From Bureaucratic Agencies to Modern Service Providers: The Emotional Consequences of the Reformation of Labour Administration in Germany

Abstract

In recent years, public employment services all over Europe have been restructured. The common intention of all these reforms was to overcome old administrative structures that were seen as ineffective and bureaucratic; new service-oriented administrations were to be established instead. Like other institutions in the public sector, the German Federal Employment Agency (FEA, Bundesagentur fur Arbeit) was modernized along the lines of New Public Management. Our question is what emotional consequences ensued for FEA employees as a result of this reformation.