Defining the client in the public sector : a social-exchange perspective
By: Alford, John
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Material type: 
ArticlePublisher: Malden, MA : Blackwell Publishers, may/june 2002Public Administration Review: PAR 62, 3, p. 337-346Abstract: Government reformers urge the adoption of a private-sector-style "customer focus," but critics see it as inappropriate to the public sector, in particular because it devalues citizenship. This article first argues that most public-sector organization-client interactions differ from the private-sector customer transaction and offers a typology of these interactions. But second, it proposes that the central feature of the customer modelthe notion of exchangecan be broadened in a way that accentuates the importance of administrators' responsiveness to their publics. In a social-exchange perspective, government organizations need things from service recipientssuch as cooperation and compliancewhich are crucial for effective organizational performance; eliciting those things necessitates meeting not only people's material needs but also their symbolic and normative ones. Engaging in these different forms of exchange with clients is not necessarily inconsistent with an active citizenship model.
Government reformers urge the adoption of a private-sector-style "customer focus," but critics see it as inappropriate to the public sector, in particular because it devalues citizenship. This article first argues that most public-sector organization-client interactions differ from the private-sector customer transaction and offers a typology of these interactions. But second, it proposes that the central feature of the customer modelthe notion of exchangecan be broadened in a way that accentuates the importance of administrators' responsiveness to their publics. In a social-exchange perspective, government organizations need things from service recipientssuch as cooperation and compliancewhich are crucial for effective organizational performance; eliciting those things necessitates meeting not only people's material needs but also their symbolic and normative ones. Engaging in these different forms of exchange with clients is not necessarily inconsistent with an active citizenship model.
Public Administratio Review PAR
May/June 2002 Volume 62 Number 3
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