Alone in the campaign: Distrust in regulators and the coping of front‐line workers

Abstract

Trust is the “glue” connecting state and society and particularly relevant to how front‐line workers, who are the face of public administration vis‐à‐vis citizens, implement policy. Therefore, it is important to examine how front‐line workers' absence of trust in regulators influences the ways they cope with their clients. Our study investigates this question empirically through interviews and focus groups with 80 Israeli social service providers. Our results show that front‐line workers' distrust in regulators is a product of four factors: perceived lack of protection, clash of values, politicization in implementation processes, and regulators' “disconnection” from the field. It leads them to adopt two coping strategies: acts of self‐protection and deviation from formal policy. A further derivative is their turnover intention.

Street‐level bureaucrats and policy entrepreneurship: When implementers challenge policy design

“…The third category—the environment—includes the pressures that street‐level bureaucrats face outside their organizations. Examples include the effect of regulators (Davidovitz & Cohen, 2021) and bureaucrats in other bureaucratic agencies (Keiser, 2010) and nongovernmental organizations, political control (Meyers & Vorsanger, 2007) such as partisan political power (Keiser, 1999), the political and general culture (Cohen, 2018), neoliberal ideology (Liebenberg et al, 2013), and the NPM wave of reforms (Cohen et al, 2016), various signals from clients (Raaphorst & Van de Walle, 2018), and the content of the policy as designed (Lavee et al, 2018; Tummers et al, 2012).…”

An Exploratory Examination of the Relationship Between Trust and Street-Level Bureaucrats’ Willingness to Risk Their Lives for Others

“…The first is SLBs' willingness to risk their lives for others (Cohen & Golan-Nadir, 2020). The second is the role of trust in their practices (Davidovitz & Cohen, 2020, 2021a, 2021b.…”

Which Clients Inspire or Reduce the Trust of Street-Level Bureaucrats?

“…Research also emphasizes the importance of public servants' trust in citizens (Lee & Yu, 2013;Van de Walle & Lahat, 2017;Yang, 2005;Yang & Holzer, 2006). Trust plays a crucial role in the delivery of public services, as public sector workers interact daily with citizens (Davidovitz & Cohen, 2021b;Vigoda-Gadot et al, 2012) and constantly risk the possibility that citizens will not do what is expected of them (Moyson et al, 2016). Thus, trust is important because of its possible effect on the actions of SLBs toward their clients when implementing policy (Davidovitz & Cohen, 2020).…”