The Contexts and Conditions for the Individualisation of Public Employment Services

Adam Taborsky

Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Our analysis was guided by a map of theoretical approaches for the individualisation of public employment services in current scholarship. THEORETICAL BASES: Classic public policy scholars, such as Michael Lipsky, Deborah Rice, Rik van Berkel, etc. formed the basis for our analytical approach. METHODS: The study is exploratory, as an overview of selected theoretical lenses through which we viewed the conditions which would allow for the individualisation of public employment services. OUTCOMES: Using SCOPUS, we selected four sources that contained foreign-research models of individualisation conditions; by comparison, Czech scholars tend to neglect this approach. Many models thus reflect neither the perspectives of service users, nor the dilemmas and barriers they consistently face. While Lipsky, Rice, and van Berkel each devote attention to public service workers and the organisational conditions for the individualisation of public employment services, they actually differ in their assumptions on, for example, clients, governance, policies, and other areas. SOCIAL WORK IMPLICATIONS: Public service workers should be aware of the necessary conditions for applying an individual approach and be able to view the contradictions of their tasks; though, they should not neglect their own emotions, values, and attitudes.

Keywords
individualisation, public employment services, conditions for individualisation, street-level bureaucrats

p. 70-85