Role distance. An ethnographic study on how street-level managers cope

Author:

Wong Jade1

Affiliation:

1. University of Oxford , United Kingdom

Abstract

Abstract Policy is not only made by street-level bureaucrats at the frontlines. It is also made by their superiors—street-level managers—who set the organizational conditions through which street-level bureaucrats act. Although scholars have documented how street-level bureaucrats cope with the pressures of their work by, for instance, breaking or bending rules, the question of how street-level managers cope with the pressures of their own work has received less attention. Drawing from ethnographic data of a network of publicly funded health centers in the Midwestern US, I show how street-level managers use an interaction ritual with role distance to cope. Role distance is mobilized when the person uses communicative expressions such as laughter or cries of frustration to convey a critical distance from what her organizational role prescribes. Based on classic sociological insights, I posit that role distance can function as follows. It can help managers preserve self by allowing them to define their putatively “more-human self” from their work, create a feeling of collectiveness as they orient themselves to the shared frustrations yet obligations that their role engenders, which enables them to coordinate on carrying out tasks, even those that rub against their preferences and well-intentions. Taken together, I suggest that role distance can offer a coping function, which enables them to hold in abeyance individual and collective responsibility for the decisions they make. I then highlight the benefits and unintended consequences of role distance and posit what academics and practitioners can do to ensure that street-level managers use role distance toward more productive ends.

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Subject

Marketing,Public Administration,Sociology and Political Science

Reference50 articles.

1. “Development of Hybrid Professionalism: Street-Level Managers’ Work and the Enabling Conditions of Public Reform.”;Breit,2022

2. “In the Eye of the Storm: Frontline Supervisors and Federal Agency Performance.”;Brewer,2005

3. “Policy Work: Street-Level Organizations Under New Managerialism.”;Brodkin,2011

4. “Reflections on Street-Level Bureaucracy: Past, Present, and Future.”;Brodkin,2012

Cited by 3 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3