Hester Paanakker

position, penal officials perceive a large gap between their own value conceptions of good work and those of their superiors. In analyzing the impact of this value imbalance, we explore the question: “ What effects on public service delivery result from value divergence in the Dutch prison sector?” In the remainder of this study we discuss the insights on value divergence that can be gained from current public values research, the set-up of our empirical study, and the effects that arise from the analysis of our field observations, interviews ( N =55), and document analysis. From this analysis we derive propositions for future research to further examine and explain the patterns of value divergence that critically affect service delivery in public sector organizations. 6.2 Theoretical Background Given the inherently pluralist nature of values, value divergence between different sets of actors seems not only possible, but perhaps also probable. According to Berlin (1992, p. 12) values conflict not only within individuals, but also between cultures and culture groups, or “between you and me.” As Spicer explains, such conflict may come with serious challenges: “This multifaceted character of value conflict is important, because it means that value conflict presents individuals or groups with not simply a moral problem, but also a political problem” (2001, pp. 509-510). And more importantly, “practitioners are often called upon to grapple with and make judgments about value conflicts, when making policy decisions, and where their actions are often, either explicitly or implicitly, coercive in character and affect a large number of people” (Michael W. Spicer, 2009, p. 539). The impact of value conflict on public service delivery is significant and immediate. The pursuit of an important value in governance inevitably limits the pursuit of other values. For example, Okun (1975) showed in his classic work that equality and efficiency necessarily conflict with each other in public policies. In trying to realize the values that are intrinsically important to public organizations, these values conflict and cause dilemmas . Easy as it is to applaud specific values - who is against integrity, democracy, or efficiency? - and set these values down on paper as a code of behavior, it is much harder subsequently to act in line with all of them. In daily practice, multiple public values that are all desirable in themselves will conflict in such a way that choices have to be made (De Graaf & Meijer, 2019; De Graaf & Paanakker, 2015). Likewise, values can conflict 135 The Effect of Value Divergence