(Mis)taking social responsibility? Implementing welfare state reform by private and non-profit organizations

Nicolette Gestel, Susanne Boch Waldorff and Jean-Louis Denis

Public Management Review, 2020, vol. 22, issue 12, 1739-1759

Abstract: This article relates institutional theory to the concept of organizational legitimacy with cognitive, moral, and pragmatic dimensions, to analyse how a Dutch national policy reform – aimed at expanding the social responsibility for sick leave and disability toward non-state organizations – is understood and enacted locally. Based on interviews in 52 organizations, the study highlights that implementing welfare state reform is predominantly based on pragmatic reasoning, and justified by specific moral and cognitive interpretations. The findings reveal that implementing reform is active institutional work by – paradoxically – restricted local agency, with disciplinary effects on a narrow range of actors.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14719037.2019.1648696 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rpxmxx:v:22:y:2020:i:12:p:1739-1759

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rpxm20

DOI: 10.1080/14719037.2019.1648696

Access Statistics for this article

Public Management Review is currently edited by Stephen P. Osborne

More articles in Public Management Review from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().