Gatekeeping structures and trust development in public sector organizations
| Date | 03 November 2023 |
| Pages | 427-445 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-09-2023-0186 |
| Published date | 03 November 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
| Author | Svetlana Norkin,Katriina Byström |
Gatekeeping structures and trust
development in public
sector organizations
Svetlana Norkin and Katriina Bystr€
om
Department of Archivistics, Library and Information Science,
Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway
Abstract
Purpose –This paper aims to examine the interaction between gatekeeping and trust in a public sector
organization, where employees at lower hierarchical levels are expected to autonomously translate and
transform directives into publicservices. This requires them to have access to operational steering information,
i.e. information about directives and how to interpret and apply them. This study focuses on how gatekeeping
structures regulate flows of operational steering information and how the gatekeeping structures affect the
development of trust.
Design/methodology/approach –The research design is qualitative. The data material consisted of semi-
structured interviews with 26 employees in home care and schools and of eight complementary nonparticipant
observations.Thematic analysisrevealed the presence of static and dynamic gatekeepingstructures, which are
characterized by fixed and variable arrangements of information sources and channels, respectively.
Findings –In static gatekeeping structures, managers or domain experts typically act as gatekeepers, and
employees also perform gatekeeping activities collectively. Gatekeeping structures allow employees to switch
between acting as gatekeepers and being gated, depending on the situation. The results show that gatekeeping
structures for intermediation of operational steering information may support or impede employees’work, thus
affecting their trust in their peers and their work organization.
Research limitation s/implications –Although the present study included both interviews and
observations, these primarily occurred within scheduled and prearrangedactivities rather than capturing the
nuancesof the typicaldaily work of teachersand home care employees.As a result,certain perspectivesmay have
been unintentiona lly omitted.
Practical implications –The participants were recruited through the City of Oslo contact people, which may
have impacted their status or perception in some way. Moreover, the study was conducted in the City of Oslo, a
specific organization with its own unique set of values, norms and processes. The trust-based management in
the City of Oslo is likely not representative of all public sector organizations.
Originality/value –This study contributes conceptually by introducing gatekeeping structures and
operational steering information and empirically by providing evidence of their relationship to trust
development in public service delivery. Thus, it contributes to the research fields of information management
and public administration.
Keywords Trust, Information management, Public sector organizations, Knowledge management,
Information flow, Gatekeeping
Paper type Article
Introduction
Recent trust reforms in the public sector in Scandinavian countries have emphasized the
fostering of trust and the promoting of information sharing to ensure efficient public service
delivery (Bentzen, 2019;Torfing and Bentzen, 2020). Information sharing happens as part of
intra-organizational information flows that connect employees and their work tasks, forming
a complex information infrastructure within the organization (Bowker et al., 2009;Cortada,
2016). In public sector organizations, one aim of the information infrastructure is to support
employees in translating and transforming directives into public services. This paper
Gatekeeping
structures and
trust
development
427
This work was supported by The Research Council of Norway under Grant number 302053. The authors
would like to thank the reviewers for their insightful comments that improved the quality of the final
version.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0022-0418.htm
Received 20 September 2023
Revised 11 October 2023
Accepted 15 October 2023
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 80 No. 2, 2024
pp. 427-445
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-09-2023-0186
investigates how gatekeeping structures of information flows about the directives relate to
the development of trust in public sector organizations.
Prior research in information studies has defined intra-organizational information flows
as “the movements of information from one spot to another for different purposes and
consequences”(Cortada, 2016, p. 137). The present research also explores the dynamics of
these flows as they are mediated by gatekeepers (Allen and Cohen, 1969;Leavitt and
Robinson, 2017). Gatekeepers are often viewed as trusted knowledge assets. Allen and Cohen
(1969), and later Barzilai-Nahon (2008), defined gatekeepers as individuals who control intra-
organizational information flows by gathering, filtering and mediating information from
various information sources and channels on the basis of what they find valuable for
themselves and their colleagues. The increased information volumes and intensified
digitalization have transformed modern workplaces (Bystr€
om et al., 2019;Leonardi, 2021),
re-establishing the role of gatekeepers. In early research, the concept of a gatekeeper often
referred to an individual who was exposed to a variety of information sources and served as a
source for colleagues or a transmitter of information (e.g. Allen and Cohen, 1969). Later
research expanded the concept to entail groups that regulate information flows (e.g. Leavitt
and Robinson, 2017). In the present study, we broaden the concept of gatekeeper to include
not only individuals or groups, but also arrangements that bring together information
sources and channels. These arrangements both facilitate and control the flow of information
within an organization. Examples of such arrangements include online or in-person meetings,
work social media or joint coffee breaks. Together, the individual gatekeepers, groups of
gatekeepers and gatekeeping arrangements generate gatekeeping structures to moderate the
iterative, continuous, dynamic and intentional or incidental flows of information among
employees, either directly or aided by technology.
Policy implementation studies have emphasized that, within public sector organizations,
information about directives, both formal and informal, circulates through intermediators,
shaping the delivery of public services (e.g. Coburn and Russell, 2008;Frank et al., 2015;
Sausman et al., 2016). In the present study, we conceptualize formal and informal information
about directives that govern and stipulate public service delivery as operational steering
information. Employees (re)use and (re)share this information in order to apply directives for
correct and consistent public service delivery. Furthermore, there is a broad consensus that
information sharing both initiates and is an outcome of trust (e.g. Ahmad and Huvila, 2019;
Bachmann et al., 2015;Hasche et al., 2021;Hatala and George Lutta, 2009;Sepp€
anen et al.,
2014) and that information sharing is conducive to trust development (e.g. Breuer et al., 2020;
Droege et al., 2003;Jarvenpaa et al., 1998). Therefore, investigating the interplay between the
flows of operational steering information and the development of trust can provide insights
into how employees in public sector organizations adhere to directives.
Since the concept was first termed within sociology –where “gate keeper”was defined as
an individual or group who “is “in power”for making the decision between “in”or “out””
(Lewin, 1947, p. 145) –it has been used in many disciplines, including information studies.
Nevertheless, research exploring gatekeeping has been limited in recent decades (e.g. Allen
and Cohen, 1969;Barzilai-Nahon, 2008;Leavitt and Robinson, 2017). While some studies have
found that information flows support the development of trust in organizations (e.g. Droege
et al., 2003;ter Hoeven and Verhoeven, 2013), research is scarce on gatekeeping in public
sector organizations and on its impact on the development of trust. To fill this gap, we aim to
investigate the interplay between gatekeeping structures of intra-organizational flows of
operational steering information and trust development in a public sector organization.
This articlecontinues with a review of the literatureabout intra-organizationalinformation
flows, trust and gatekeeping, followedby presentation of research questions.Next, the article
discusses the semi-structured interviews and observations conducted in theCity of Oslo. The
article then presents identified gatekeeping structures and their contribution to the
JD
80,2
428
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