Street-level routines themselves constitute the delivered policy

Evidence

At times street-level bureaucrats’ routines and simplifications virtually are the policies to be delivered. Police routines established to approach motorists who may prove uncooperative are immediately received as an episode in community relations. Similarly, teachers’ informal classification of pupils by attributed learning ability effectively determines school stratification policies. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 626

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines a crucial concept for the reader’s project: at the street level, routine as implemented is indistinguishable from policy — it is the deliverable.
• QUESTION: If routines ARE the policy, then the ‘lag’ the reader hypothesizes between cultural narrative and practice may actually be a mismatch between formal policy text and routine-as-policy — worth clarifying which ‘policy’ changes faster.
• XREF: connects to: Street-level workers effectively make the policies they are charged with implementing — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 59; Frontline routine is itself organizational policy, so private redefinitions become policy. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 1067; The routines of frontline workers function as the real policy of the agency. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 787 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Frontline routine is itself organizational policy, so private redefinitions become policy. #corroborates (0.95) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1067
• The routines of frontline workers function as the real policy of the agency. #corroborates (0.95) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 787
• Frontline workers’ coping routines become the actual public policy #corroborates (0.95) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 31