Resource scarcity forces discretion-exercising workers to invent unsanctioned shortcuts

Evidence

One way in which the interests of street-level bureaucrats depart from those of managers is their need to process work loads expeditiously, free from real and psychological threats. The fact that street-level bureaucrats must exercise discretion in processing large amounts of work with inadequate resources means that they must develop shortcuts and simplifications to cope with the press of responsibilities. The coping mechanisms streetlevel bureaucrats develop (see part III) often are unsanctioned by managers of their agencies. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 183

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Workers’ felt resource scarcity, not actual scarcity, drives routinized client processing — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 1480; Frontline workers feel resource scarcity as a lived tension between client care and efficiency — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 363; Under-resourced discretion lets tentative shortcut judgments harden into authoritative decisions — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 968 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Under-resourced discretion lets tentative shortcut judgments harden into authoritative decisions #expands (0.90) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 968
• Workers’ felt resource scarcity, not actual scarcity, drives routinized client processing #qualifies (0.85) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1480
• Frontline workers feel resource scarcity as a lived tension between client care and efficiency #expands (0.80) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 363