Managers depend on street-level subordinates because sanctioned discretion precludes intervention

Evidence

Street-level bureaucrats command a degree of expertise, and indeed, of deference, in some policy areas. (And they more or less display the personal characteristics that enhance their influence.) But it is the discretionary role of street-level bureaucrats and their position as de facto policy makers that critically affect managers’ dependence upon their subordinates. The sanctioned discretion they exercise means that to demonstrate their own ability and competence, managers are highly dependent upon subordinates without being able to intervene extensively in the way work is performed. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 223

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes that street-level bureaucrats are ‘de facto policy makers’ via sanctioned discretion — a conceptual cornerstone for the whole book.
• XREF: connects to: Street-level workers actively resist managerial attempts to restrict their discretion — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 189; Superiors informally delegate consequential decisions to frontline subordinates they depend on — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 226

Broader Connections

• Superiors informally delegate consequential decisions to frontline subordinates they depend on #expands (0.85) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 226