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Handling Tensions in Frontline Policy Implementation: Legitimating, Interpreting, and Shielding a Disruptive Intervention

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  • Vidar Bakkeli

Abstract

Policy implementation in public frontline service organizations is characterized by tensions between old and new institutional configurations. This study explores how frontline supervisors handled tensions when implementing a disruptive activation service intervention in local Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration agencies. The empirical analysis is based on in-depth interviews and ethnographic fieldwork in two frontline organizations from 2017 to 2018. The study identifies three main strategies that supervisors enacted to handle tensions surrounding the intervention: legitimating, interpreting, and shielding. The findings highlight the specific activities through which frontline supervisors contribute to policymaking in the frontline.

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  • Vidar Bakkeli, 2023. "Handling Tensions in Frontline Policy Implementation: Legitimating, Interpreting, and Shielding a Disruptive Intervention," International Journal of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(9), pages 625-635, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:lpadxx:v:46:y:2023:i:9:p:625-635
    DOI: 10.1080/01900692.2021.2009856
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