Opening the ‘black box’: Organisational Adaptation and Resistance to institutional isomorphism in a prime-led employment services programme
| Published date | 01 January 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/09520767221118490 |
| Author | James Rees,Rebecca Taylor,Chris Damm |
| Date | 01 January 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Public Policy and Administration
2024, Vol. 39(1) 106–124
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/09520767221118490
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Opening the ‘black box’:
Organisational Adaptation and
Resistance to institutional
isomorphism in a prime-led
employment services
programme
James Rees
University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK
Rebecca Taylor
University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
Chris Damm
Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK
Abstract
The UK’s Work Programme (2012-18) was a major employment services programme,
inspired by new public management principles. A relatively small number of directly
commissioned ‘prime providers’were paid by the central Government largely according
to the number of job-outcomes their service users achieved but were given a ‘black box’
to design their own services and subcontracting arrangements. Drawing on an empirical
study of subcontracted service providers, and focusing on those from the third sector, the
paper shows that within this prime-led commissioning model, subcontractors came under
sustained pressure to adjust their operational practices. We draw on institutional iso-
morphism to show that isomorphic pressures were experienced because of both the
design and implementation of the Work Programme. Although there were strong
pressures pushing towards convergence, however, the different starting positions of
subcontractors meant that these changes were not entirely deterministic and some
attempts at resistance were observed amongst third sector providers. Their diverse
institutional contexts, including positioning and wider interest in the field, shaped how
Corresponding author:
James Rees, University of Wolverhampton, Institute for Community Research and Development,
Wolverhampton WV1 1LY, UK.
Email: james.rees@wlv.ac.uk
they navigated and responded to isomorphic pressures, ultimately mitigating homoge-
nisation. The paper contributes a more sophisticated understanding of the ways in which
provider organisations experience, interpret and respond to structural pressures within
an evolving quasi-market. The findings have implications for public service reform
programmes featuring quasi-markets that are intended to encourage innovation and a
diversity of provision, particularly when promoting mission-led, third sector organisa-
tions (TSOs).
Keywords
employment services, activation, isomorphism, third sector organisations, voluntary
action
Introduction
The UK has been an enthusiastic adopter of the ‘activation turn’in labour market policies,
through which greater responsibility is placed on working-age welfare recipients to seek
work in return for social security (Bonoli, 2010). Following international trends, em-
ployment services in the UK have been underpinned by new public management
principles promoting outsourcing and the establishment of quasi-markets, designed to
promote innovation and provider diversity, including bringing in the purported specialist
skills of third sector organisations (TSOs) (Bennett, 2017;Damm, 2014;Struyven and
Steurs, 2005;van Berkel and van der Aa, 2005;Wiggan, 2015). Contractualism and
outcomes-based performance management have replaced more traditional accountability
models based on citizens’rights to services (Ramia and Carney, 2001;Jantz et al., 2018).
However, scholars have observed that contrary to these policy aims, providers have
typically converged on the provision of standardised frontline services (Considine et al.,
2018;Considine et al., 2020a;Rees et al., 2014;Shutes and Taylor, 2014). For TSOs this
isomorphic convergence is particularly problematic because it may threaten their spe-
cialist expertise and organisational mission, and thereby reduce service quality. Drawing
on an empirical study of providers through an in-depth case study of the UK’s Work
Programme, and informed by organizational theory, this paper explores these dynamics in
unprecedented depth, providing a more nuanced understanding of the phenomenon with a
particular focus on the experiences of TSOs.
The introduction of the Work Programme in 2012 represented a ‘big bang’re-
structuring of UK employment services, creating a significantly extended quasi-market
based on very large contracts, secured in the main by private sector ‘prime’providers
who, for the first time were granted a ‘black box’over programme implementation (Foster
et al., 2014). Although explicitly based on models employed elsewhere, particularly
Australia, the Work Programme was extreme in the extent to which many of its design
elements were implemented altogether. Primes were given considerable autonomy by the
commissioner, the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), to construct their supply
chains of subcontracted providers and associated service interventions, with only minimal
Rees et al. 107
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