Sustainable implementation of co-production: exploring conflicts and coping behavior employed by street-level professionals

Abstract

Purpose

This study explores how street-level professionals translate and implement a co-production strategy, formulated by top management, in their professional practices, focusing on conflicts that arise during this process and the effectiveness of the coping strategies employed by these professionals to manage them.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is based on a lower-level inquiry into three care services in Denmark. It adopted the translation perspective in organizational research to analyze the consequences of street-level professionals' translation choices. Data were collected through interviews and observations.

Findings

This study found that street-level professionals' translation choices contribute to conflicts of varying forms and extents. The finding suggests that the way conflicts are managed makes the difference between the actual organizational change and the more symbolic acceptance of co-production.

Originality/value

This study contributes to discourses on challenges in co-production implementation by deepening knowledge about the role of coping behavior and translation in sustainable implementation of co-production.

Citation

Mortensen, N.M. (2024), "Sustainable implementation of co-production: exploring conflicts and coping behavior employed by street-level professionals", International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 37 No. 1, pp. 91-107. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-06-2023-0211