The Handbook of Public Sector Communication

3Trust, Fairness, and Signaling: Studying the Interaction Between Officials and Citizens

Nadine Raaphorst and Steven Van de Walle

Introduction

Public sector communication is not just a formal act by a public organization, but also a continuous process enacted at the interface between civil servants and citizens. Where government workers or services and citizens meet and interact, they communicate through sending signals that allow the other party to interpret intentions and values, and to decide whether the other party has qualities that are desirable or can be trusted (e.g., Gambetta & Hamill, 2005; Raaphorst & Groeneveld, 2018; Raaphorst & Van de Walle, 2018b). The public sector signals its trustworthiness, its authority, and the values its stands for to citizens and public sector clients. Citizens and clients want to signal their trustworthiness as a client or partner of the public sector. Probably even more than formal communication acts such as marketing campaigns and information on websites, the implicit and explicit signaling that is happening during personal encounters with government determines the view citizens have of the government as well as their trust in the government. At the same time, as is evidenced by the street‐level bureaucracy literature, the signals that are sent by citizens affect frontline decision‐making (e.g., Maynard‐Moody & Musheno, 2003).

This chapter looks at public sector communication in the bureaucratic encounter, where civil servants and ...