Hester Paanakker

Everything, in the end, is about the numbers. (respondent 19, middle manager) At headquarters, the focus on numbers is now so strong that […] the type of content of the Modernization Program is suppressed. (respondent 7, managing director) Not too many incidents [and media coverage], because that is what stresses them out. (respondent 14, managing director) Just like headquarters, managing directors and middle managers are judged to have an overemphasis on task effectiveness in their value prioritization and enactment (by 85 and 87% respectively). However, respondents do not merely ascribe negative interpretations of task effectiveness to these management layers: one-fifth perceives managing directors to value craftsmanship that focuses on “getting daily tasks done”, and one-third perceives middle managers to have this as their focus. Compared to policy advisors, they are also perceived to put more emphasis on humanity and security, and middle managers yet more favorably than managing directors (see table 4.4). Yet, the negative perceptions clearly outweigh these cautiously positive interpretations. 53% of respondents perceive managing directors to primarily focus on task effectiveness as “box ticking and number obsession”, and 50% attributes this focus to middle managers: “ it is about managing by distance and: you better provide the numbers” (respondent 23, middle manager). Moreover, with regard to these two groups of organizational managers just over one- third of respondents describes another negative type of task effectiveness emerges that was coded as “getting employees to behave as submissively and compliantly as possible”. It exemplifies a manifestation of organizational paralysis that demands employees to “ above all, not step out of line ” (respondent 44, prison officer) or “ always be the best boy in the class ” (respondent 52, prison officer). In a most minimal interpretation of craftsmanship, these respondents felt in-house management greatly appreciates, and often over appreciate, employees to be endlessly loyal and obedient, even when raising their voices was felt to be justified and in the interest of maintaining the quality of the craft or of the provision of detention itself: 112 Chapter 4