Work on values when shaping public institutions: “What’s trust got to do with it?” - Experiences from Scandinavia. Kap. 12

Abstract

Values work appears in the shaping of structures as well as in the shaping of cultures in organisations. In this chapter, the author elaborates on mechanisms of values work, based on textual analysis of articles concerning trust and trust-based management in three Scandinavian popular scientific journals. The findings indicate that trust is ‘worked upon’ in the shaping of structures within public organisations, and not in an homogenous manner. Competing concerns for trust and distrust in public sector are manifestations of differences between institutional logics. The variety in understanding concerns related to trust in public institutions illustrates the ambiguity within values. Yet this ambiguity makes it possible for actors to agree on the importance of trust yet differ fundamentally on the understanding of what it means to structurally perform and strengthen trust.