Van onbegrensde grenswerkers naar wijkgerichte dienstverlening: De uitdagingen voor wijkverbinders door rolonduidelijkheid in de gemeentelijke organisatie

By working in a neighbourhood-oriented way, Dutch municipalities aim to be more responsive to the needs, characteristics and initiatives of their neighbourhoods, with community officials acting as a link between residents and the municipality. At the same time, community officials experience various challenges and problems in fulfilling this liaison role. This study therefore aims to answer the question: how can role perception and fulfilment, and the problems experienced by community officials in connecting residents and the municipal organisation, be interpreted? The roles, position and problems of community officials were examined through interviews and observations in three medium-sized Dutch municipalities. Data analysis reveals that community officials connect residents and the municipality by applying the roles of fixer, innovative entrepreneur, bridge builder and mediator from a service-oriented, cross-departmental position. These role fulfilments demonstrate that, rather than ‘community official’ as the job title, ‘neighbourhood connector’ would be more appropriate for the role of the ‘community officials’ examined in this study. However, in their efforts to connect, community officials have had varying degrees of success due to functional, organisational and communication challenges. As far as existing literature is concerned, a key finding of this study is that the role ambiguity of community officials is a relational and organisational issue. These findings have implications for the further development of community-oriented work.