Nadine Raaphorst
Biographic Data
| ID | 2341979 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nadine Raaphorst |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nadine |
| FAMILY NAME | Raaphorst |
| SIGNATURE | RAAPHORST N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Leiden University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6189-6451 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 110 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Equity and equality in street-level public service delivery
Street-level workers are crucial to promoting equity and equality in public service delivery. Their discretionary decisions can either perpetuate biases and stereotypes or enhance equity by acknowledging citizen-clients’ diverse social backgrounds. While current research often focuses on the micro-level behaviors of street-level bureaucrats (SLBs), there is limited exploration of how societal structures, historical patterns, and cultural beliefs …
What Reasoning Do Frontline Professionals Use Around Citizen‐Clients' Socioeconomic Status: Exploring the Mechanisms
This paper examines socioeconomic status (SES) as an indicator for decision‐making among frontline professionals in healthcare, focusing on general practitioners (GPs). Aside from research on stereotypes, we know little about how frontline professionals reason about SES in decision‐making. This study addresses this gap by investigating how GPs use SES to develop care for patients with varying SES backgrounds. Based on qualitative interviews, the …
Public management and street-level bureaucrats
Health promotion roles shaped by professional identity: An ethnographic study in the Netherlands
How frontline care professionals interpret and fulfill their health promotion roles is of great importance for the health of the vulnerable clients they work with. While the literature on health promotion is limited to describing the roles of healthcare professionals, this study examines the health promotion roles held by various frontline professionals when working with clients with combined psychosocial problems and how this is associated with …
An empirical conceptualization of front line enablement by performance management
The unintended effects of curtailing performance regimes are well-documented. Less is known about how street-level workers are enabled by hybrid performance regimes having a control and learning function. The aim of this study was therefore to conceptualize enablement by such performance regimes. For this purpose, an empirical study was conducted in two frontline contexts characterized by hybrid performance regimes: hospital nursing and prison gu…
Active representation and equal treatment: The influence of bureaucrats' social background on discrimination
Drawing on street‐level discrimination literature and representative bureaucracy literature, we theorise that bureaucrats from social groups that have a lower status in society are less inclined to discriminate in evaluating citizen‐clients than bureaucrats from higher status groups. We conducted a 2 × 2 vignette survey experiment among bureaucrats in Dutch street‐level organisations ( N = 3109) in various organisational domains. The study shows …
Introduction “street‐level bureaucracy, populism, and democratic backsliding
This special issue investigates the impact of populism and democratic backsliding on street‐level bureaucracy (SLB) across various countries and contexts. The cooccurrence of populism and democratic erosion significantly alters public administration, particularly affecting public sector employees responsible for policy implementation. This issue explores how populist strategies differ in their application to SLBs as compared to the Civil Service,…
Automation and discretion: Explaining the effect of automation on how street-level bureaucrats enforce
A dominant assumption in the street-level bureaucracy literature is that bureaucrats’ discretion is curtailed by automated systems. Drawing on survey and factual data (n = 549) from Dutch inspectors, we test the effect of automation on enforcement style and whether this can be explained by discretion-as-perceived. Our results show that automation (1) increases bureaucrats’ legal and accommodation style; (2) discretion-as-perceived does not mediat…
Performance management from the bottom up
Current interest in middle-managers’ compliance with performance management (PM) reforms focuses on their downward roles. To explore their understudied upward roles, this analysis draws on police chiefs’ voice directed to senior management regarding the Israeli PM system as documented since its first introduction in 1999, and as reported both by chiefs and senior managers (N = 54). Unfolding four patterns of inconsistencies between PM systems’ de…
From Poker Games to Kitchen Tables: How Social Dynamics Affect Frontline Decision Making
Existing research on bureaucratic encounters typically studies how bureaucrats’ and clients’ characteristics influence frontline decision making. How social interactions between street-level bureaucrats and between officials and citizens could directly affect case-related decisions largely remains an underexplored field of study, despite the fact that new forms of governance introduce social dynamics in the form of trust and collaboration as tool…
How to prove, how to interpret and what to do? Uncertainty experiences of street-level tax officials
