Ambiguous institutional goals persist because society refuses to abandon conflicting aspirations.

Evidence

Public institutions generally have conflicting or ambiguous goals for good reason. They embrace ambiguity, contradictions, and complexity because the society is unable and unwilling to abandon certain fundamental aspirations and expectations in providing public services. … Yet specialization and task specificity should be analyzed to discover those circumstances in which the costs of relieving street-level bureaucrats from contradictions and ambiguities may be higher than the benefits. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1085

Categorization

• DEFINE: Frames goal ambiguity in public agencies as a functional product of unresolved societal commitments rather than administrative failure.
• XREF: connects to: Contradictory institutional missions reflect contradictory societal impulses, not incoherent staff. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 1195; Vague agency goals reflect society’s own contradictions, not administrative sloppiness — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 1194

Broader Connections

• Contradictory institutional missions reflect contradictory societal impulses, not incoherent staff. #corroborates (0.95) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1195
• Vague agency goals reflect society’s own contradictions, not administrative sloppiness #corroborates (0.95) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1194