Peer-dominated reference groups push frontline workers toward esoteric practice standards

Evidence

Ways must be discovered to make visible and accessible the behavior of lower-level workers, and clients likely to be affected by their actions must become more involved in the definition of good practice. To the extent that peer relations are the primary source of the expectations and values promoted within the occupational sector, there will remain a temptation to develop esoteric criteria of practice judgment. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1500

Categorization

• SEED: Article angle: how closed peer networks let frontline discretion ossify into insider criteria invisible to the people it governs.
• DEFINE: Offers ‘reference groups’ as the mechanism explaining why stereotypes harden fast within occupational sectors.