Hester Paanakker

The opposite argument of value divergence rather than convergence can also be made. The physical or ideological distance between policy development and execution (Gofen, 2013; Lipsky, 1980; Maroulis & Wilensky, 2014; Tummers, 2011) may increase the likelihood of value divergence along the lines of the policy sector’s hierarchy. Literature on role differences stresses how vast and stark lines are drawn between the tasks, logics, responsibilities, and norms of managers and street-level professionals working at different organizational or public sector levels (Hanson, 1996; Tummers, Vermeeren, Steijn, & Bekkers, 2012; Van Bockel & Noordegraaf, 2006). These role differences may also extend to value differences between these different levels (i.e. value divergence), leaving us with two plausible yet very contradictory sets of expectations. Although few studies compare how different organizational levels see or enact public values, some public value studies do indicate that the institutional role of the actor involved plays a role in public value enactment (see the work of Andersen et al. 2012 on managers of lower- level, service providing organizations and higher-level authorities), or in the perception of public value conflicts: for instance, actors at policy formulation level perceiving more conflicts than actors at policy execution level (De Graaf & Paanakker, 2015), or, contrary to that, middle managers seeing more conflict and more serious conflict than street-level workers (Oldenhof et al., 2014). It remains unclear whether there is value convergence or divergence within and between such public sector levels, how this relates to perceptions of public craft at the frontline, and, moreover, how this impacts public service delivery. The latter question of effects on public service delivery constitutes the final focus of this thesis. It concerns the “so what?” question: does it matter if there is convergence in value approaches towards craft or not? It is evident that organizations often strive for value convergence and seek to actively socialize organizational members into their value system (Moyson et al., 2018) because of its ascribed positive effects. They seek to align employees’ values with the “key values related to acceptable behavior within the organization and the organization’s strategic direction […], and, more important, that they share the espoused values of organizational leaders” (Paarlberg & Perry, 2007, p. 388). Although this top-down approach to the values of the organization differs from the bottom-up approach to the values of the street-level craft, it is clear that values importantly impact behaviors and outputs in administrative practice. As “predetermined script[s] of acceptable behavior” (Paarlberg & Perry, 2007, p. 389), values are believed to “have influential consequences in that they form our perceptions of reality, give 18 Chapter 1