Protective routines get distorted to minimize client contact and drop cases
Evidence
But agency practices do not always lead to predictability. When they lead to delay, confusion, and uncertainty they assign considerable costs to clients. At times routines established to protect clients are distorted to minimize contact or services. For example, to insure responsiveness housing inspectors may be required to make more than one effort to contact complainants. However, inspectors may become adept at telephoning complainants when they are unlikely to be home or fail to keep appointments punctually. In Boston this practice “enhanced the prospects of no one being home when the inspector arrived-a practice which when repeated thrice, enabled cases to be dropped.” — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 741
Categorization
- recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source
- XREF: connects to: Informal active-inactive case sorting masks real service shortfalls — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 299; Inexhaustible demand removes the penalty for losing disaffected clients — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 427; People-processing agencies affect clients through the very interaction routines themselves. (+1 more)