NEW RESEARCH | Customer concept irritates Kronofogdens employees

When an agency adopts an entrepreneurial approach, it can provoke employees. This is what has happened at the Swedish Enforcement Authority.

From previously working on the basis of a bureaucratic logic in its relationship with citizens, the Swedish Enforcement Authority switched to an entrepreneurial logic in the early 2000s. This means, among other things, that the authority calls the citizens with whom they have contact “customers”.

– A customer-oriented approach was one way for Kronofogden to work with the brand. From being perceived as hard and tough, they wanted to be seen as more human, someone you should dare to have contact with, explains Henrik Edlund.

He is a Crown Inspector at the Swedish Enforcement Authority, and in addition to his work has conducted research at Lund University. In his doctoral thesis, Henrik Edlund has found out how the authority relates to the customer perspective and how it is met and handled by the operational officials – the so-called Crown Inspectors.

“The customer is always right”

They are the ones who decide on enforcement measures and collect money from indebted citizens, sorry customers. Most of the time they are sitting at the computer doing investigations and looking for customers’ assets in various registers. Or they are out in the field looking for assets, such as cars, that customers have and that the crown inspectors are legally entitled to seize. They are also the ones who evict customers from their homes if they have rent debts that they are not paying.

– Many people don’t want to deal with us for obvious reasons. We carry out coercive measures that make their lives more difficult, so it is difficult to see them as customers. It’s a concept that many people associate with ‘the customer is always right’, which is ironic.

In the entrepreneurial logic, the business should be responsive to the customer’s needs. At the same time, the customer often wants something completely different from what the law says that the enforcement officers must do at a certain stage. The Enforcement Authority must also be a neutral party.

– It becomes problematic there too. We often have both an applicant and a respondent in a case, so we actually have a customer on each side we have to deal with.

Joking about the customer concept

Henrik Edlund’s research shows that at an organizational level, the Swedish Enforcement Authority adapts logic to context.

– Different logics in the strategies mean that different requirements have to be addressed. At the strategic level, the agency chooses which requirements to emphasize. When discussing how the agency should communicate, the customer-oriented approach is emphasized. In this context, the principles of objectivity and legal certainty are downplayed.

– However, when discussing operational topics, such as how to respond to a threatening situation at work, or how to formulate a policy on suicide threats, the emphasis is instead on the need for the authority to act with due process and objectivity. The different logics are kept separate depending on the context.

In operational terms, it is not possible to separate the two. Enforcement officers feel that they must have a common set of requirements to live up to. It is difficult to make distinctions in the field. Therefore, everyone focuses on legal certainty and objectivity; it is difficult to incorporate the customer-oriented perspective into their daily work.

– Many people even joke about it, says Henrik Edlund.

Serious consequences

Henrik Edlund believes that the entrepreneurial logic has led to an increased distance between management and Crown inspectors. This can make it more difficult for the authority to implement new working methods and approaches.

– My research indicates that the entrepreneurial logic leads many crown inspectors to take what management says with a pinch of salt. When trust is not there, it is difficult to get staff to act as management wants. This is serious for an authority.

– If you feel that you are not going in the same direction as the management, it becomes difficult to work in an organization. Perhaps this is the reason for the high staff turnover at the Swedish Enforcement Authority,” says Henrik Edlund.

Contact henrik.edlund@fek.lu.se

More about the thesis
Henrik Edlund will defend his thesis Organizational and individual response to hybridity in the public sector: A case study exploring the customer orientation of the Swedish Enforcement Authority on 25 November 2022 at Lund University. It can be read as a PDF.

Read also the article The entrepreneur in the municipality challenges the bureaucrat, which deals with the consequences of an entrepreneurial logic in municipal and regional activities.