This study examines the kind of uncertainties frontline tax officials working with a trust-based inspection approach experience in interacting with citizen-clients. The classical literature on bureaucracy and the street-level bureaucracy literature suggest frontline officials face two kinds of uncertainties: information and interpretation problems. Analysing stories of Dutch frontline tax officials collected through in-depth interviews, this arti…
Organizational Socialization in Public Administration Research: A Systematic Review and Directions for Future Research
Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) approach, we conducted a systematic review of 58 public administration studies of organizational socialization. Organizational socialization is the process of mutual adaptation between an organization and its new members. Our findings demonstrate a growing but geographically disparate interest in this issue. Public administration studies contribute to this resea…
B. Zacka, When the state meets the street: Public service and moral agency
A signaling perspective on bureaucratic encounters: How public officials interpret signals and cues
This article provides scholars studying frontline judgements an analytical framework—the signaling perspective—that could be used to examine how street‐level bureaucrats evaluate unobservable citizen‐client properties. It proposes to look not only at the kind of signals and cues officials gather, but also at the interpretive frames used to make sense of them. This offers a valuable contribution to the street‐level bureaucracy literature, which la…
Double Standards in Frontline Decision Making: A Theoretical and Empirical Exploration
Drawing on status characteristics and double standards theory, this study explores how social categories may affect the standards tax officials use in evaluating citizen-clients’ trustworthiness, leading to differential evaluation. Whereas the street-level bureaucracy literature mainly focuses on the direct effect of social categories on officials’ judgments, this study shows how stereotyping in the public encounter could be much subtler and more…
The Routledge Companion to Trust
© 2018 selection and editorial matter, Rosalind H. Searle, Ann-Marie I. Nienaber and Sim B. Sitkin; individual chapters, the contributors. Declining trust between citizens and the public sector has been high on the public agenda for quite a while now. Such declining trust and sometimes even increasing distrust has been related to issues such as the emergence of new political parties running on an anti-government sentiment, aggression of citizens …
Do tax officials use double standards in evaluating citizen‐clients? A policy‐capturing study among Dutch frontline tax officials
In line with psychological and economic discrimination theories, street‐level bureaucracy studies show a direct effect of citizen characteristics on officials' judgements, or show how street‐level bureaucrats employ stereotypical reasoning in making decisions. Relying on sociological double standards theory, this study hypothesizes that citizen‐clients' status characteristics influence officials' evaluations not only directly, but also indirectly…
A necessary evil that does not "really" cure disease: The domestication of biomedicine by Dutch holistic general practitioners
Against the background of studies about the domestication of complementary and alternative medicine into biomedical settings, this article studies how biomedicine is integrated into holistic settings. Data from 19 in-depth interviews with Dutch holistic general practitioners who combine complementary and alternative medicine with conventional treatments demonstrate that they do not believe that conventional biomedicine 'really' cures patients. Th…
From Poker Games to Kitchen Tables: How Social Dynamics Affect Frontline Decision Making
Existing research on bureaucratic encounters typically studies how bureaucrats’ and clients’ characteristics influence frontline decision making. How social interactions between street-level bureaucrats and between officials and citizens could directly affect case-related decisions largely remains an underexplored field of study, despite the fact that new forms of governance introduce social dynamics in the form of trust and collaboration as tool…
Do tax officials use double standards in evaluating citizen‐clients? A policy‐capturing study among Dutch frontline tax officials
In line with psychological and economic discrimination theories, street‐level bureaucracy studies show a direct effect of citizen characteristics on officials' judgements, or show how street‐level bureaucrats employ stereotypical reasoning in making decisions. Relying on sociological double standards theory, this study hypothesizes that citizen‐clients' status characteristics influence officials' evaluations not only directly, but also indirectly…
A signaling perspective on bureaucratic encounters: How public officials interpret signals and cues
This article provides scholars studying frontline judgements an analytical framework—the signaling perspective—that could be used to examine how street‐level bureaucrats evaluate unobservable citizen‐client properties. It proposes to look not only at the kind of signals and cues officials gather, but also at the interpretive frames used to make sense of them. This offers a valuable contribution to the street‐level bureaucracy literature, which la…
Double Standards in Frontline Decision Making: A Theoretical and Empirical Exploration
