John Alford: Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne,
Australia
j.alford@mbs.unimelb.edu.au
http://www.public-policy.unimelb.edu.au/staff/jalford.html
Defining the Client in the Public Sector: A Social-Exchange Perspective
Public Administration Review
Volume 62: Issue 3
Abstract:
Government reformers urge the adoption of a private-sector-style
customer focus, but critics see it as inappropriate to the public
sector, in particular because it devalues citizenship. This article
first argues that most public-sector organization-client interactions
differ from the private-sector customer transaction and offers a
typology of these interactions. But second, it proposes that the central
feature of the customer modelthe notion of exchangecan be broadened in
a way that accentuates the importance of administrators responsiveness
to their publics. In a social-exchange perspective, government
organizations need things from service recipientssuch as cooperation
and compliancewhich are crucial for effective organizational
performance; eliciting those things necessitates meeting not only
peoples material needs but also their symbolic and normative ones.
Engaging in these different forms of exchange with clients is not
necessarily inconsistent with an active citizenship model.
http://www.blackwellpublishers.co.uk/asp/journal.asp?ref=0033-3352&src=a
rd&aid=183&iid=3&vid=62
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