Street‐level bureaucrats, rule‐following and tenure: How assessment tools are used at the front line of the public sector
研究了瑞典劳动力市场政策中评估工具的使用，发现随着任期增加，一线工作者（尤其是男性）遵循政策信号的程度降低，部分原因是面对面服务经验增强了他们的自信和技能。
Studies on street‐level bureaucracy examine actions of frontline workers within the public sector. In this literature, there is a lack of evidence on how job tenure affects how frontline workers respond to formal steering. We contribute to prior research by studying the nationwide introduction of an assessment support tool to be used by caseworkers to assess clients’ needs under the Swedish active labour market policy. We examine the potential effects of tenure on how caseworkers use this tool. The empirical analysis is based on quantitative and qualitative data. We show that as tenure increases, street‐level bureaucrats, especially male caseworkers, tend to act in accordance with policy signals to a lesser extent. The qualitative analysis shows that this pattern can partly be explained by the fact that increasing experience with meeting clients face to face increases caseworkers’ perceived confidence and skills.