PhD defence J.J.S. (Joëlle) van der Meer

Hieronder volgt een korte samenvatting over het proefschrift:

This dissertation is about the role perceptions of public servants and how they affect their behavior, well-being and performance. Over time, much has changed about expectations of civil servants' roles. For a long time, the role of civil servants was associated with the classic Weberian model: civil servants worked within a bureaucratic organization with a strict separation between civil service and politics. The role of civil servants was to follow rules and procedures and make rational, value-free decisions based on their expertise (De Graaf, 2011; Olsen, 2006). Contacts with society and value considerations were left to administration and politics. Later, criticism arose of this way the civil service functioned and civil servants faced significant reforms in the public sector.

Global crises led to political choices to run governments more business-like; "Run governance like a bussiness" (Hood, 1991). In doing so, public organizations were influenced by economic principles and management theories, which is known by the New Public Management (NPM) perspective. NPM later faced criticism as well. There was a realization that government needed to partner with other parties to solve social problems, which led to the emergence of New Public Governance (NPG). Here there is more emphasis on networking principles and an enabling government.

These shifts in government perspectives have impacted the original more traditional and bureaucratic role of the civil servant. Reforms within the NPM have led to the expectation that civil servants should be businesslike, entrepreneurial and achieve results in innovative ways (Olsen, 2006; Osborne, 2006; Peters, 2010; Pollitt & Bouckaert, 2017). As a result of NPG reforms, the role of the civil servant has changed to that of a networker, someone who makes connections with various stakeholders (Kruyen & Van Genugten, 2020; Van der Steen et al., 2018). This shift in expected roles of civil servants is in line with a broader discussion in recent years about strengthening civil service professionalism due to the rapidly changing society and more complex, societal issues (A&O fund, 2009; Regioplan, 2013; 't Hart, 2014). Internationally, there is also much attention to the changing role of civil servants and the competencies needed to deal with this (OECD, 2016).

This dissertation shows, in a context of changing expectations, how civil servants perceive their own roles. In doing so, it looks at the concept of role perceptions, which is defined as, "The way individuals define their work situation, such as how broadly they see their role, what types of tasks they have, what goals and problems they see as relevant, and how they think they should deal with them" (Parker, 2007, p.406). It is assumed that public servants act on the basis of their role perception, which influences their work-related behavior (Parker, 2007). In this regard, this dissertation examines the effect of role perceptions of public servants on their coping mechanisms and ways of working together. Moreover, the impact of role perceptions is studied on well-being, by looking at engagement and burnout, and on performance, in terms of perceived individual and team performance.

This thesis addresses the research question: To what extent do civil servants' different role perceptions influence their work-related behaviors, well-being and performance?

The main question consists of five research questions:

1. To what extent do different role perceptions exist among civil servants?
2. How can role perceptions of public servants be measured?
3. What are the effects of civil servants' role perceptions on their work-related behaviors?
4. What are the effects of civil servants' role perceptions on their well-being?
5. What are the effects of civil servants' role perceptions on their performance