Engaging professionals in the strategic renewal of public services: A literature review and research agenda
| Published date | 01 January 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/09520767221094446 |
| Author | Wiljan Hendrikx,Marlot Kuiper,Nicolette van Gestel |
| Date | 01 January 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Public Policy and Administration
2024, Vol. 39(1) 27–50
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/09520767221094446
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Engaging professionals in the
strategic renewal of public
services: A literature review and
research agenda
Wiljan Hendrikx
The Netherlands School of Public Administration, Netherlands
Marlot Kuiper
Utrecht University School of Governance, Netherlands
Nicolette van Gestel
TIAS School for Business and Society, Tilburg University, Netherlands
Abstract
Based on an extensive literature review, this article explores the impact of strategic
renewal in the public sector on the roles and skills of public professionals. Findings show
that successive reforms of New Public Management and New Public Governance have
resulted in hybrid role requirements that go beyond the often-debated dichotomy
between professionalism and management. Based on our review, we could distinguish
four sets of skills for professionals, linking traditional professional expertise to com-
petences for networking and co-creation. Implications for future research are discussed.
Keywords
Professionals, Strategic renewal, Public management reform, Skills, Hybridity
Corresponding author:
Wiljan Hendrikx, The Netherlands School of Public Administration, Lange Voorhout 17, Den Haag 2514 EB,
Netherlands.
Email: hendrikx@nsob.nl
Introduction
Strategic renewal in the public sector is here understood as public management reform
(Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2017). It is said to move from Traditional Public Administration
(TPA) to models like New Public Management (NPM) and New Public Governance
(NPG) over time (Osborne 2006). Such strategic renewal is however largely dependent on
the engagement of the professionals that constitute a huge part of its labour force –from
teachers to social workers, from clinicians to security officials, and from urban planners to
firefighters (Hupe et al., 2016;May and Winter 2007;O’Toole Jr and Meier, 2015). They
are the ones who actually ‘make’public policies through their crucial role in applying
strategic renewal in day-to-day activities (Burau, 2016;Hupe and Hill, 2016;Lipsky,
[1980] 2010;Zacka, 2017). Studying the engagement of public professionals in public
management reforms is therefore highly relevant (Brandsen and Honingh, 2013;Jilke and
Tummers, 2018).
Despite their key role, it is not a given that professionals feel involved in the
strategic renewal of public services. They have their own professional values that are
not necessarily in line with reform-related role expectations and organizational change
(Evetts, 2011;Newman, 2013). Professionals have a degree of autonomy in their work
to deal with these changes, which does not guarantee commitment to strategic renewal
as designed in public administration models (Hupe and Hill, 2016;Jaspers and Steen,
2019;Lipsky, [1980] 2010;Tummers and Beckers, 2014). The relationship between
professionals and strategic renewal of (public) organizations thus has been shown as
tense (B´
evort and Suddaby, 2016;Osborne and Brown, 2011;Waring and Currie,
2009). Professionals have been seen as protectors and defenders of traditional rights,
to preserve their privileges and/or to counterbalance management ambitions for
standardization and control (Ackroyd et al., 2007;Evetts, 2009). But they are also
regarded potential ‘change agents’(Leicht et al., 2009;Noordegraaf, 2011), or
‘boundary spanners’(Van Meerkerk and Edelenbos, 2018;Williams, 2002) not just
looking for self-interest, or being victims of management, but meaningful actors in
realizing public sector ambitions and managing relationships across institutional
borders effectively.
Given the contrasting views on the role of professionals as both change agents and
under pressure (Burau, 2016;Evetts, 2011;Muzio et al., 2013), it is not yet clear whether
and how professionals are willing and able to engage in strategic renewal of public
organizations. This is particularly relevant for more recent (NPG) reforms for public-
private networks and co-creation (Bryson et al., 2014;Tor fing, 2019). These type of
reforms are often considered a ‘magic recipe’for public sector improvement, but so far
empirical research lags behind (Dudau et al., 2019;Voorberg et al., 2015). Hence, in an
effort to map literature’s key insights about the roles professionals play in strategic reform,
we are interested in (1) what are the strategic requirements framing professional roles in
public management reform models, (2) how are professionals motivated for –and cope
with –strategic renewal, and (3) which skills are deemed necessary to do so? To answer
these questions, we conducted an extensive review of the academic literature, bringing
together insights from two bodies of literature regarding ‘strategic renewal’on the one
28 Public Policy and Administration 39(1)
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