Bias elimination requires restructuring the work that makes bias functional.
Evidence
Street-level bureaucrats have a need to modifY their conceptions of clients quite apart from but usually consistent with the prejudices of the general society. And they work in a structure that tends to confirm the validity of their biases. The general argument of this section, based on observations that street-level bureaucrats consistently introduce unsanctioned biases into client processing, suggests that it would be difficult to eliminate client differentiation without changing the structure of work for which these biases are functional. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1148
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: The core speed-differential mechanism: the work structure independently generates and validates bias, decoupling administrative stereotyping from the pace of cultural change.
- XREF: connects to: Work structure creates the need for bias while society supplies its content — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 1049; Suppressing one biased practice without structural change simply relocates the bias. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 1149; Stereotypes are rigidly believed simplifications that serve biasing work needs — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 1049 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Suppressing one biased practice without structural change simply relocates the bias.
#corroborates(0.95) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1149 - Work structure creates the need for bias while society supplies its content
#expands(0.85) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1049 - Bias becomes institutionally invisible when it serves administrative function.
#expands(0.85) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 847 - Stereotypes are rigidly believed simplifications that serve biasing work needs
#expands(0.80) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1049