Greer, Ian and Symon, Graham (2018) Creaming and parking in marketised employment services: an Anglo-German comparison. Human Relations, 71 (11). pp. 1427-1453. ISSN 0018-7267 (Print), 1741-282X (Online) (doi:10.1177/0018726717745958)

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Abstract

The delivery of public services by nonprofit and for-profit providers alters the nature of services and jobs, often in unintended and undesired ways. We argue that these effects depend on the degree to which the service is ‘marketised’, i.e. whether it is subject to price- based competition by the funder. Using case studies of British and German employment services, this paper scrutinises the link between marketised funding, professional autonomy, and service quality. Of particular concern in employment services is the problem of ‘creaming and parking’, in which providers respond to market incentives by selecting job- ready clients for services and neglecting clients more distant from the labour market. We explore three questions. First, what are the mechanisms through which marketization leads to the emergence of commercial providers where creaming and parking might be expected? Second, what are the mechanisms through which marketization puts pressure on non- commercial providers that might resist pressures to cream and park? Third, what institutions might serve as a buffer for the landscape of service provision facing price-based competition?

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Marketisation of employment services; Quasi-markets; contracted-out public services; Vouchers; Private and nonprofit sector; Front-line service work.
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Business Faculty of Business > Centre for Work and Employment Research (CREW) Faculty of Business > Centre for Work and Employment Research (CREW) > Work & Employment Research Unit (WERU) Faculty of Business > Department of Human Resources & Organisational Behaviour
Last Modified:	26 Jan 2021 13:01
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/17759

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