Street-level bureaucrats’ attitude toward clients: A study of work group influence in the Dutch and Belgian tax administration
TL;DR: Work group colleagues can impact how bureaucrats perceive clients and how they... as mentioned in this paper has suggested that individual bureaucrats are shaped by their work group colleagues, and it has been shown that colleagues' colleagues can influence how bureaucrats perceived clients.
Abstract: Classic street-level bureaucracy literature has suggested that individual bureaucrats are shaped by their work group. Work group colleagues can impact how bureaucrats perceive clients and how they ...
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TL;DR: Analyzes the governance structure of Benedictine monasteries to gain new insights into solving agency problems in public institutions and argues that they were able to survive for centuries because of an appropriate governance structure, relying strongly on the intrinsic motivation of the members and internal control mechanisms.
588 citations
01 Jan 2004
TL;DR: 本文试对社会心理学中新兴的"(Social Representation Theory)".
Abstract: 旅游作为一门跨多个学科领域的应用科学,其学科发展往往会涉及社会学、心理学、人类学、地理学等各相关学科的研究成果.而目前旅游学研究中具体实证研究有余而基础理论工作相对不足的局面已经阻碍了旅游学作为一个学科体系的确立、完善和向前发展.本文试对社会心理学中新兴的"社会表象理论"(Social Representation Theory)以及近年来国外学术界将该理论引入旅游学研究的基本情况作一个简单的介绍,以期能够为国内旅游学界的相关研究工作起到一点参考作用.
68 citations
01 Jan 2014
TL;DR: Oberfield et al. as discussed by the authors studied the paths of two sets of public servants-police officers and welfare caseworkers-from their first day on the job through the end of their second year, and found that entrants' bureaucratic personalities evolved but remained strongly tied to the views, identities, and motives that they articulated at the outset of their service.
Abstract: Bureaucrats are important symbols of the governments that employ them. Contrary to popular stereotypes, they determine much about the way policy is ultimately enacted and experienced by citizens. While we know a great deal about bureaucrats and their actions, we know little about their development. Are particular types of people drawn to government work, or are government workers forged by the agencies they work in? Put simply, are bureaucrats born, or are they made? In Becoming Bureaucrats, Zachary W. Oberfield traces the paths of two sets of public servants-police officers and welfare caseworkers-from their first day on the job through the end of their second year. Examining original data derived from surveys and in-depth interviews, along with ethnographic observations from the author's year of training and work as a welfare caseworker, Becoming Bureaucrats charts how public-sector entrants develop their bureaucratic identities, motivations, and attitudes. Ranging from individual stories to population-wide statistical analysis, Oberfield's study complicates the long-standing cliche that bureaucracies churn out bureaucrats with mechanical efficiency. He demonstrates that entrants' bureaucratic personalities evolved but remained strongly tied to the views, identities, and motives that they articulated at the outset of their service. As such, he argues that who bureaucrats become and, as a result, how bureaucracies function, depends strongly on patterns of self-selection and recruitment. Becoming Bureaucrats not only enriches our theoretical understanding of bureaucratic behavior but also provides practical advice to elected officials and public managers on building responsive, accountable workforces.
49 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a survey dataset of 971 street-level bureaucrats and their 203 frontline supervisors was used to analyze how the frontline supervisor affects this core perception that protrudes the human judgments streetlevel bureaucrats are required to pass in their use of their discretion.
Abstract:
Steering street-level bureaucrats is utterly complex due to their discretion and professional status which grant them relative autonomy from supervisory directives. Drawing from transformational leadership theory, this article explores the opportunities these work conditions provide for supervisory leadership at the frontlines. Looking at street-level bureaucrats’ attitude towards clients, we analyze how the frontline supervisor affects this core perception that protrudes the human judgments street-level bureaucrats are required to pass in their use of their discretion. Using a survey dataset of 971 street-level bureaucrats and their 203 frontline supervisors, this study shows that frontline supervisors function as an attitudinal role model to street-level bureaucrats. Moreover, their supportive leadership behaviors are crucial to them upholding a positive attitude towards clients. Supportive leadership does not unequivocally strengthen the supervisor’s position as an attitudinal referent, though. These findings challenge pessimistic assessments of the potential for supervisory leadership at the frontlines. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
36 citations
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References
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TL;DR: Two 10-item mood scales that comprise the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) are developed and are shown to be highly internally consistent, largely uncorrelated, and stable at appropriate levels over a 2-month time period.
