Samproduktion, offentlige tiltag og servicebrugernes motivation til at deltage

Offentlige serviceydelser tilvejebringes ofte via samproduktion, dvs. gennem et miks af input fra offentligt ansatte og de brugere, som modtager serviceydelserne. Eftersom brugernes bidrag kan føre til en forbedring af kvaliteten og mængden af de offentlige serviceydelser, bliver der i stigende omfang iværksat offentlige samproduktionstiltag, som har til formål at øge brugernes bidrag. På baggrund af den eksisterende forskning ved vi meget lidt om, hvilken effekt sådanne tiltag har på servicebrugernes motivation til at samproducere. Ved brug af et empirisk eksempel fra folkeskoleområdet tester vi effekten af et samproduktionstiltag på forældrenes intrinsiske og ekstrinsiske motivation. Hovedresultatet er, at samproduktionstiltaget navnlig for lavtuddannede forældre har en negativ effekt på deres intrinsiske motivation. Dette resultat understreger vigtigheden af, at offentlige myndigheder, som iværksætter tiltag af denne art, er opmærksomme på eventuelle utilsigtede motivationseffekter, som kan betyde, at den tilsigtede adfærdsændring ikke indfries

Fagprofessionelles klassifikation af kerneopgaver og komplementære opgaver

Ikkefagprofessionelle aktører såsom frivillige, servicebrugere og borgere bidrager i stigende grad til produktionen af offentlige serviceydelser. Mens øget inddragelse af ikkefagprofessionelle aktører forventes at have en positiv effekt på offentlige organisationers kapacitet, findes der kun begrænset forskningsmæssig viden om fagprofessionelles syn på denne udvikling. Et centralt spørgsmål er, hvilke serviceydelser fagprofessionelle ser som kerneopgaver, der bør leveres af de fagprofessionelle selv. Vi introducerer en teoretisk distinktion mellem kerneopgaver og komplementære opgaver og undersøger ved hjælp af en spørgeskemaundersøgelse fagprofessionelles klassifikation af specifikke opgaver på plejehjemsområdet som henholdsvis kerneopgaver og komplementære opgaver. Dernæst undersøger vi, om sosu-hjælpere og sosu-assistenter klassificerer de samme opgaver forskelligt, og dermed om graden af professionalisme har betydning for klassifikationen af kerneopgaver

Brugernes reaktion når det offentlige øger serviceniveauet. Resultater fra et lodtrækningsforsøg på skoleområdet

Det er først for nylig, at det inden for uddannelsesområdet er blevet undersøgt, hvordan brugere reagerer, når investeringer i den offentlige serviceproduktion øges. Disse nye studier tyder på, at det får brugerne til at sænke deres bidrag til produktionen af disse ydelser. Det er uheldigt i den forstand, at det sænker den samlede effekt af de offentlige investeringer. Teori om samproduktion tilsiger imidlertid, at brugernes reaktion på forstærkede offentlige indsatser vil afhænge af, om de opfatter indsatserne som komplementære i forhold til, hvad de selv kan bidrage med, eller om de opfatter dem som rene substitutter. Vi undersøger brugernes reaktion ved i et felteksperiment på skoleområdet at sammenligne effekten af tre forskellige men sammenlignelige indsatser. Resultaterne viser, at den indsats, der appellerede til forældrenes aktive bidrag ved at give de fagligt svageste børn flere lektier for – og som samtidig var målrettet hjælp til børnene frem for hjælp til læreren – faktisk gjorde, at børnene oplevede, at forældrene hjalp dem mere med skolearbejdet. Resultaterne giver derfor grund til at forvente, at effekten af offentlige indsatser kan forstærkes frem for svækkes, hvis de tilrettelægges, så de giver brugerne en oplevelse af, at deres bidrag kan komplementere den offentlige indsats

Genetic rearrangements in <i>Pseudomonas amygdali</i> pathovar <i>aesculi </i>shape coronatine plasmids

Plant pathogenic Pseudomonas species use multiple classes of toxins and virulence factors during host infection. The genes encoding these pathogenicity factors are often located on plasmids and other mobile genetic elements, suggesting that they are acquired through horizontal gene transfer to confer an evolutionary advantage for successful adaptation to host infection. However, the genetic rearrangements that have led to mobilization of the pathogenicity genes are not fully understood. In this study, we have sequenced and analyzed the complete genome sequences of four Pseudomonas amygdali pv. aesculi (Pae), which infect European horse chestnut trees (Aesculus hippocastanum) and belong to phylogroup 3 of the P. syringae species complex. The four investigated genomes contain six groups of plasmids that all encode pathogenicity factors. Effector genes were found to be mostly associated with insertion sequence elements, suggesting that virulence genes are generally mobilized and potentially undergo horizontal gene transfer after transfer to a conjugative plasmid. We show that the biosynthetic gene cluster encoding the phytotoxin coronatine was recently transferred from a chromosomal location to a mobilizable plasmid that subsequently formed a co-integrate with a conjugative plasmid

Judgement of Volunteer Competence Among Service Professionals: Stereotypes or Skills?

