Customisation: balancing rules and reality
When general laws and regulations no longer fit individual situations, can customisation offer a solution? In the special issue ‘Maatwerk' (customisation) of Boom Bestuurskunde, researchers have tackled the questions that customisation brings to public organisations. The symposium ‘Maatwerk onder maatschappelijke druk’ on 20 February focused on this theme.
The full auditorium is welcomed by Jet Bussemaker, professor of Science, policy, and societal impact, in particular in healthcare. The symposium was organised by the Health Governance research group within the Health Campus in The Hague. Bussemaker: ‘It is wonderful that the research for this special issue allows us to strengthen cooperation between different faculties. Transdisciplinary work is essential to address the challenges in public organisations.’
Customisation as a layered concept
One of these challenges is customisation. Public organisations are under increasing pressure to deliver customisation, as it seems to be the magic word to better help citizens. Assistant professors Lianne Visser and Bernard Bernards take the audience through the journey behind the special issue on customisation. In the articles, they don’t want to dwell on the right-or-wrong debate about customisation, but rather explore what it actually means to provide customisation. Bernards states that we must ‘view customisation as a layered concept, for which there is no unambiguous definition. This can lead, for example, to miscommunication and reduced collaboration between frontline professionals, managers, and policymakers. At the same time, it is important to explore what possibilities do exist within the set frameworks.’ Many bottlenecks exist within organisations on how to embed customisation. What kind of governance structure is needed to support both the frontline professional and the citizen? ‘Managers can act as a buffer by not imposing all accountability demands on frontline professionals; instead, they should engage in conversations about what is feasible,’ says Visser. Moreover, there is too little critical reflection from frontline professionals, ‘they are willing to collaborate on finding a solution, but asking critical questions about what really works happens too infrequently.’
Panel discussion
Next, a panel discussion takes place with Jet Bussemaker, Bregje Mooren from the Municipality of The Hague, and Bernard ter Haar, board member and former top official. Moderator Eduard Schmidt presents the three with several statements, including: ‘in order to deliver customisation, behavioural change is mainly needed from managers and administrators rather than frontline professionals’. According to Mooren, customisation can indeed be better organised together, ‘but that requires something from managers and policymakers. This is still uncharted territory, so the questions we need to ask are part of an ongoing search.’ Bussemaker agrees: ‘at all levels of the organisation, the conversation must be had about how to do this properly; otherwise, it leads to arbitrariness.’ One of the other statements addresses this arbitrariness. Should we accept that customisation leads to arbitrariness? According to Ter Haar, this doesn’t have to be the case, ‘you must accept that the system fits less well when the issues become more complex, and then customisation is a solution without necessarily leading to arbitrariness.’ Additionally, the panel members recognise that this discussion should also be conducted bottom-up, starting with the needs of the citizen and working further up into the organisation.
The responses from the panel members demonstrate how complex and layered customisation is, exactly what the special issue highlights. By continuing to focus on this, customisation will improve, both now and in the future.
Read more?
All articles from the special issue of 'Boom Bestuurskunde' can be read here (in Dutch).
Special issue 'Maatwerk'