Abstract

Officials in welfare state bureaucracies face the challenge of negotiating their role identities in the context of changeable organizational priorities and managerial styles. Previous studies have found that the professional values may mediate top-down demands and enable the preservation of professional autonomy also under public management reforms. But how do street-level bureaucrats who lack a common professional or occupational training respond to shifting organizational demands? Based on comparative ethnography, the present article investigates how caseworkers’ role identities are conceived and practised in two of the largest state bureaucracies in Sweden, the Social Insurance Agency (SIA) and the Public Employment Service (PES). The article identifies two radically different agency cultures, resulting in rather opposite caseworker role identities. These role identities affect how front-line staff respond to organizational demands, either by focusing externally on client-related outcomes (PES) or internally on organizational output (SIA). The analysis suggests that agency culture may shape caseworker responses to governance in patterned ways, also in the absence of joint professional training or strong occupational communities.

中文翻译：

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新管理主义下的街头官僚：两个福利国家官僚机构文化和案例工作者角色身份的比较研究

摘要

福利国家官僚机构的官员在不断变化的组织优先事项和管理风格的背景下面临着谈判其角色身份的挑战。先前的研究发现，在公共管理改革下，职业价值观可能会调解自上而下的要求，并能够保持职业自治。但是，缺乏共同的专业或职业培训的街头官僚如何应对不断变化的组织需求？本文基于比较人种学，研究了瑞典两个最大的州官僚机构，社会保险局（SIA）和公共就业服务局（PES）如何构思和实践案例工作者的角色身份。本文确定了两种截然不同的代理文化，结果导致相反的案例工作者角色身份。这些角色标识会通过从外部侧重于与客户相关的结果（PES）或从内部侧重于组织的输出（SIA）来影响一线员工对组织需求的响应方式。分析表明，在缺乏联合专业培训或强大的职业社区的情况下，代理文化可能会以有规律的方式塑造案例工作者对治理的反应。