While public service professionals may rely on stereotypes and social categories in exercising who gets what, when and how in clientelist citizen-state interactions, it remains unclear whether negative judgements similarly pervade in settings where citizens help produce–rather than consume–public services. We propose that service professionals judge volunteers as incompetent based on (1) a lack of the skills necessary to solve specific tasks, and/or (2) negative stereotypes towards volunteers as a means of shielding the privileged position of the profession or safeguarding the quality of services. Using an experiment among 817 nursing home professionals, negative judgements of volunteer competence were invoked simply by priming professionals to think of citizens volunteering in service production. The effect, however, is not conditional on the type of task (complementary vs. core) solved by volunteers, suggesting that judgments of competence mainly stem from stereotypes of volunteer (in)competence in assisting with service production

Coproduction, public initiatives and service users’ motivation

The quantity and quality of public services are improved when citizens coproduce, that is, contribute input to public service provision. It is therefore becoming increasingly common for local governments to initiative coproduction initiatives in order to enhance citizen input to coproduction. However, we know little about how these initiatives influence citizens’ motivation to coproduce. Using lower secondary education as the relevant service area, this study tests the effect of a coproduction initiative on parents’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Our results show that only intrinsic motivation is positively and significantly related to citizen input to coproduction, and for less educated parents the initiative was found to have a negative effect on their intrinsic motivation. These results highlight how important it is that local governments pay attention to unintended motivation effects when they initiate coproduction initiatives

Service professionals’ classification of core and complementary tasks

Non-professional actors such as volunteers, service users, and citizens increasingly contribute to the production of public services. While increased involvement of such non-professionals is expected to have positive effects on the capacity of public organizations, few studies have explored professionals’ attitudes towards this trend. A central question concerns what services professionals see as core tasks that ought to be performed by professionals. We introduce a theoretical distinction between core and complimentary tasks and use a survey to investigate how health assistants employed at nursing homes classify various tasks along these two categories. Finally, we examine whether health assistants with a short and long education classify the same set of tasks differently, thereby shedding light on the importance of the degree of professionalism for the classification of concrete tasks as either core or complimentary

Systematized co-creation? Danish municipalities use of temporary committees

One-way Danish municipalities try to facilitate co-creation processes is by establishing the type of committees made possible by the municipal statute section 17, subsection 4. These 17-4 committees do not have formal decision-making power but can be established ad hoc, include member from outside the municipal council, and often seek to work across traditional sector boundaries. For a 17-4 committee to have potential to facilitate co-creation, two criteria must be met: 1) focus must be on developing new policies and solutions, and 2) the committee must include external members from outside the council or municipal administration. A survey among all 98 Danish municipalities shows that eight out of ten municipalities have established one or more 17-4 committees. Most include external members, and many of them focus on developing new policies. In total, two out of three of the committees live up to the above-mentioned criteria. From the viewpoint of the municipalities, the committees help make political decisions more responsive to citizens’ needs and wishes and infuse the political decision-making processes with new knowledge

Samskabelse sat i system? Kommunernes brug af 17-4-udvalg

En måde at organisere samskabelse på i kommunerne er udvalg nedsat efter styrelseslovens §&nbsp;17, stk. 4. Disse 17-4-udvalg kan ikke tage beslutninger, kan nedsættes ad hoc, kan have medlemmer, der ikke er valgt til kommunalbestyrelsen, og søger ofte at arbejde på tværs af traditionelle sektorområder. For at et 17-4-udvalg kan have potentiale som forum for samskabelse, må det kræves, at udvalget har politikudvikling som fokus, og at der udover kommunalpolitikere også er eksterne ikkeoffentlige aktører som medlemmer. En rundspørge til alle landets kommuner viser, at otte ud af ti kommuner har et eller flere 17-4-udvalg. Selvom der oftest sidder en kommunalpolitiker for bordenden som formand, så har de fleste udvalg eksterne medlemmer. Og en stor del af dem arbejder med politikudvikling. Samlet har to ud af tre 17-4-udvalg potentiale som samskabelsesforum. Fra kommunernes synsvinkel bidrager især disse 17-4-udvalg med at gøre det politiske arbejde mere lydhørt overfor borgerne og tilføre et bedre vidensgrundlag for politiske beslutninger