Frontline workers control clients by structuring interactions before behavior emerges

Evidence

Street-level bureaucrats organize the context of decision making so that they are able to process clients under circumstances most favorable to controlling their behavior. In this they are not constrained by fear of client retaliation and for the most part can impose on the clients whatever costs are involved. Thus street-level bureaucrats develop routines that prepare people for client status, and their agencies impose standardized ways of processing people to maximize utilization of agency resources (see chapters 7 to 9). In this way disruptive, antagonistic, or uncooperative client behavior is discouraged before it surfaces. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 465

Categorization

• XREF: Extends the ch40 claim about client control operating through four dimensions including teaching client behavior — this is the structural-control dimension, anticipating client misbehavior preemptively rather than reacting. — connects to: Client control operates through four distinct dimensions including teaching client behavior — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 460; Client deference is a pervasive precondition of frontline service delivery — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 269; Frontline workers teach clients to expect few services, dampening demand in advance — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 487 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Frontline workers teach clients to expect few services, dampening demand in advance #exemplifies (0.92) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 487
• Networking events structure interaction around the pitch and work talk #exemplifies (0.85) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 484
• Operational concepts terminate in improved methods of social control #expands (0.78) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 431