Frontline discretion is structurally produced by ambiguous goals and unmeasurable performance, not sloppy management.

Evidence

Except for those instances in which client-worker interactions can be eliminated, the conditions affecting the work context occur together and cannot easily be rationalized or simplified. Goals are ambiguous, performance measures are difficult to obtain, and discretion is required by virtue of the need for human interaction: It is unlikely that the apparent looseness of the bureaucratic context can be tightened up. If the organization could be tightened up, it is likely that it would have been tightened up before. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1435

Categorization

• DEFINE: Names the interlocking conditions that constitute ‘street-level bureaucracy’ as a syndrome rather than a single defect.
• XREF: Connects to Weberian/Weber-style accounts of bureaucratic rationalization: here rationalization is blocked by the nature of the service task, not by failure of will.