Brokerage and Boots on the Ground: Complements or Substitutes in the Manufacturing Extension Partnerships?

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 288-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Brandt ◽  
Andrew Schrank ◽  
Josh Whitford
Keyword(s):  
Optimal Design ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Administrative Data ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Advisory Services ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Direct Delivery ◽  
Network Failures ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats

There is more agreement on the need for advisory services to help small and midsized manufacturers keep up with the latest managerial techniques and technologies than there is on the optimal design of those services. This study reconfigures and reanalyzes administrative data from the American Manufacturing Extension Partnership, and draws on extensive interviews with “street-level bureaucrats” at Manufacturing Extension Partnership centers, to identify and compare variation in centers’ approaches to service delivery. Centers and clients who rely on third-party providers tend to have more rather than less enduring ties, suggesting that it’s direct delivery, rather than brokerage, that is associated with one-shot deals. There is evidence also that projects generate the most impact when they help “get the relationships right” and mitigate network failures.

Working Within a System of Administrative Burden: How Street-Level Bureaucrats’ Role Perceptions Shape Access to the Promise of Higher Education

2021 ◽  
pp. 009539972110275
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Bell ◽  
Kylie Smith
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Administrative Data ◽  
Administrative State ◽  
Discretionary Power ◽  
Role Perceptions ◽  
Structural Inequality ◽  
Administrative Burden ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats ◽  
Local Agencies

Utilizing a statewide survey and administrative data, we explore how state-imposed burdens are translated by street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) into frontline practices that may alleviate or exacerbate onerous experiences of the administrative state. First, we find that SLBs’ role perceptions shaped not only uses of discretionary power—as either a force of client empowerment or disentitlement—but also program access. Second, we find that the local agencies with the largest proportions of income-eligible clients often had the least capacity for alleviating administrative burden, suggesting decentralization may be a mechanism by which administrative burden perpetuates structural inequality.

The weight of service delivery: administrative and rules burdens in street-level bureaucracy

2020 ◽  
pp. 002085231989509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina M. Stanica ◽  
Dan Balica ◽  
Alexander C. Henderson ◽  
Tudor C. Ţiclău
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Organizational Performance ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Practical Implication ◽  
Public Service Delivery ◽  
Administrative Burden ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats ◽  
Rule Complexity

This article explores the factors that shape perceptions of administrative and rules burdens among street-level bureaucrats in Romania. Recent research examining the concept of administrative burden has focused on burdens experienced by a citizen or client. We argue here that national context shapes the features of public service delivery, and that burdens must also be understood from the perspective of bureaucrats in transitioning post-communist countries. Street-level bureaucrats represent an important category of public servants given their main characteristics in implementing policy. Findings of two analyses—one examining broader concepts of administrative burden and one looking at the narrower concept of rules burdens—indicate that rule complexity, autonomy, conformity, job satisfaction, educational attainment, and perceived corruption impact perceptions of administrative burden, while perceptions of rules burdens are impacted by rule-abiding tendencies, discretionary latitude, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and supervisory status. Points for practitioners A major practical implication of this study derives from our findings on the factors that impact attitudes and perceptions of street-level bureaucrats in Romania. Managers that aim to improve public service delivery in this context will be able to disseminate the fact that reduced rule complexity and increased autonomy, among other organizational variables, positively impact perceptions on administrative and rules burdens. In this sense, our study provides evidence for new and current structures to improve organizational performance and service delivery.

Policy Refiners and Street-Level Lesson Learners

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alastair Stark
Keyword(s):  
Policy Evaluation ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats ◽  
Central Level ◽  
Government Level ◽  
Inquiry Lesson

This chapter explores agents who are influential in terms of inquiry lesson-learning but have not been examined before in inquiry literature. The key argument is that two types of agent—policy refiners and street-level bureaucrats—are important when it comes to the effectiveness of post-crisis lesson-learning. As they travel down from the central government level, street-level actors champion, reinterpret, and reject inquiry lessons, often because those lessons do not consider local capacities. Policy refiners, however, operate at the central level in the form of taskforces, implementation reviews, and policy evaluation processes. These refiners examine potentially problematic inquiry lessons in greater detail in order to determine whether and how they should be implemented. In doing so, these ‘mini-inquiries’ can reformulate or even abandon inquiry recommendations.

Screening and Priority-Setting to Determine Home- and Community-Based Aging Services for Older Floridians

2021 ◽  
pp. 073346482110125
Author(s):  
Lawrence Schonfeld ◽  
Jesse Bell ◽  
Mary Goldsworthy ◽  
Kevin Kip ◽  
Amber M. Gum ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
National Standards ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Older Americans ◽  
Caregiver Support ◽  
Aging Services ◽  
Optimal Health ◽  
Aging Network ◽  
Community Based Services

The National Aging Network serves millions of older Americans seeking home- and community-based services, but places others on waitlists due to limited resources. Little is known about how states determine service delivery and waitlists. We therefore conducted a process evaluation and analyzed data from one five-county Area Agency on Aging in Florida, where an algorithm calculates clients’ priority scores for service delivery. From 23,225 screenings over 5.5 years, clients with higher priority scores were older, married, living with caregivers, and had more health problems and needs for assistance. Approximately 51% received services (e.g., meals/nutrition, case management, caregiver support), 11% were eligible/being enrolled, and 38% remained on waitlists. Service status was complex due to multiple service enrollments and terminations, funding priorities, and transfers to third-party providers. More research is needed regarding how other states determine eligibility and deliver services, potentially informing national standards that promote optimal health in older Americans.

Labour Input Logic of Street-Level Bureaucrats: Evidence from Chinese Market Supervision Commission

2021 ◽  
pp. 147892992110215
Author(s):  
Chunna Li ◽  
Jun Yang
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Climate ◽  
Time Allocation ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Chinese Market ◽  
Frontline Staff ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Labour Input ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats

The theory of street-level bureaucracy and its relevant data have proven the expected duties of the frontline staff of local government may be excessive but their time spent working remains quite low. Using data from participatory observations of street-level officials in a Chinese city, this study reveals the logic of this labour input paradox. Organizational climate incentive and promotional incentive jointly influence the time allocation of street-level bureaucrats. The organizational climate incentive reflects the weak incentive characteristic of the maintenance function of labour; promotional incentives have a strong impact on motivation, which is characteristic of the promotional function of labour. These findings reveal the costs of the New Public Management movement in an organization lacking an effective promotion mechanism and a positive organizational climate incentive. This is a snapshot of the dilemma faced by China’s public organization reforms, but it is also a problem other country must solve.

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