Hester Paanakker

119 CHAPTER 5 VALUE CONTEXTUALITY IN PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY: AN ANALYSIS OF STREET-LEVEL CRAFTSMANSHIP AND PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS 3 Abstract This contribution questions the idea of value universalism and demonstrates that the actual meaning of good or ethical governance is context dependent - as are its constitutive values. To illustrate this point, Huberts’ value framework on integrity and quality of governance is contrasted to two empirical case studies that demonstrate the contextuality of values in two specific settings of public service delivery: street-level craftsmanship and public-private partnerships (PPPs). Findings show that values do not work along the lines of the systematic frameworks public administration scholars come up with. They work along the lines of personal interpretative repertoires, and, on an aggregate level, along the lines of the confined and decisive professional logics of bounded policy domains. Key words : Good governance, value contextuality, value universalism, public service delivery. 5.1 Introduction Some suggest that the values that constitute good or ethical governance are universal (Grindle, 2004; Kaufmann, Kraay, & Mastruzzi, 2006). This contribution questions this assumption and empirically demonstrates that the actual meaning of good or ethical governance is context dependent - as are its constitutive values. Although many acknowledge the contextuality of values and value attainment (L. B. Andersen et al., 2012; Rutgers, 2015; West & Davis, 2011), only a handful of contributions on public governance examined this empirically. Some comparative studies address value contextuality in relation to cross cultural values among administrators (Van der Wal & Yang, 2015; Yang, 2016), whereas other consider it while scrutinizing value attainment and value dilemmas in specific sectors (De Graaf et al., 2016; Jaspers & Steen, 2019; Oldenhof et al., 2014; Reynaers & Paanakker, 2016; Steenhuisen, 2009). These studies demonstrate that the importance of values differs per profession and that the general meaning of values is adjusted to the context of each profession. It has been 3 This article appeared in a different form in a liber amicorum for Leo Huberts (De Graaf, G. (ed.). 2019. It is all about integrity, stupid . Boom: The Hague). 119