Coping Under Adversity: Understanding Frontline Officials’ Strategies for Regulatory Enforcement

Abstract

This paper examines frontline officials’ coping strategies in enforcing environmental regulations. By integrating the street-level bureaucracy and coping literatures, we examine two coping strategies— moving towards and moving against regulatees—and how they relate to officials’ personal factors, work situations, and institutional environments. We developed a unique data set consisting of in-depth interviews with enforcement officials in China and two rounds of surveys conducted in 2000 and 2014. Results suggest that officials who are satisfied with their pay are more likely to move towards the regulatees, and this relationship is stronger in a more adversarial environment. Officials who face stricter situational constraints are more likely to move against regulatees, and this relationship is weaker in a more adversarial environment. In addition, the institutional environment shape how coping relates to frontline workers’ (1) intention to work for the organization in the long run and (2) their perceived enforcement effectiveness.