Skip to main content

Trust and Reputation in Community Care: theory and evidence

  • Chapter
Changes in Health Care

Abstract

Central to the new quasi-markets in the public sector is the explicit articulation of relationships between purchasers and providers. Many authors have therefore noted the relevance of the economic literature relating to principals and agents to such markets. Indeed one of the side-effects of the quasi-market reforms has been a flourishing interest in models of public sector procurement. Much of the discussion relating to such models has noted the importance of trust in almost all such markets, notwithstanding the reliance on formal contracts to articulate responsibilities. This chapter therefore explores the part played by trust in one particular agency relationship: that between local government purchasers and providers of social care, set up in the UK Government’s ‘Community Care’ reforms. However the results are likely to be applicable to many other quasi-markets.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Arrow, K. (1974) The Limits of Organization (New York: Norton).

    Google Scholar 

  • Audit Commission (1993) Taking Care: progress with community care (London: HMSO).

    Google Scholar 

  • Audit Commission (1994) Taking Stock: progress with community care (London: HMSO).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bartlett, W., C. Propper, D. Wilson, and J. Le Grand (eds) (1994) Quasi-Markets in the Welfare State (Bristol: SAUS Publications).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, C. (1995) ‘Health care and risk in the new NHS: issues around commissioning services’, paper presented to ESRC conference Risk in organizational settings, (London, May).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradach, J.L. and R.G. Eccles (1991) ‘Price, authority and trust: from ideal types to plural forms’, in Thompson, G., J. Francis, R. Levačić and J. Mitchell, (eds) Markets, Hierarchies and Networks: the coordination of social life (London: Sage Publications).

    Google Scholar 

  • Burt, R.S. (1992) Structural Holes: the social structure of competition (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Carr-Hill, R.A. (1992) ‘The measurement of patient satisfaction’, Journal of Public Health Medicine, 14, 236–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dasgupta, P. (1988) ‘Trust as a commodity’, in D. Gambetta, Trust: making and breaking cooperative relations (Oxford: Blackwell).

    Google Scholar 

  • Department of Health (1991) Purchase of Service: practice guidance and practice material for SSDs and other agencies (London: HMSO).

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunn, J. (1988) ‘Trust and political agency’, in D. Gambetta, Trust: making and breaking cooperative relations (Oxford: Blackwell).

    Google Scholar 

  • Earl, P. (1983) The Economic Imagination: towards a behavioural analysis of choice (New York: Sharpe).

    Google Scholar 

  • Forder, J. (1995) ‘Incentive contracts and purchaser-provider relationships in community care’, paper presented to ESRC Quasi-markets conference, London, September 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gambetta, D. (1988) Trust: making and breaking cooperative relations (Oxford: Blackwell).

    Google Scholar 

  • Granovetter, M. and R. Swedberg (1992) The Sociology of Economic Life (Oxford: Westview Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoyes, L. and R. Means (1993) ‘Quasi-markets and the reform of community care’, in Le Grand, J. and W. Bartlett, Quasi-Markets and Social Policy (London: Macmillan).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hudson, B. (1992) ‘Quasi-Markets in Health and Social Care in Britain: Can the Public Sector Respond?’, Policy and Politics, 20(2) 131–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hudson, B. (1994) Making Sense of Markets in Health and Social Care (Sunderland: Business Education Publishers).

    Google Scholar 

  • Laffont, J. and Tirole, J. (1993) A Theory of Incentives in Procurement and Regulation (Cambridge: MIT Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Lapsley, I. and S. Llewellyn (1994) Markets and Choices: contracts for care, Paper presented to ESRC Quasi-Markets seminar, London School of Economics, 16 September 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  • Le Grand, J. and W. Bartlett (1993) Quasi-Markets and Social Policy (London: Macmillan).

    Google Scholar 

  • Luhmann, N. (1979) Trust and Power (Chichester: Wiley).

    Google Scholar 

  • Lunt, N., R. Mannion, and P. Smith (1996) ‘Economic discourse and the market: the case of community care’, Public Administration, 74(3), 369–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mannion, R. and P. Smith (1995) ‘How providers are chosen in the mixed economy of community care’, paper presented to ESRC Quasi-markets conference, Bristol, March 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • New, S.J. (1995) ‘Supply risk and managerial accountability’, paper presented to ESRC conference, Risk in organizational settings, London, May 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ouchi, W.G. (1979) ‘A conceptual framework for the design of organizational control mechanisms’, Management Science, 25, 833–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rojek, C., G. Peacock and S. Collins (1988) Social Work and Received Ideas (London: Routledge).

    Google Scholar 

  • Sako, M. (1991) ‘The role of “trust” in Japanese buyer-supplier relationships’, Ricerche Economiche 45, 449–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, K. and K. Wright (1994) ‘Principals and agents in social care: who’s on the case and for whom?’, Discussion Paper 123 (York: Centre for Health Economics).

    Google Scholar 

  • Williamson, O.E (1975) Markets and Hierarchies (New York: Free Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Wistow, G., M. Knapp, B. Hardy, J. Forder, R. Manning, and J. Kendall (1994) Implementing Caring for People. Social Care Markets: progress and prospects (London: Department of Health).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Copyright information

© 1997 Russell Mannion and Peter Smith

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Mannion, R., Smith, P. (1997). Trust and Reputation in Community Care: theory and evidence. In: Anand, P., McGuire, A. (eds) Changes in Health Care. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-13710-7_8

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics