Abstract
A key theme in the research on bureaucratic encounters pertains to street-level bureaucrats’ opportunities for responsiveness when discretion is constrained by the introduction of standardized service delivery regulations, such as information communication technology (ICT). This article contributes to existing scholarship by exploring how low-discretion officials at the Swedish Social Insurance Agency Customer Center manage competing demands of making decisions that are built on regulations and simultaneously responding to the situation at hand and individuals’ needs. Analyzing real-time interactions using the conversation analytical concept of “offers of assistance” enables us to discover new aspects of interactional practices of responsiveness in standardized service encounters.
Highlights
Lipsky (2010) initiated a major research field when claiming that streetlevel bureaucrats often work in situations that are too complicated to reduce to programmatic formats and that regularly require responses to situations’ human dimensions
Researchers today debate the consequences for street-level bureaucrats’ discretion in the form of responsiveness to the situation at hand when a range of measures to standardize practices such as information communication technology (ICT) and other service delivery regulations are introduced within the public sector
One’s limited mandate and expertise can create feelings of dissatisfaction about being unable to fulfill the service assignment as desired: Sometimes you can almost feel a bit insufficient, because you really want to help the customer. . . . There are a lot of things you think you should know, but at the same time, it’s not part of my interface . . . I am not supposed to know this. . . . Often, you end up writing a message to the case manager so that somebody can call them [the customers] back. (CA Official 2)
Summary
Lipsky (2010) initiated a major research field when claiming that streetlevel bureaucrats often work in situations that are too complicated to reduce to programmatic formats and that regularly require responses to situations’ human dimensions. Discretion in citizen interactions is widely deemed essential for street-level bureaucrats to ensure the effective functioning of service delivery, combining rule compliance (compassion or consistency) with consideration of specific circumstances and individuals’ needs (flexibility or responsiveness; Hupe & Buffat, 2014; Lipsky, 2010). Researchers today debate the consequences for street-level bureaucrats’ discretion in the form of responsiveness to the situation at hand when a range of measures to standardize practices such as information communication technology (ICT) and other service delivery regulations are introduced within the public sector. In a research overview, Buffat (2015) has called for more empirical research regarding ICT’s impacts on frontline discretion to provide a deeper understanding of this complex phenomenon, through examining how contextual factors other than technical solutions affect responsive decision making. Researchers put forth the necessity of gaining more insights into the experiences and practices of lower discretion officials of responsiveness in regulated encounters (Raaphorst, 2017)
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