Secrecy about biased coaching preserves agency legitimacy that exposure would destroy

Evidence

To the extent that biased coaching remains secret, one would hypothesize that public legitimacy and regard for the agency would increase. No one would perceive himself or herself to be worse off, while some would feel favored. But to the extent that these biases become known or are exposed, they would tend to undermine the agency’s legitimacy. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 501

Categorization

• XREF: Offers the legitimacy payoff mechanism: selective discretion is sustainable precisely while invisible, which bears directly on when the routinization diverges from the public narrative the reader wants to compare. — connects to: Secrecy of favoritism raises agency legitimacy while exposure undermines it; Selective coaching of clients redistributes benefits away from the uncoached

Broader Connections

• Secrecy of favoritism raises agency legitimacy while exposure undermines it #corroborates (0.95)
• Selective coaching of clients redistributes benefits away from the uncoached #expands (0.75)