusive national competencies. Most special Eurobarometers focus on shared competencies. Citizens are almost never asked about expenditure programmes and never on immigration. Haverland, M., De Ruiter, M., & Van de Walle, S. (2016), Agenda setting by the Commission. Seeking public opinion? Journal of European Public Policy.
Citadel project launched
On Oct. 4, the Citadel H2020 project was formally launched. Citadel stands for ‘Empowering Citizens to TrAnsform European PubLic Administrations‘. Coordinated by Tecnalia, KU Leuven is a major partner in this new project. My team will study civil servants’ willingness to engage citizens and their ability to use new technologies.
Vacature doctoraatsbursaal
I have a vacancy for a PhD position – as part of a European project – Empowering citizens to transform public administration – BAP-2016-528
When public services fail
In this new paper in the Journal of Service Management
I develop a research agenda for studying public service failure alongside private service failure. The paper ‘When public services fail: a research agenda on public service failure’ shows that service failures in a public and a private context are different. There are different failure types and different standards of failure. Public management literature mainly studies collective and political reactions to service failure, whereas the private service management literature tends to focus on individual reactions. Finally, attention for service recovery was found to be very limited in the public services literature.
New book: Theory and practice of public sector reform
Theory and Practice of Public Sector Reform offers readers differing theoretical perspectives to help examine the process of public sector reform, combined with an overview of major trends in the core areas of the functioning of the public sector. Essential for students of public sector reform, with contributions by Olsen, Hood, Bouckaert. Osborne, Klijn, Peters and many others, written as a liber amicorum for Walter Kickert,
