BEHAVE: Behavioural Design of Public Service Work

With the rapid spread of behavioural design (BD) in the public sector, humans’ cognitive biases and
irrational behaviour have become a common starting point for public governance. The basic idea is
that people have limited attention and rely on shortcuts, so gentle “nudges” can support better
choices. While the ethical dilemmas of governing citizens on their irrationality have been debated
widely, we still know very little about what happens when BD is used as a management tool to
transform the work of public servants. This qualitative project opens that black box. We follow BD
from the training room to the front-line: masterclasses where officials learn BD; healthcare and
employment services where BD is rolled out; and everyday encounters with patients and
jobseekers. Using participant observation, shadowing, and interviews, we examine how BD is
established as a management tool, how staff are trained to act as behavioural designers, and how
tasks, roles, and discretion are reconfigured in practice.
The stakes are high. Case-based services rely on professional competence, fair treatment and
transparent reasoning. If BD scripts new routines, shifts responsibility or narrows discretion, this
may change the quality of service, compliance and citizens’ experience. The project delivers
advanced knowledge of BD and its organisational and ethical effects and provides a conceptual
toolkit for scholars studying how management technologies reconfigure public sector work.