Disagreement over what constitutes good frontline work blocks any valid quality metric

Evidence

If we are not agreed as to what comprises good teaching, how can we measure it? If we are not willing to deprive police officers of discretion because on the street they need to be able to make judgments based on an appraisal of the total situation, how can we propose measures of quality arrests and interventions with citizens? If every client should be treated as if he or she may require responses tailored to the individual, how can we specify the requirements of a good interview? — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1216

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Performance measures redirect frontline discretion toward easier cases and away from hard ones — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 1205; Unmeasurable work plus felt specialization shields frontline judgments from criticism — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 837; Performance targets distort actual work toward what is measured — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 93

Broader Connections

• Unmeasurable work plus felt specialization shields frontline judgments from criticism #corroborates (0.90) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 837
• Performance measures redirect frontline discretion toward easier cases and away from hard ones #expands (0.85) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1205
• Performance targets distort actual work toward what is measured #expands (0.80) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 93