Street-level work is decision making under uncertainty where workers define their own satisfactory standards

Evidence

The point that they try to do a good job in some way fulfills the requirements for asserting that the problem of street-level bureaucrats is one of decision making under conditions of considerable uncertainty where satisfactory decisions about resource allocation must be personally as well as organizationally derived. The work context of street-level bureaucrats calls for the development of mechanisms to provide satisfactory services in a context where the quality, quantity, and specific objectives of service remain (within broad limits) to be defined. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 612

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Street-level workers effectively make the policies they are charged with implementing — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 59; Street-level workers and managers hold structurally divergent job priorities — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 179; Street-level study must cover the mental processes, not just the decisions, that become satisfactory — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 613 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Street-level workers hold individual and collective control over their working rules #expands (0.90) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1378
• Street-level bureaucrats are frontline workers exercising substantial job discretion #expands (0.85)