Abstract: In recent studies of the structure of affect, positive and negative affect have consistently emerged as two dominant and relatively independent dimensions. A number of mood scales have been created to measure these factors; however, many existing measures are inadequate, showing low reliability or poor convergent or discriminant validity. To fill the need for reliable and valid Positive Affect and Negative Affect scales that are also brief and easy to administer, we developed two 10-item mood scales that comprise the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). The scales are shown to be highly internally consistent, largely uncorrelated, and stable at appropriate levels over a 2-month time period. Normative data and factorial and external evidence of convergent and discriminant validity for the scales are also presented.
34,482 citations
09 Jan 2004
TL;DR: A theory of intergroup conflict and some preliminary data relating to the theory is presented in this article. But the analysis is limited to the case where the salient dimensions of the intergroup differentiation are those involving scarce resources.
Abstract: This chapter presents an outline of a theory of intergroup conflict and some preliminary data relating to the theory. Much of the work on the social psychology of intergroup relations has focused on patterns of individual prejudices and discrimination and on the motivational sequences of interpersonal interaction. The intensity of explicit intergroup conflicts of interests is closely related in human cultures to the degree of opprobrium attached to the notion of "renegade" or "traitor." The basic and highly reliable finding is that the trivial, ad hoc intergroup categorization leads to in-group favoritism and discrimination against the out-group. Many orthodox definitions of "social groups" are unduly restrictive when applied to the context of intergroup relations. The equation of social competition and intergroup conflict rests on the assumptions concerning an "ideal type" of social stratification in which the salient dimensions of intergroup differentiation are those involving scarce resources.
14,812 citations
"Street-level bureaucrats’ attitude ..." refers background in this paper
...Social identity refers to “those aspects of an individual’s self-image that derive from social categories to which he perceives himself as belonging” (Tajfel & Turner, 1986, p. 16)....
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...…of “individuals who perceive themselves to be members of the same social category, share some emotional involvement in this common definition of themselves, and achieve some degree of social consensus about the evaluation of their group and of their membership in it” (Tajfel & Turner, 1986, p. 15)....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify six categories of self-reports and discuss such problems as common method variance, the consistency motif, and social desirability, as well as statistical and post hoc remedies and some procedural methods for dealing with artifactual bias.
14,482 citations
"Street-level bureaucrats’ attitude ..." refers methods in this paper
...Harman’s one-factor test was performed on the cohesion measures and the dependent variables as these measures relied on survey responses provided by the same individual (Podsakoff & Organ, 1986)....
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TL;DR: The meaning of the terms "method" and "method bias" are explored and whether method biases influence all measures equally are examined, and the evidence of the effects that method biases have on individual measures and on the covariation between different constructs is reviewed.
Abstract: Despite the concern that has been expressed about potential method biases, and the pervasiveness of research settings with the potential to produce them, there is disagreement about whether they really are a problem for researchers in the behavioral sciences. Therefore, the purpose of this review is to explore the current state of knowledge about method biases. First, we explore the meaning of the terms “method” and “method bias” and then we examine whether method biases influence all measures equally. Next, we review the evidence of the effects that method biases have on individual measures and on the covariation between different constructs. Following this, we evaluate the procedural and statistical remedies that have been used to control method biases and provide recommendations for minimizing method bias.
8,719 citations
"Street-level bureaucrats’ attitude ..." refers methods in this paper
...Second, we controlled for CMV using the unmeasured latent method factor technique (Podsakoff et al., 2012), performed in AMOS....
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TL;DR: This article argued that social identification is a perception of oneness with a group of persons, and social identification stems from the categorization of individuals, the distinctiveness and prestige of the group, the salience of outgroups, and the factors that traditionally are associated with group formation.
Abstract: It is argued that (a) social identification is a perception of oneness with a group of persons; (b) social identification stems from the categorization of individuals, the distinctiveness and prestige of the group, the salience of outgroups, and the factors that traditionally are associated with group formation; and (c) social identification leads to activities that are congruent with the identity, support for institutions that embody the identity, stereotypical perceptions of self and others, and outcomes that traditionally are associated with group formation, and it reinforces the antecedents of identification. This perspective is applied to organizational socialization, role conflict, and intergroup relations.
8,480 citations
"Street-level bureaucrats’ attitude ..." refers background in this paper
...Although organizations hold many social categories individuals can identify with, self-definitions in terms of the work group tend to be dominant due to group member proximity and interdependency (Ashforth & Mael, 1989)....
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...Even if a bureaucrat selfcategorizes herself in terms of the social category of the work group, she can still disagree with the attitudes held by that group (Ashforth & Mael, 1989) and consequently refrain from behaviors that are in accordance with these attitudes....
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...And both social representation theory and social identification theory build on cognitive elements (e.g., Ashforth & Mael, 1989; H€oijer, 2011)....
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