Coping Mechanism for Street-Level Bureaucrats in the Implementation of Policies for Handling Coronavirus Disease 19 (Covid-19) in Gorontalo City

Abstract

In interacting with the community, street level bureaucrats (SLB) have many different patterns of behavior in providing services to the community, both between agencies and between individuals in making policies given to the community. Lower-level executive officials (street-level bureaucrats) often face a dilemma situation, where they are required to provide services according to the rules, while on the other hand, the rules that are applied are often not always in accordance with the situation of the community members who are the target group (target group). In response to this situation, street-level bureaucrats (SLB) developed coping mechanisms, in which they simplified the nature of their work or implemented routine activities. The results showed that in the implementation of the Covid 19 policy, lower-level implementers (street -level bureaucrats) sometimes take coping measures because lower-level implementers are not matched by the provision of adequate service facilities and resources, so that in implementation many different decisions are taken by lower-level implementers (street-level bureaucrats), giving rise to separate problems for top-level implementers. down because it is not clear which standard operating procedures should be used as a guideline.