Rules or compassion? Socialising newcomers to public service organisations

Workers who are newcomers to a public organisation need to learn how to use their discretion. Their actions are driven by rules but also by compassion. Public administration research remains divided as to how bureaucrats’ rule orientation and pro-social client attitudes develop, and what mechanisms are driving these developments. The objective of this project is to research how new recruits to public service organisations are socialised in their dealings with clients, and more specifically why and how their pro-social client attitudes and rule orientation change.Data comes from a newly established large-scale panel of newly recruited tax officials in Belgium and the Netherlands.The research will allow testing competing theoretical predictions, both novel and classic, about how new recruits learn the ropes as newcomers, and will contribute to a deeper understanding about how bureaucrats see and treat citizen/clients, and why.

Keywords:compassion

Disciplines:Other economics and business, Citizenship, immigration and political inequality, International and comparative politics, Multilevel governance, National politics, Political behaviour, Political organisations and institutions, Political theory and methodology, Public administration, Other political science