When undertaking qualitative research, public administration scholars must walk a thin line between being theoretically sensitive and imposing preconceived ideas on their work. This article identifies opportunities and pitfalls in using literature in qualitative public administration research....

Many professionals show resistant to implement changes, such as new governmental policies. This can have severe consequences for organizational and policy performance. However, there is no theoretical framework for analyzing this topic. We build a theoretical framework of ‘policy...

Currently, there is an intense debate on the pressures facing public professionals in service delivery. Several studies show increasing discontent among professionals toward policies they have to implement. In this article, we aim to contribute to this topic by analyzing this discontent of...

The willingness of public professionals to implement policy programmes is important for achieving policy performance. However, few scholars have developed and tested systematic frameworks to analyze this issue. In this study, we address this by building and testing an appropriate framework. The...

Today, many public professionals feel estranged from the policy programmes they implement; that is, they experience ‘policy alienation’. This is of concern as, for satisfactory implementation, some identification with the policy is required. We conceptualize policy alienation based on the...

Moral conflicts, where a person is confronted with two or more clashing values, norms or responsibilities, are common in public service delivery. Choosing one is realized at the cost of the other(s). Frontline professionals, such as physicians and police officers, often experience clashes over...

This article brings together empirical academic research on public sector innovation. Via a systematic literature review we investigate 181 articles and books on public sector innovation, published between 1990 and 2014. These studies are analysed based on the following themes: (1) the...

Public service delivery in the contemporary American state is becoming increasingly challenging. As the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) shows, new social policies combine high technological and cognitive demands on citizens and government with budget austerity, decentralization...

This article presents a systematic review of 122 articles and books (1987-2013) of co-creation/co-production with citizens in public innovation. It analyses a) the objectives of co-creation and co-production, b) its influential factors and c) the outcomes of co-creation and co-production...

A large portion of the everyday discourse about leadership and leaders takes it for granted that leaders make a big difference in terms of performance. The football managers discussion is one clear example, the wider fascination with business leaders likewise marks this association – and so...