Frontline Value Crafting: On the Micro-creation of Public Value at the Street Level

This chapter explores the integration of a public values perspective and a focus on frontline value crafting to strategically develop, utilize, and assess public value and its creation within street-level organizations. We argue that public value is inherently pluralistic and subject to conflicting interpretations, as it involves ongoing differentiation in meaning, prioritization, and enactment of multiple, co-existing, and conflicting values within the working reality of street-level organizations. Within these organizations, frontline professionals play a crucial role in shaping the meaning and implementation of public value on the ground, actively participating in the micro-creation of public value. Accordingly, we consider the process of public value creation as immanent, observable in every activity, action, and decision made by individual frontline professionals. Considering the practical implications of our argument, we propose two concrete approaches to address frontline public value creation and progress its understanding: the lens of craftsmanship practices and the mapping of institutional logics.