Street-level study must cover the mental processes, not just the decisions, that become satisfactory

Evidence

There is by now a venerable tradition in organizational studies concerning the search for satisfactory rather than optimal solutions to decision-making problems under conditions of uncertainty. But the analysis of street-level bureaucracy may be somewhat different from other studies because it is not only the decisions that become satisfactory rather than optimal, but also the mental and organizational processes that must become satisfactory. Thus to understand street-level bureaucracy one must study the routines and subjective responses street-level bureaucrats develop in order to cope with the difficulties and ambiguities of their jobs. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 613

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sharply distinguishes street-level satisficing from the classic organization-studies version: both decisions AND the cognitive subroutines underneath get routinized, which is the key move connecting discretion to institutionalized stereotypes.
• XREF: This ‘mental and organizational processes become satisfactory’ claim is the precise theoretical hinge for the reader’s own thesis: the subjective response routines are where stereotypes get baked in ahead of the slower cultural narrative. — connects to: Street-level work is decision making under uncertainty where workers define their own satisfactory standards — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 612; The mind should be studied by its activities, not as a substance — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 151

Broader Connections

• Street-level work is decision making under uncertainty where workers define their own satisfactory standards #expands (0.95) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 612
• The mind should be studied by its activities, not as a substance #corroborates (0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 151