Hester Paanakker

Chapter 4 is an empirical exploration of prison sector value convergence between policy makers, managers, and street-level professionals in two correctional facilities ( N =55). In order to obtain the broadest possible impression of value convergence, data is not only gathered on whether there is an actual shared notion of values, but also on whether different actors perceive such a shared notion. To explain actual value convergence as well as mutual perception that the different levels have of each other, the chapter scrutinizes competing explanations of value convergence and divergence on value understandings and group dynamics (specifically from literature on professional socialization, role differences, and normative isomorphism). The empirical findings on values represent a clash between the ideological values that attach to street-level craft, and the contrarian instrumental values that policy actors and managers are seen to impose in practice. Each staff level seems to locate the source of an unwavering focus on performance measurement and cutbacks (numbers, targets, and superficial outputs) at the level directly above their own level. The higher the staff level, the stronger the stereotyping that they favor those values that support the organization over the values that facilitate street-level workers serving inmates, and that they prioritize targets over content. In terms of explanations, toxic stereotyping between staff levels, exacerbated by restrictive organizational conditions, are shown to overshadow positive value convergence from socialization processes. This explains how perceived role and value differences impact the actualization of shared values in public service delivery much more negatively than the actual differences. This chapter has been published as a journal article in Administration & Society . Chapter 5. Value Contextuality in Public Service Delivery. An Analysis of Street-Level Craftsmanship and Public–Private Partnerships. Chapter 5 takes one step back from the empirical outcomes generated so far and explores theoretically what the findings of Chapters 2, 3, and 4 mean for how we may understand public value contextuality. It fits Part 2 and the research question about value convergence because it reviews how the (lack of) convergence of values may be assessed in terms of broader theoretical discussions on the role of values in good governance, the integrity and ethics of governance, and value universalism. Empirically, it relates the findings on the role of values in frontline craft to another empirical body – that is, the role of values in public–private partnerships. The chapter thus demonstrates the contextuality of values in two specific settings of public service delivery: street-level craftsmanship and public–private partnerships. It contrasts these two empirical case studies to the value framework that Leo Huberts puts forward in his book “The Integrity of Governance: What is Is, What we Know, What is Done, and Where to Go” (2014) 28 Chapter 1