[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/padxxx/v42y2022i1p22-32.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Policy improvisation: How frontline workers cope with public service gaps in developing countries—The case of Mexico's Prospera program

Author

Listed:
  • Sergio A. Campos
  • Rik Peeters
Abstract
How do frontline workers behave when they are, from one day to the other, left without clients because the policy that organized their street‐level interactions has been terminated? This is what happened in early 2019 to the staff of medical centers across Mexico after the sudden transformation of the long‐standing social program Prospera. Interviews with frontline workers show that they respond to this “policy void” by developing strategies of informal talks, community outreach, and the investment of personal resources to recover their clients. The findings presented here are relevant for understanding how frontline workers cope with public service gaps in developing countries. The notion of “policy improvisation” as a coping mechanism—frontline workers developing informal policy activities when being left without proper implementation instructions and capacity—is used here to signal the broader phenomenon of human resource neglect and implementation gaps in Latin American public administration.

Suggested Citation

  • Sergio A. Campos & Rik Peeters, 2022. "Policy improvisation: How frontline workers cope with public service gaps in developing countries—The case of Mexico's Prospera program," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(1), pages 22-32, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:padxxx:v:42:y:2022:i:1:p:22-32
    DOI: 10.1002/pad.1907
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1907
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/pad.1907?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rajagopal, 2014. "Organizations and Innovation," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Architecting Enterprise, chapter 3, pages 58-86, Palgrave Macmillan.
    2. Muhammad Azfar Nisar, 2018. "Overcoming resistance to resistance in public administration: Resistance strategies of marginalized publics in citizen†state interactions," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 38(1), pages 15-25, February.
    3. Heinrich, Carolyn J. & Knowles, Matthew T., 2020. "A fine predicament: Conditioning, compliance and consequences in a labeled cash transfer program," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    4. Peter Hupe & Aurélien Buffat, 2014. "A Public Service Gap: Capturing contexts in a comparative approach of street-level bureaucracy," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(4), pages 548-569, May.
    5. Walker, Liz & Gilson, Lucy, 2004. "'We are bitter but we are satisfied': nurses as street-level bureaucrats in South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 59(6), pages 1251-1261, September.
    6. Carina Schott & Daphne van Kleef & Mirko Noordegraaf, 2016. "Confused Professionals?: Capacities to cope with pressures on professional work," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(4), pages 583-610, April.
    7. Gibson, Diana, 2004. "The gaps in the gaze in South African hospitals," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 59(10), pages 2013-2024, November.
    8. Kelly, Gabrielle, 2017. "Patient agency and contested notions of disability in social assistance applications in South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 109-116.
    9. Ayesha Masood & Muhammad Azfar Nisar, 2020. "Crushed between two stones: Competing institutional logics in the implementation of maternity leave policies in Pakistan," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(6), pages 1103-1126, November.
    10. Orozco Corona, Mónica E. & Gammage, Sarah, 2017. "Cash transfer programmes, poverty reduction and women's economic empowerment experience from Mexico," ILO Working Papers 994964591302676, International Labour Organization.
    11. Miguel Pina e Cunha, 2005. "Bricolage in organizations," Nova SBE Working Paper Series wp474, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gabriela Lotta & Roberto Pires & Michael Hill & Marie Ostergaard Møller, 2022. "Recontextualizing street‐level bureaucracy in the developing world," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(1), pages 3-10, February.
    2. Vitaliy Roud & Thomas Wolfgang Thurner, 2018. "The Influence of State‐Ownership on Eco‐Innovations in Russian Manufacturing Firms," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 22(5), pages 1213-1227, October.
    3. Valeriy Makarov & Albert Bakhtizin, 2014. "The Estimation Of The Regions’ Efficiency Of The Russian Federation Including The Intellectual Capital, The Characteristics Of Readiness For Innovation, Level Of Well-Being, And Quality Of Life," Economy of region, Centre for Economic Security, Institute of Economics of Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, vol. 1(4), pages 9-30.
