Handling Tensions in Frontline Policy Implementation: Legitimating, Interpreting, and Shielding a Disruptive Intervention

Abstract

Policy implementation in public frontline service organizations is characterized by tensions between old and new institutional configurations. This study explores how frontline supervisors handled tensions when implementing a disruptive activation service intervention in local Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration agencies. The empirical analysis is based on in-depth interviews and ethnographic fieldwork in two frontline organizations from 2017 to 2018. The study identifies three main strategies that supervisors enacted to handle tensions surrounding the intervention: legitimating, interpreting, and shielding. The findings highlight the specific activities through which frontline supervisors contribute to policymaking in the frontline.