Search

The COVID‐19 pandemic provides a unique opportunity to study which factors drive compliance and how the evolving context in society –virus fluctuations and changing government measures – changes the impact of these factors. Extant literature lists many factors that drive compliance – notably enforcement, trust, legitimacy. Most of these studies, however, do not look across time: whether a changing context for citizens changes the impact of factors driving compliance. In this study, we use Lindenberg's Goal Framing Theory to explain the dynamics of these drivers of compliance during the COVID‐19 pandemic. We formulate hypotheses for pro‐socialness, trust in government, observed respect for rules, rule effectiveness, rule appropriateness, fear of COVID‐19 (severity and proximity), opportunities for pleasure and happiness, as well as worsened income position. We test our hypotheses with data collected at three different moments during the beginning of the COVID‐19 crisis in Flanders, Belgium. Findings show that over time the constellations of factors that drive compliance change and, later in the pandemic, more distinct groups of citizens with different motivations to comply are identified. The overall conclusion is that the voluntary basis for compliance becomes more fragile over time, with a more differentiated pattern of drivers of compliance emerging. Public policy and communication need to adapt to these changes over time and address different groups of citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments worldwide are relying on the COVID-19 vaccines as the solution for ending the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting crisis. Although scientific progress in the development of a vaccine has been astonishing, policymakers are facing an extra hurdle as increasingly more people appear to be hesitant in their intention to take such a vaccine. Based on a large Corona survey in Belgium, this study aims to explain the vaccination intention by linking it to trust in government and experts, while accounting for individuals' risk perceptions and prosocialness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper challenges the network management perspective of Kooiman (2003) and Klijn and Koppenjan (2014) arguing that complexity in local public service governance now means they are better approached as ecosystems than networks, which are centrally managed. Instead, we note Duit and Galaz's (2008) idea of flexible governances and, using a reformulated version of Lipsky's (1980) street-level, synthesize Laclau's (1990) idea of governance-as-legitimacy with Vygotsky's (1934) social learning approach and Six's (2005) trust theory to suggest a new analytical framework. We use the framework to analyse logic-of-practice in services-as-a-system (pulled, personal services). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We address a conundrum: since ecosystems lack a Central Controller, how are these self-organizing systems led? This is important since local service providers in Europe are adopted ecosystems organizing of services in preference to network management. We show that ecosystems are led not centrally directed by a powerful agent, but instead guided to change by collective consciousness that results from learning in logic-of-practice distributed in the ecosystem. We suggest a new framework for explaining leadership in collaborative governances organizing as ecosystems. This has important implications for how leadership in collaborative governances in local service delivery is viewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do organizational controls facilitate or hinder employees' trust in their organization? We addressed this question through a mixed-methods design using three studies. Based on a literature review and an open-response survey study (Study 1), we developed a theoretical model proposing that organizational control is positively related to employees' trust in their organization, and that this relationship is mediated by procedural fairness and organizational prestige. This mediated model was tested and supported in a quantitative survey of 582 European managers and professional employees from a range of organizations (Study 2). A complementary, qualitative interview-based study (Study 3) confirmed that well-implemented controls facilitate trust in the organization; however, poorly implemented control systems that are inconsistent, overly rigid, or incentivize untrustworthy behavior can undermine trust in the organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linking with the debate around new public management (NPM) and new public governance (NPG), the article studies different conceptual approaches for explaining dynamically changing systems that locally deliver integrated health and social care. To make our case, we analyse three health and social care ecosystems: London in England, Tampere in Finland, and West Lothian in Scotland. We argue (a) that network analysis is suited to NPM striving for efficiency, rather than NPGs seeking service effectiveness and innovation; (b) that classifying service systems as networks or ecosystem has important strategic and management implications; and (c) from examining three self-classified local public service ecosystems, that these distinctions are misunderstood in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarship of trust in institutions has tended to see trust and distrust as opposites on one continuum. Theoretical advances have challenged this view and now consider trust and distrust as different constructs, and thus as constructs with different characteristics and partly different determinants. Current empirical research on trust in government has so far done little to incorporate these findings, and has largely continued to rely on traditional survey items assuming a trust–distrust continuum. We rely on the literature in organization studies and political science to argue in favour of measuring citizen trust and distrust as distinct concepts and discuss future research challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integrity of public officials is considered a key determinant of public trust in government and a central concept in good governance. An integrity system consists of all components, such as policies, practices, institutions and integrity guardians meant to contribute to the integrity of the organization at the heart of the integrity system. In this article we propose a theoretical model for the effectiveness of integrity systems that can be tested empirically. Six conditions are proposed