    4. Tobias Knabke & Sebastian Olbrich, 2018. "Building novel capabilities to enable business intelligence agility: results from a quantitative study," Information Systems and e-Business Management, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 493-546, August.
    5. Adamou, Pr. Rabani & Ibrahim, Boubacar & Bonkaney, Abdou Latif & Seyni, Abdoul Aziz & Idrissa, Mamoudou, 2021. "Niger - Land, climate, energy, agriculture and development: A study in the Sudano-Sahel Initiative for Regional Development, Jobs, and Food Security," Working Papers 308806, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    6. LametK.Maika & Kevin Wachira, 2020. "Effects of organizational culture on strategy implementation in water boards in Kenya," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 9(4), pages 15-28, July.
    7. White, Gareth R.T. & Samuel, Anthony, 2019. "Programmatic Advertising: Forewarning and avoiding hype-cycle failure," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 157-168.
    8. Justus Baron & Jorge Contreras & Martin Husovec & Pierre Larouche, 2019. "Making the Rules: The Governance of Standard Development Organizations and their Policies on Intellectual Property Rights," JRC Research Reports JRC115004, Joint Research Centre.
    9. Samuel Facanha Camara & Brenno Buarque de Lima & Teresa Lenice Nogueira da Gama Mota & Alanna Lima e Silva & Pablo Padilha, 2018. "Gender The Management of Innovation Networks: Possibilities of Collaboration in Light of Game Theory," Business and Management Studies, Redfame publishing, vol. 4(2), pages 24-34, June.
    10. Caroline Buts & Ellen Van Droogenbroeck & Michaël R. J. Dooms & Kim Willems, 2020. "The Economic Impact of Standards in Belgium," International Journal of Standardization Research (IJSR), IGI Global, vol. 18(1), pages 44-64, January.
    11. Lanu Kim, 2021. "Geographical Locations of Occupations and Information and Communication Technology: Do Online Tools Impact Where People in the United States Live and Work?," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(3), pages 21582440211, August.
    12. Dario Blanco-Fernandez & Stephan Leitner & Alexandra Rausch, 2022. "Interactions between the individual and the group level in organizations: The case of learning and autonomous group adaptation," Papers 2203.09162, arXiv.org.
    13. Daniel Béland & Michael Howlett & Philip Rocco & Alex Waddan, 2020. "Designing policy resilience: lessons from the Affordable Care Act," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 53(2), pages 269-289, June.
    14. Emil Lucian Crișan & Irina Iulia Salanță & Ioana Natalia Beleiu & Ovidiu Niculae Bordean & Raluca Bunduchi, 2021. "A systematic literature review on accelerators," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 62-89, February.
    15. Glenn Dutcher & Cortney S. Rodet, 2022. "Which two heads are better than one? Uncovering the positive effects of diversity in creative teams," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 884-897, November.
    16. Prince Destiny Ugo, 2017. "Project Quality Management Performance: An Insight to Sustainable Development Initiatives in Oil and Gas Host Communities," Journal of Management and Sustainability, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 7(4), pages 76-88, December.
    17. repec:ipg:wpaper:2014-488 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Joern H. Block & Christian O. Fisch & Mirjam van Praag, 2017. "The Schumpeterian entrepreneur: a review of the empirical evidence on the antecedents, behaviour and consequences of innovative entrepreneurship," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 61-95, January.
    19. Justus Baron & Daniel F. Spulber, 2018. "Technology Standards and Standard Setting Organizations: Introduction to the Searle Center Database," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 462-503, September.
    20. Valéry Ridde & Seni Kouanda & Aristide Bado & Nicole Bado & Slim Haddad, 2012. "Reducing the Medical Cost of Deliveries in Burkina Faso Is Good for Everyone, Including the Poor," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(3), pages 1-8, March.
    21. Ommen, Nils O. & Blut, Markus & Backhaus, Christof & Woisetschläger, David M., 2016. "Toward a better understanding of stakeholder participation in the service innovation process: More than one path to success," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(7), pages 2409-2416.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:padxxx:v:42:y:2022:i:1:p:22-32. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0271-2075 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.