Dedicated human-relations units absolve line workers from applying fair treatment.

Evidence

Special units often end up taking responsibility for areas that are properly the general responsibility of other bureaucrats. They provide a symbolic approach to deeply devisive issues, and by providing street-level bureaucrats with a safety valve in their confrontation with clients, they may do as much harm as good with respect to changing the general orientation of agency personnel. Sociologist Albert Reiss Jr. puts it simply: ” … the development of a special ‘human relations’ staff, will remove an important function from the domain of the line worker … Without specific provision for implementation in the line, there is little opportunity to apply human relations to the treatment of clients.” — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1008

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Corroborates the ‘immodesty’/social-control essays’ theme that institutionalizing a value in a special unit lets the ordinary functionary displace responsibility — like the earlier chapter claim that special units treat what line workers should own.
• XREF: connects to: Worker-client relations reflect societal structure regardless of administrative guidelines.