Table 1 Overview of the representations... | Emerald Publishing

Table 1

Overview of the representations and their functions

	Representation 1	Representation 2	Representation 3
Public servant as agent	Responsible and authoritative	Empathetic listener and supporter	Responsive service provider
Clients as agents	Incapable, passive or sick, cannot comprehend their own needs	Volatile, unrealistic, impressionable, “play their own game”	Powerful, active, chooses and collaborates
Origins of clients' problems	Knowledge requirements and competitive educational system	Fragmentation of society, lack of trust between society and youth	N/A
Orientation toward clients	Distant, authoritative	Personal, empathetic	Distant, professional
Power relations	Public servant's agency is high in relation to the client's agency	Public servant's agency is relative to the client's agency	The public servant and the client are equally high in agency
Public servants' agentic actions	Diagnoses clients' needs and places them correctly in the “pipeline”	Builds personal, trusting relationship and finds a solution with the client	The client is served well, and the service is co-developed
Sources of public servants' agency (resources and constraints)	The service system and research-based knowledge. Individual discretion is low. Outcomes depend on other actors and structures	Professional experience and interpersonal skills. Individual discretion is high, but outcomes depend on clients' agency (particularly on will)	Service development practices. Discretion takes place at the collective level within co-creative relationships
Public administration discourses highlighting similar ideas	Traditional public administration and vocational psychology. Some ideas associated with NPM	Collaborative discourses. Some ideas associated with traditional discourses	Collaborative discourses and NPM
Key function of the representation	Describes the service organization as well-functioning and responsible: Clients' capabilities can be measured and improved	Emphasizes public servants' ethics while explaining failures: Failures happen because the client's will must be respected	Describes the service organization as responsive and inclusive: Customers can help to improve the service

	Representation 1	Representation 2	Representation 3
Public servant as agent	Responsible and authoritative	Empathetic listener and supporter	Responsive service provider
Clients as agents	Incapable, passive or sick, cannot comprehend their own needs	Volatile, unrealistic, impressionable, “play their own game”	Powerful, active, chooses and collaborates
Origins of clients' problems	Knowledge requirements and competitive educational system	Fragmentation of society, lack of trust between society and youth	N/A
Orientation toward clients	Distant, authoritative	Personal, empathetic	Distant, professional
Power relations	Public servant's agency is high in relation to the client's agency	Public servant's agency is relative to the client's agency	The public servant and the client are equally high in agency
Public servants' agentic actions	Diagnoses clients' needs and places them correctly in the “pipeline”	Builds personal, trusting relationship and finds a solution with the client	The client is served well, and the service is co-developed
Sources of public servants' agency (resources and constraints)	The service system and research-based knowledge. Individual discretion is low. Outcomes depend on other actors and structures	Professional experience and interpersonal skills. Individual discretion is high, but outcomes depend on clients' agency (particularly on will)	Service development practices. Discretion takes place at the collective level within co-creative relationships
Public administration discourses highlighting similar ideas	Traditional public administration and vocational psychology. Some ideas associated with NPM	Collaborative discourses. Some ideas associated with traditional discourses	Collaborative discourses and NPM
Key function of the representation	Describes the service organization as well-functioning and responsible: Clients' capabilities can be measured and improved	Emphasizes public servants' ethics while explaining failures: Failures happen because the client's will must be respected	Describes the service organization as responsive and inclusive: Customers can help to improve the service