Socioeconomic Background And Parental Values: An Examination Of Approaches To Bureaucratic Discretion At The Street-level

Abstract

Scholarly literature on policy implementation at the street-level generally focuses on how workers act in response to external pressures. Pressures can include policy rules, organizational culture, and the identities of the clients. Academia has produced scant work, however, examining how the identities and backgrounds of street-level bureaucrats influence their approach to the discretion inherent in their jobs. This study seeks to fill that literary gap. Using semi-structured interviews with street-level bureaucrats in North Texas, the study yields two strong relationships. First, a relationship exists between the participants' socioeconomic backgrounds as children and how they approach discretion inherent to street-level bureaucracy. Secondly, certain family values stressed by participants' parents relate with a common approach to bureaucratic discretion. The family's decision making process, in particular, showed the most significant relationship with what guided workers in their decision making process, how they used creativity at work, and whether or not they admitted to changing or ignoring policy. The findings call for an expansion of academic research into street-level bureaucratic discretion.