It is very likely that a lack of coordination among professionals working in their respective fields can leave citizens feeling that these professionals are not committed to ensuring coordination and collaboration between themselves, and therefore also that these professionals are not committed to collaboration and a cohesive approach to the citizen’s case (Gittell 2016). As a result, the citizens may feel that the professionals are not doing their best to find solutions to the challenges they need help with. If citizens do not experience a commitment on the part of municipal staff, the citizens’ perception of the process will be worse, and they will not feel that they are getting optimal support to make progress in their case. It can have a negative impact on citizen perceptions if they feel that they must take responsibility into their own hands and coordinate the fragmented efforts since municipal staff seem to be unable to do so.

An important requirement for cooperation to ensure coherent services in complex citizen cases is that the individual professionals gather relevant information and knowledge about the case and share it with each other (Gittell and Douglass 2012; Hornstrup and Storch 2018). If the professionals are unable to achieve an adequate level of knowledge and information sharing, it follows that the citizen will not receive relevant information about their case from these professionals, who themselves lack a comprehensive understanding of the case. If the citizen only receives fragmented information from these professionals, that information will also be more difficult to understand. This can have a negative impact on the citizen’s overall experience of the municipal services, as they may be left with a sense that they do not know what is going on with their case and they have been forgotten in the system, or they may find that it takes a long time to get answers from municipal staff. It can also make it more difficult to understand the basis for the decisions made, which can subsequently foster a sense that the municipality is not considering the needs of the citizen.

It is likely that a failure to ensure cooperation between professionals and a holistic approach to casework will leave citizens with a feeling that they are being overlooked and their wishes are not being respected. This can result in a sense of diminished autonomy. According to Self-Determination Theory, individuals have a basic need to feel autonomy over themselves and their actions (Ryan and Deci 2000). If the citizen feels that there is no cooperation to deliver a holistic approach to their case, and if the citizen does not understand the basis for decisions made in the case or disagrees with the efforts made to find solutions to the problems, the citizen may feel that they do not have any influence or say in the handling of their case. In turn, the citizen will not feel respected by the professionals working in the municipality. The more the citizen’s case is handled without involving the citizen, the greater the sense of lost autonomy and lack of respect – all of which can lead to a more negative experience of the process. If, due to the professionals’ failure to cooperate across municipal departments, the case is handled without meeting the citizen’s basic psychological needs for autonomy and respect, this can worsen the citizen’s perception of the process with the municipality (Moynihan, Herd and Harvey 2015).