scholarly journals Beyond the Front-Line: the Coping Strategies and Discretion of Lithuanian Street-Level Bureaucracy During COVID-19

2021 ◽  
pp. 3-28
Author(s):  
Jaroslav Dvorak ◽  
Remigijus Civinskas ◽  
Gintaras Šumskas
Keyword(s):  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Research Council ◽  
Accurate Information ◽  
Information Uncertainty ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Street Level ◽  
And Coping ◽  
Bureaucracy Theory ◽  
Policy Solutions ◽  
Street Level Bureaucracy

This article presents the results of a project funded by the Research Council of Lithuania: ‘Public policy solutions and their improvement to overcome the COVID-19 crisis in Lithuanian municipalities: solution tools and service delivery.’ The research methodology is based on street-level bureaucracy theory and ongoing qualitative research in the form of interviews with social workers and doctors. Interviews were conducted in the Lithuanian municipalities which became the first COVID-19 hotspots in March-April 2020. The aim is to identify the response and coping strategies of street-level bureaucracy. The findings of current research suggest that the workload of street-level bureaucrats increased, the situation changed very rapidly, and there was a constant need to adopt rules and even recommendations issued by the ministry. Fear of COVID-19 infection, a lack of accurate information, uncertainty, and the possibility of allowing staff with children to leave the workplace led to staff shortages. This in turn motivated the administration and the remaining employees to look for suitable coping strategies.

scholarly journals Navigating Conflicting Rights Among Residents, Visitors, and Families in Long-Term Care Facilities

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 20-20
Author(s):  
Angela Perone
Keyword(s):  
Long Term Care ◽  
Care Facility ◽  
Direct Care ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Front Line Workers ◽  
Bureaucracy Theory ◽  
Street Level Bureaucracy

Abstract Background: An abundance of long-term care regulations creates a bevy of rights for nursing facility residents, staff, and families. Front-line workers and managers have significant discretion and responsibilities for interpreting these rights. Building on street-level-bureaucracy theory (Lipsky, 2010), which focuses on how front-line workers implement policy, this study examines how staff at various levels (direct care, mid-level professional, top management) resolve conflicting rights. Methods: This study employs a novel advanced multi-method qualitative design with semi-structured staff interviews (n=90), content analysis of long-term care facility policies (n=75), and participant observation of two facilities for a multi-layered comparative case study. Findings: Data analysis revealed variations in staff responses to conflicting rights regarding autonomy and safety (e.g. fall prevention, dementia, coronavirus) and discrimination (i.e. sexual/racial harassment). While harassment was rampant, direct care workers responded more deferentially to residents and often justified harassment as part of a customer service job in one’s home. Staff at all levels relied on teams to develop creative problem-solving approaches, but team composition and discretion varied significantly between facilities and staff levels. While staff included few social workers, staff heavily relied on them to adjudicate conflicting rights. Implications: Conflicting rights impact resident care and relationships among residents, staff, and families. This research provides policymakers and practitioners with new data about how staff resolve conflicting rights, which can facilitate stronger policies to support an overburdened and underpaid long-term care workforce. This research also expands street-level-bureaucracy theory to include managers and reveals how various team approaches can produce diverse solutions.

scholarly journals Traditional capacity for weather prediction, variability and coping strategies in the front line states of nigeria

2012 ◽  
Vol 03 (04) ◽  
pp. 625-630 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shukurat Adunni Sanni ◽  
Kolapo Olatunji Oluwasemire ◽  
Nnadozie Okonkwo Nnoli
Keyword(s):  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Weather Prediction ◽  
Front Line ◽  
And Coping

Revisiting Lipsky: Front-Line Work in UK Local Governance

2011 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 978-995 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Durose
Keyword(s):  
Local Governance ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Interpretive Analysis ◽  
Everyday Work ◽  
Front Line Workers ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Line Work ◽  
Traditional Structures ◽  
Street Level Bureaucracy

Lipsky's work on ‘street-level bureaucracy’ drew attention to the significant contribution to policy making made by front-line workers. This article revisits Lipsky's seminal analysis to explore whether contemporary front-line work in local governance presents a challenge to the ‘street-level bureaucrat’ characterisation. Since Lipsky's analysis, local government has been the subject of extensive reforms which have eroded traditional structures. In order to make local governance work, front-line workers need to be entrepreneurial to innovate and work the emergent spaces of local governance. This research uses an interpretive analysis to explore how front-line workers understand and relate their everyday work through storytelling. Front-line workers articulate a series of strategies which they employ to enable them to build relationships with the community. The article concludes that the emergent spaces at the periphery of local governance require front-line work that is less like ‘street-level bureaucracy’ and more like ‘civic entrepreneurship’.

scholarly journals Selection Processes in Prison-Based Treatment Referrals: A Street-Level Bureaucracy Perspective

2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (8) ◽  
pp. 1001-1032 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Q. Bosma ◽  
M. J. J. Kunst ◽  
A. J. E. Dirkzwager ◽  
P. Nieuwbeerta
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Treatment Programs ◽  
Government Employees ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Selection Processes ◽  
Bureaucracy Theory ◽  
Male Prisoners ◽  
Street Level Bureaucracy

Studies indicated that detainees are not always allocated to treatment programs based on official guidelines. Street-level bureaucracy theory suggests that this is because government employees do not always perform policies as prescribed. This study aimed to assess whether this also applies to the allocation of offenders to treatment in Dutch penitentiary institutions, and aimed to determine which factors influenced this. The proposed questions were addressed by studying a group of 541 male prisoners who participated in the Dutch prison-based Prevention of Recidivism program. Results showed that official guidelines were, in most cases, not leading when referring detainees to programs. Instead, treatment referrals were influenced by a broad range of risk factors, as well as the length of an offender’s sentence.

scholarly journals STREET-LEVEL BUREAUCRACY AND PUBLIC POLICIES: ANALYZING EDUCATIONAL POLICY IMPLEMENTATION FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
Author(s):  
BREYNNER RICARDO DE OLIVEIRA ◽  
MARIA DO CARMO DE LACERDA PEIXOTO
Keyword(s):  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Educational Policies ◽  
Local Policy ◽  
Discretionary Power ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Educational Decentralization ◽  
Bureaucracy Theory ◽  
Educational Policy Implementation ◽  
Street Level Bureaucracy

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes the implementation of educational policies and the roles of school professionals considering the street-level bureaucracy theory (LIPSKY, 1980). This study assumes that educational reforms elect schools as planning and administration centers, making them and the professionals working there responsible for new attributions which are motivated by improved autonomy, in addition to administrative and educational decentralization. In these contexts, which are marked by schools’ increasing empowerment, the discretionary power exercised by its professionals (teachers, principals, coordinators, among others) is a key element to understanding the availability and implementation of programs and their ability to either influence or change the design of educational policies on a local level. This perspective emphasizes the importance of considering those closer to actions deriving from such policies, that is, the actors who see the bottom-up process because they are in the lower end. According to Lipsky (1980), these are the so-called local policy agents or street-level public agents. As for schools, we understand that to enforce a certain policy, factors such as interpersonal influence, commitments, and informal negotiations are as important as formal processes and regulations. Finally, this study attempts to prove the impacts and contours assumed by changes in school dynamics in terms of translating local educational policies.

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