This article reports the outcomes of a phenomenographical study of case managers' conceptions of case management work and its influence on the process and performance of the work of counselling the unemployed. A heterogeneous sample of 11 Estonian case managers was selected for in-depth interviews. Analysis of the interviews revealed three distinct categories of description: (1) emphasis on psychological counselling, (2) emphasis on applying pressure, and (3) emphasis on cooperation. These categories follow from different beliefs about the cause of and solution to the problem of unemployment and lead to different methods being used in the case management process. A performance indicator showed only minor, if any, difference(s) across the three distinct categories; in fact, the performance indicator of case managers with similar conceptions varied considerably, possibly due to external factors.