Client deference is a pervasive precondition of frontline service delivery

Evidence

The threat of physical harm is the most dramatic aspect of the threat under which street-level bureaucrats sometimes work. But virtually all interactions between street-level bureaucrats and clients in some way focus on the workers’ needs to assert authority and gain client deference. This is most obvious in the case of teachers who are instructed to first establish discipline as a precondition to successful teaching. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 269

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Social ideology of responsive service and cynicism about red tape jointly shape client expectations — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 486; Frontline workers control clients by structuring interactions before behavior emerges — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 465; Frontline workers teach clients to expect few services, dampening demand in advance — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 487 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Frontline workers teach clients to expect few services, dampening demand in advance #exemplifies (0.90) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 487
• Frontline workers control clients by structuring interactions before behavior emerges #expands (0.85) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 465
• Clients and workers inhabit structurally incompatible frames of individual need versus aggregate processing #expands (0.80) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 459