Hester Paanakker

make decisions, but that are often overlooked in the methodological setup of public values studies. This can help us gain a better understanding of how public values attain their actual meaning and significance at implementation level, and how they help to shape public service delivery, particularly (but not just) in relation to frontline craft. It also allows for a different interpretation of values to be observed between street-level professionals, and between different public sector levels, thereby pinpointing value divergence as a potential source of organizational conflict and dysfunctionality, of street-level frustration and moral stress, and of poor public service delivery. 1.7 Practical Relevance of the Thesis For practitioners, this thesis provides insight into the degree to which views of frontline craftsmanship are analogous between the different organizational and sectoral groups in their own work fields. This applies first and foremost to the prison sector, but also beyond, as the dynamics of value divergence are seen to reflect administrative trends of performance measurement and cutback management that are central to many organizations in the wider public sector. The results may help public managers identify obstacles to creating a shared identity on work practice within public service delivery at the frontline. They may also offer them guidelines for action to minimize the detrimental effects of value divergence on the commitment, satisfaction, and public values realization of street-level workers at the frontline. For public officials operating at policy formulation level, this thesis offers insight into the difficulties of getting policy implemented in line with set objectives. For street-level professionals, public managers, and policy makers alike, the thesis sheds light on the type and the volume of problems in implementation and the moral dilemmas that value divergence can create on the shop floor. It gives both operational employees and their managers at the organizational and policy level tools to anticipate them and to adequately address them. Finally, the results also carry important implications for how to communicate the values that determine the composition and perception of public craftsmanship. The findings may pinpoint suggestions for how to manage such processes when alignment fails and appears to hamper either good public service delivery or the implementation of specific public policy programs or paradigms. 31 Introduction