Hester Paanakker

possibility of realizing their aspirational values of good public service delivery, the chances are that they will accept the situation even when it is perceived as wrong: I notice that people become more indifferent. Many feel something like ‘(let them) just all go to hell.’ (Prison officer 5, facility 2) Also, we are becoming part of the charade. At a certain moment you do things because they ask you to do it, because they demand it, and not because you yourself would want it . (Prison officer 1, facility 2) Prison officers are seen to revert to a minimalist performance of the job, aiming just to do things as they have always done them in an attempt to escape the obligations that new policies, including those revolving around number obsession and cutbacks, require from them. It enables them to ignore both the moral dissonance and the responsibilities that value divergence inevitably brings to the street-level shop floor. They cognitively distance themselves from their managers, creating a strong us–them divide of “good workers and crooked bosses” (Stanojevic, Akkerman, & Manevska, 2019, p. 1). Along the line, this triggers an attitude of overall minimalist performance and commitment that also extends to a minimal realization of other core values that demand extra effort, such as humanity and rehabilitation. These prison officers limit their work practices to obtaining security and task effectiveness only. This first group of prison officers has become indifferent to their superiors’ values, to policy values, and to what they are supposed to do with them. Respondents firmly underline the indifference strategy of cognitive distancing is a direct side- effect of the constant pressure of new policy directions and tools, including increased performance measurement, in combination with the severe austerity measures. It causes the limits of the perceived value divergence to be aggravated and overstretched, and causes street- level workers to experience what respondents classify as “change fatigue.” As a coping strategy, this recusing behavior entails withdrawal, neglect, and minimal effort to facilitate policy reform and value changes. 152 Chapter 6