as important for delivering the outcome of high integrity performance. Different configurations are expected to deliver the same outcome, because of varying developmental trajectories. Implications for further research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulatory oversight is a key feature of public governance. This study argues – based on recent trust research – that the way in which the relation between trust and control is conceptualized in the dominant responsive regulation theory (RRT) may be improved using self determination theory (SDT). RRT relies heavily on the game-theoretic tit-for-tat strategy to conceptualize cooperation/trust and repression/control as substitutes. A model is derived to show how regulator trust and control may complement each other in their effect on regulatee compliance. Propositions are formulated and implications for further research are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrity systems have been developed to safeguard the ethical performance of public officials. Protecting the ethical performance of bank professionals is also in the public interest. In order to avoid integrity risks of the kind that directly contributed to the 2008 global credit and economic crisis, three risks that occur in retail banking are studied in Dutch banks. Results show that bank integrity systems are conceptually similar to government systems and that the effectiveness of systems varies by risk. This study strengthens the overall conceptualization of integrity systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A local integrity system encompasses all the policies, practices, and integrity institutions that are meant to contribute to the rectitude of a local government. Little research has been carried out on such systems, as compared to national integrity systems, even though the performance of municipalities in terms of good governance is important for how citizens perceive government more generally. This article proposes a framework, developed inductively from a study of seven cities around the world, that may be used in research and policy evaluation. It concludes with an agenda for further investigation, theory, and policy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A priority in trust research is to deepen our understanding of trust processes: how does trust develop and break down? This requires further understanding of what actions have what effects on trust in interpersonal interactions. The literature offers a range of actions that have effects on trust, but gives little explanation of why they do so, and how the actions “hang together” in their effects on trust. The question is what different classes of trust building actions there may be. Using a “relational signalling” perspective, we propose hypotheses for classes of action that trigger the attribution of mental frames (by the trustor to the trustee), and trigger the adoption of those frames by the trustor. A survey-based empirical test of trust building actions among 449 managers in 14 European countries confirms the hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within this article our focus is on the nature of the interactions that occur in the context of dyadic trust relationships, noting the factors which may adversely affect judgements about the trustworthiness of the other individual in a relationship, particularly in periods of trouble. What happens when trouble occurs is of central concern in the context of relationship maintenance and repair and (unnecessary) damage to the relationship can be avoided if trouble is dealt with effectively. Using illustrations from two Dutch organizations we examine what happened at the critical moments when trouble occurred in a work relationship and explore what determined the impact of that event on the level of trust in the relationship. The findings highlight the importance of clear and explicit expectations, the use of constructive voice and positive interaction by both individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine empirically how an organization that deliberately enhances interpersonal trust to become a significant organizational phenomenon, is different from a similar organization without explicit trust enhancement policies. The point of departure is relational signalling theory, which says that trust is a function of consistently giving off signals that indicate credible concern, to potential trustors. A matched pair of two consulting organizations, with different trust policies but otherwise similar characteristics, were studied intensively, using survey research, participant observation and half-open interviewing, focused on the generation of trust and the handling of trouble when trust was threatened or destroyed. A higher stage of trust can be reached by an inter-related set of policies: promoting a relationship-oriented culture, facilitation of unambiguous signalling, consistent induction training, creating opportunities for meeting informally, and the day-to-day management of competencies. Such policies are in principle independent of recognized contextual contingencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops the foundations for a theory of interpersonal trust-building based on relational signalling theory (RST). RST is based on the assumptions that rationality is bounded through framing, that preferences are partially determined by altruism (through a distinction between foreground and background goals), and that an individual’s action is influenced by the normative context in which he or she operates. The focus is on interpersonal trust in work relations within organizations. Interpersonal trust-building is construed as an interactive process in which both individuals learn about each other’s trustworthiness in different situations. Four conditions for the building of interpersonal trust within organizations are (1) the suspension of all opportunistic behaviour, or the removal of distrust; (2) exchange of positive relational signals; (3) avoiding negative relational signals, i.e., dealing with trouble; and (4) the stimulation of frame resonance, or the introduction of trust-enhancing organizational policies. The proposed theory can explain important characteristics of trust in organizational contexts, such as the interactive nature of trust, the learning required to build trust, the role of psychological mechanisms (such as attributions and perceptions) in decisions to trust, the limits to trust, asymmetries between trust and distrust and the context-dependency of trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]