Missing performance metrics force street-level bureaucrats to validate their own practices subjectively

Evidence

In the absence of adequate performance measures and in the context of making significant judgments affecting clients’ well-being, street-level bureaucrats depend heavily on subjective assessments of the validity of their practices. This tendency is strongly supported by the feeling that the work they do is so specialized that no one else is in a position to criticize or even comment on their practices. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 837

Categorization

• XREF: Feeds directly into the reader’s test of how discretion institutionalizes stereotype: insulated self-validation is the accelerant that lets administrative practice outrun cultural narrative. — connects to: Performance measurement resists uncontroversial validity in street-level bureaucracies. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 1201; Wider bureaucratic discretion structurally makes performance measurement impossible — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 1215; Ambiguous societal goals make street-level performance measurement nearly arbitrary — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 388 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Performance measurement resists uncontroversial validity in street-level bureaucracies. #corroborates (0.95) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1201
• Wider bureaucratic discretion structurally makes performance measurement impossible #expands (0.85) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1215
• Ambiguous societal goals make street-level performance measurement nearly arbitrary #expands (0.80) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 388