The routines of frontline workers function as the real policy of the agency.

Evidence

I have said that the routines of street-level bureaucracies may well be the policies of the agency, whether or not they are consistent with agency regulations and standards. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 787

Categorization

• DEFINE: Reframes ‘policy’ as enacted routine rather than formal rule — the core conceptual move underlying institutionalization of practice.
• XREF: connects to: Frontline workers’ coping routines become the actual public policy — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 31; Street-level routines themselves constitute the delivered policy — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 626; Frontline routine is itself organizational policy, so private redefinitions become policy. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 1067 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Frontline routine is itself organizational policy, so private redefinitions become policy. #expands (0.95) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1067
• Street-level workers effectively make the policies they are charged with implementing #corroborates (0.95) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 59