Drawing on status characteristics and double standards theory, this study explores how social categories may affect the standards tax officials use in evaluating citizen-clients’ trustworthiness, leading to differential evaluation. Whereas the street-level bureaucracy literature mainly focuses on the direct effect of social categories on officials’ judgments, this study shows how stereotyping in the public encounter could be much subtler and more…
Introduction “street‐level bureaucracy, populism, and democratic backsliding
This special issue investigates the impact of populism and democratic backsliding on street‐level bureaucracy (SLB) across various countries and contexts. The cooccurrence of populism and democratic erosion significantly alters public administration, particularly affecting public sector employees responsible for policy implementation. This issue explores how populist strategies differ in their application to SLBs as compared to the Civil Service,…
The Routledge Companion to Trust
© 2018 selection and editorial matter, Rosalind H. Searle, Ann-Marie I. Nienaber and Sim B. Sitkin; individual chapters, the contributors. Declining trust between citizens and the public sector has been high on the public agenda for quite a while now. Such declining trust and sometimes even increasing distrust has been related to issues such as the emergence of new political parties running on an anti-government sentiment, aggression of citizens …
Public management and street-level bureaucrats
Active representation and equal treatment: The influence of bureaucrats' social background on discrimination
Drawing on street‐level discrimination literature and representative bureaucracy literature, we theorise that bureaucrats from social groups that have a lower status in society are less inclined to discriminate in evaluating citizen‐clients than bureaucrats from higher status groups. We conducted a 2 × 2 vignette survey experiment among bureaucrats in Dutch street‐level organisations ( N = 3109) in various organisational domains. The study shows …
A necessary evil that does not "really" cure disease: The domestication of biomedicine by Dutch holistic general practitioners
Against the background of studies about the domestication of complementary and alternative medicine into biomedical settings, this article studies how biomedicine is integrated into holistic settings. Data from 19 in-depth interviews with Dutch holistic general practitioners who combine complementary and alternative medicine with conventional treatments demonstrate that they do not believe that conventional biomedicine 'really' cures patients. Th…
Do tax officials use double standards in evaluating citizen‐clients? A policy‐capturing study among Dutch frontline tax officials
In line with psychological and economic discrimination theories, street‐level bureaucracy studies show a direct effect of citizen characteristics on officials' judgements, or show how street‐level bureaucrats employ stereotypical reasoning in making decisions. Relying on sociological double standards theory, this study hypothesizes that citizen‐clients' status characteristics influence officials' evaluations not only directly, but also indirectly…
How to prove, how to interpret and what to do? Uncertainty experiences of street-level tax officials
This study examines the kind of uncertainties frontline tax officials working with a trust-based inspection approach experience in interacting with citizen-clients. The classical literature on bureaucracy and the street-level bureaucracy literature suggest frontline officials face two kinds of uncertainties: information and interpretation problems. Analysing stories of Dutch frontline tax officials collected through in-depth interviews, this arti…
Organizational Socialization in Public Administration Research: A Systematic Review and Directions for Future Research
Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) approach, we conducted a systematic review of 58 public administration studies of organizational socialization. Organizational socialization is the process of mutual adaptation between an organization and its new members. Our findings demonstrate a growing but geographically disparate interest in this issue. Public administration studies contribute to this resea…
B. Zacka, When the state meets the street: Public service and moral agency
A signaling perspective on bureaucratic encounters: How public officials interpret signals and cues
This article provides scholars studying frontline judgements an analytical framework—the signaling perspective—that could be used to examine how street‐level bureaucrats evaluate unobservable citizen‐client properties. It proposes to look not only at the kind of signals and cues officials gather, but also at the interpretive frames used to make sense of them. This offers a valuable contribution to the street‐level bureaucracy literature, which la…
Double Standards in Frontline Decision Making: A Theoretical and Empirical Exploration
Drawing on status characteristics and double standards theory, this study explores how social categories may affect the standards tax officials use in evaluating citizen-clients’ trustworthiness, leading to differential evaluation. Whereas the street-level bureaucracy literature mainly focuses on the direct effect of social categories on officials’ judgments, this study shows how stereotyping in the public encounter could be much subtler and more…
The Routledge Companion to Trust
