Counselling and Placement of Jobseekers: Administrative Behaviour in Jobcentres

Abstract

"When citizens encounter public administration they usually meet with public administration employees at the lower levels of organisational hierarchy. In jobcentres, case-workers interact with jobseekers in order to bring jobseekers into employment. There arescientific analyses of how this interaction takes place and political debates on how this interaction should take place. This article asks: How do institutions affect caseworkers’ behaviour in jobcentres? Thereby, this analysis combines actual research findings and adds to those studies that focus on individual characteristics of caseworkers in order to explain how they interact with jobseekers. The Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework functions as a basis of the institutionalist perspective. By conducting a comparable case study in six jobcentres, it is shown that institutions affect the interaction between caseworkers and jobseekers by defining both ends and means that are considered appropriate to counselling and (job) placement. Within this institutional setting, caseworkers act in accordance with characteristics, the behaviour and the life situation of jobseekers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © Budrich) ((en))

Cite article

Bähr, H. & Kirchmann, A. (2025): Beratung und Vermittlung in Arbeit: Verwaltungshandeln in Jobcentern. In: Der moderne Staat, p. 1-20. DOI:10.3224/dms.vXiX.404262