The Work, Expertise, Technology, Organization (WETO) group & the CBS Leadership Center

Invites you to a seminar on:

“Management and Leadership in Public Frontline Organizations”

w/ Anat Gofen, Federmann School of Public Policy, Hebrew University

Playing a key political role in democratic governance, public frontline organizations – so-called “street-level bureaucracies” (Lipsky 1980) – are responsible for the direct-delivery of public services and hence vital to the functioning of the state. Occupying the sole top position in these organizations, street-level management serves as a buffer between policy-as-written to policy-as-practiced. Focusing on the day-to-day work of street-level management in three policy sectors – policing, welfare, and schooling – this study indicates that street-level management considers both managerial and leadership functions as an integral part of policy implementation in street-level organizations. Addressing both management and leadership in the same study allows us to better understand the managerial and leadership roles of street-level management and develop a more nuanced distinction between the two well-known concepts in the context of public frontline organizations. The study further emphasizes the need to examine policymaking from an upward perspective. 

Anat Gofen is Associate Professor at the Federmann School of Public Policy, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research agenda is to advance policy sciences research that guides public policymaking in meeting its fundamental goals of addressing social problems, achieving sustainable development, enhancing economic growth, and, in general, creating public value. To unfold the reciprocal relationships between policymaking and social change, her research emphasizes an upward perspective on policymaking, which emphasizes a more complex perspective on the relationship between the design and implementation of policy, and especially between policy implementation on the street-level and policy change. Gofen serves as co-editor of Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis and co-chair of the European Association for Public Administration’s Permanent Study Group on Public Policy. 

Moderators/discussants:

Kirstine Zinck Pedersen, Associate Professor, Department of Organization, CBS

Anne Mette Møller, Associate Professor, Department of Organization, CBS

Date January 31, 2025 from.10.00 -11.30

Location Copenhagen Business School, Kilevej 14 A, 2000 Frederiksberg in Room K4.74 (4th floor)

Register here before January 24, 2025