Clients are not a primary reference group for street-level bureaucrats.

Evidence

A final salient condition of work is that the people with whom street-level bureaucrats regularly interact are not among their primary reference groups, affecting the degree to which client satisfaction has priority. While many aspects of their work promote a client orientation, still others lead to reducing commitment to the work. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 605

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to Merton’s reference group theory and to the reader’s question: reference-group distance means peer/professional norms, not client response, steer stereotype application. — connects to: The judging role structurally prevents street-level bureaucrats from serving clients fully — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 556