Introducing the institutional logics perspective to street-level analysis, this book examines how street-level workers deal with the institutional logics that guide their organization – whether they follow or challenge them. While doing so, the book develops a theoretical framework to study street-level workers’ institutional agency within organizations from different institutional backgrounds.
The book conceptualizes street-level workers as institutional entrepreneurs and presents an original process model to capture deinstitutionalization efforts in street-level discourse. This ordinal model accounts for embedded agency and institutional entrepreneurship as well as for more gradual moves towards deinstitutionalization through the hybridization of institutional logics. The author tests the model empirically using interview data and discusses how street-level workers diverge from the institutional logic of their organization in almost two thirds of their statements, indicating a tendency towards institutional entrepreneurship. The book finally combines two literature strands: institutionalism and implementation research, showing how street-level workers may be perceived as institutional entrepreneurs.
This book will appeal to students, scholars, and researchers of political science, public policy, public administration, and organizational studies, as well as to practitioners and policy-makers interested in a better understanding of institutional entrepreneurs, street work, and the institutional logics perspective.
Author(s): Olivia Mettang
Series: Contributions to Political Science
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 148
City: Cham
Acknowledgment
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Chapter 1: Introduction: Can Street-Level Workers Be Institutional Entrepreneurs?
1.1 Research Gap and Research Question
1.2 Central Findings
1.3 Contributions
1.4 Structure of the Thesis
Chapter 2: Conceptualizing Street-Level Workers as Institutional Entrepreneurs
2.1 Discretion and Divergence at the Street Level
2.1.1 From Discretion to Divergence
2.1.2 From Divergence to Entrepreneurship
2.2 Research Gap: Street-Level Workers as Institutional Entrepreneurs
2.3 A New Concept: Discursive Institutional Entrepreneurship
2.4 Analytical Perspective of the Book: A Micro-level Approach
2.5 Conclusion
Chapter 3: Institutional Logics as an Approach to Embedded Versus Free Agency
3.1 The Institutional Logics Approach
3.2 Institutional Logics and Organizations
3.2.1 Institutional Logics of Bureaucracies
3.2.2 Institutional Logics of Religious Organizations
3.2.3 Institutional Logics of Civil Society Organizations
3.2.4 Institutional Logics of the Profession (Nonorganizational)
3.3 Institutional Logics at the Individual (Street) Level: Agency and Structure
3.3.1 Determinist Perspective: Embedded Agency
3.3.2 Empirical Evidence for Embedded Agency
3.3.3 Voluntarist Perspective: Free Agency
3.3.3.1 Explaining Free Agency: Cognitive Dissonance
3.4 Conclusion
Chapter 4: Morality Policy as a Most Likely Case for Institutional Entrepreneurship
4.1 A Corporate Welfare State: The Case of Germany
4.1.1 Religious Organizations
4.1.2 Civil Society Organization
4.1.3 Bureaucracies
4.2 Morality Policy as Most Likely Case
4.2.1 Abortion
4.2.2 Prostitution
4.2.3 Repatriation
4.3 Social Workers: Implementation by Counseling
4.4 Conclusion
Chapter 5: Capturing Institutional Entrepreneurship in Discourse: A Qualitative Approach
5.1 Exploring the Field: Observation
5.2 Main Data Collection: Interviews
5.3 Data Preparation: Coding of Interview Material
5.4 Data Analysis: Three Case Study Approaches
5.5 Conclusion
Chapter 6: Three Case Studies on Street-Level Agency in Institutional Contexts
6.1 Analysis, Part 1: The Difference Between Talk and Action
6.1.1 Conclusion
6.2 What Discourse Tells Us About Street-Level Institutional Agency
6.2.1 Analysis, Part 2: Prototypes of Street-Level Workers´ Institutional Agency
6.2.1.1 Legalist Agent
6.2.1.2 Care Agent
6.2.1.3 Advocacy Agent
6.2.1.4 Professional Agent
6.2.1.5 Conclusion
6.2.2 Analysis, Part 3: Institutional Entrepreneurship at the Street Level
6.2.2.1 Reproducing Institutional Logics
6.2.2.2 Layering Institutional Logics
6.2.2.3 Blending Institutional Logics
6.2.2.4 Reframing Institutional Logics
6.2.2.5 Replacing Institutional Logics
6.2.2.6 Conclusion
6.3 Discussion: How Do These Findings Connect to Previous Research?
Chapter 7: Conclusion
7.1 Answers to the Research Questions
7.2 Limitations
7.3 Future Research
Appendices
Appendix A List of Interview Partners
Appendix B General Interview Questions
Appendix C Sample Variability in Individual Factors
Appendix D Codebook
Appendix E Street-Level Workers´ Expressions of Dissonant Cognitions
References
