Reform and the inspection encounter: How micro-practices compromise meso-policies

How does the inspection encounter – interactions between inspectors and regulated businesses – affect the implementation of organisational reforms aimed at making inspections more selective and more accountable? Based on a case study of reform within the Dutch Health and Safety Inspectorate (ISZW), our study analyses how inspectors cope with ISZW’s reforms of their work and what this implies for the meaning of these reforms. Our study shows that in the inspection encounter professional values about what good inspection implies, strategic behaviour, and the way in which the work of inspectors is overseen determine if and how inspectors incorporate the reforms in their daily work. Consequently, the ways in which inspectors cope with the reforms in practice compromise the organisational goals of being more selective and accountable.