Professional norms subordinate agency rules to individual client needs.

Evidence

There are other sources for the assertion that street-level bureaucrats are ordinarily expected to be accountable to clients in possible conflict with the agencies for which they work. The most important of these is that most street-level bureaucrats are professionals or they work in occupations aspiring to professional status. In either case a fundamental expectation attached to the job is that client needs are primary and that the extension of public trust depends upon accountability to people as individuals when they are encountered in the course of work. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1172

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the literatures on professionalism as an alternative institutional logic to bureaucracy — a rival pace-setter in the reader’s change-rate comparison. — connects to: Lawyers pursue client aims either as delegates or as trustees with broader goals — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 608; The lawyer-client relationship is shifting from professional dominance toward collaboration — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 756; Frontline workers informally redraw clients’ need boundaries to fit agency scope — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 472 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Work situations structurally erode the individual responsiveness that professional norms demand. #complicates (0.85) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1172
• Duty-based moralities subordinate the individual to maintenance of social norms. #contradicts (0.80) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 553
• Lawyers act as client delegates or as trustees for assumed group goals #exemplifies (0.80) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 895
• Professional norms obligate workers to serve clients’ interests without personal gain #corroborates (0.75) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1372