“Please wait patiently”: When bureaucratic waiting becomes the service

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School of Business | Master's thesis
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Date

2025-10-24

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Mcode

Degree programme

Master's Programme in Marketing

Language

en

Pages

38

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Abstract

Waiting for citizenship is not just a delay but an experience influenced by uncertainty and limited information. This thesis examines how Finnish citizenship applicants navigate bureaucratic waiting through qualitative interviews and observations of online communities. It focuses on how individuals manage uncertainty, search for updates, cope with emotional strain, and maintain agency in a high-stakes service context. The study draws on public administration and service research to show how waiting becomes a lived and strategic part of the citizenship process. Five response strategies are identified: Enduring, Connecting, Investigating, Escalating, and Disengaging. These themes reflect how applicants co-create value (and sometimes co-destruction) through peer support and advocacy while also showing the limits of co-creation under extreme power imbalances. The findings revel tensions between consumer behaviour literature, which often assumes short and voluntary waiting, and real-world bureaucratic delays that put people’s lives on hold. This thesis contributes theoretical insights into value co-creation in public services and has practical implications for making bureaucratic waiting more humane. The thesis argues that treating applicants as partners and providing transparency and support can transform waiting from a period of despondency into a more managed service experience.

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Supervisor

Mikkonen, Ilona

Keywords

bureaucratic waiting, Finnish citizenship, public services, service research, administrative burden, service opacity, co-creation, co-destruction

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https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202511148791

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[gradu] Kauppakorkeakoulu / BIZ