© 2018 selection and editorial matter, Rosalind H. Searle, Ann-Marie I. Nienaber and Sim B. Sitkin; individual chapters, the contributors. Declining trust between citizens and the public sector has been high on the public agenda for quite a while now. Such declining trust and sometimes even increasing distrust has been related to issues such as the emergence of new political parties running on an anti-government sentiment, aggression of citizens …
From Poker Games to Kitchen Tables: How Social Dynamics Affect Frontline Decision Making
Existing research on bureaucratic encounters typically studies how bureaucrats’ and clients’ characteristics influence frontline decision making. How social interactions between street-level bureaucrats and between officials and citizens could directly affect case-related decisions largely remains an underexplored field of study, despite the fact that new forms of governance introduce social dynamics in the form of trust and collaboration as tool…
Performance management from the bottom up
Current interest in middle-managers’ compliance with performance management (PM) reforms focuses on their downward roles. To explore their understudied upward roles, this analysis draws on police chiefs’ voice directed to senior management regarding the Israeli PM system as documented since its first introduction in 1999, and as reported both by chiefs and senior managers (N = 54). Unfolding four patterns of inconsistencies between PM systems’ de…
Automation and discretion: Explaining the effect of automation on how street-level bureaucrats enforce
A dominant assumption in the street-level bureaucracy literature is that bureaucrats’ discretion is curtailed by automated systems. Drawing on survey and factual data (n = 549) from Dutch inspectors, we test the effect of automation on enforcement style and whether this can be explained by discretion-as-perceived. Our results show that automation (1) increases bureaucrats’ legal and accommodation style; (2) discretion-as-perceived does not mediat…
Health promotion roles shaped by professional identity: An ethnographic study in the Netherlands
How frontline care professionals interpret and fulfill their health promotion roles is of great importance for the health of the vulnerable clients they work with. While the literature on health promotion is limited to describing the roles of healthcare professionals, this study examines the health promotion roles held by various frontline professionals when working with clients with combined psychosocial problems and how this is associated with …
An empirical conceptualization of front line enablement by performance management
The unintended effects of curtailing performance regimes are well-documented. Less is known about how street-level workers are enabled by hybrid performance regimes having a control and learning function. The aim of this study was therefore to conceptualize enablement by such performance regimes. For this purpose, an empirical study was conducted in two frontline contexts characterized by hybrid performance regimes: hospital nursing and prison gu…
Active representation and equal treatment: The influence of bureaucrats' social background on discrimination
Drawing on street‐level discrimination literature and representative bureaucracy literature, we theorise that bureaucrats from social groups that have a lower status in society are less inclined to discriminate in evaluating citizen‐clients than bureaucrats from higher status groups. We conducted a 2 × 2 vignette survey experiment among bureaucrats in Dutch street‐level organisations ( N = 3109) in various organisational domains. The study shows …
Introduction “street‐level bureaucracy, populism, and democratic backsliding
This special issue investigates the impact of populism and democratic backsliding on street‐level bureaucracy (SLB) across various countries and contexts. The cooccurrence of populism and democratic erosion significantly alters public administration, particularly affecting public sector employees responsible for policy implementation. This issue explores how populist strategies differ in their application to SLBs as compared to the Civil Service,…
Equity and equality in street-level public service delivery
Street-level workers are crucial to promoting equity and equality in public service delivery. Their discretionary decisions can either perpetuate biases and stereotypes or enhance equity by acknowledging citizen-clients’ diverse social backgrounds. While current research often focuses on the micro-level behaviors of street-level bureaucrats (SLBs), there is limited exploration of how societal structures, historical patterns, and cultural beliefs …
What Reasoning Do Frontline Professionals Use Around Citizen‐Clients' Socioeconomic Status: Exploring the Mechanisms
This paper examines socioeconomic status (SES) as an indicator for decision‐making among frontline professionals in healthcare, focusing on general practitioners (GPs). Aside from research on stereotypes, we know little about how frontline professionals reason about SES in decision‐making. This study addresses this gap by investigating how GPs use SES to develop care for patients with varying SES backgrounds. Based on qualitative interviews, the …
Public management and street-level bureaucrats
Political science (13 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Politics (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Public Policy and Administration Research (8 works) · Bureaucracy (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Public relations (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works)