Work

Understanding street-level bureaucrats’ attitude towards clients: Towards a measurement instrument

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: The attitude of street-level bureaucrats towards their clients has an impact on the decisions they take. Still, such attitudes have not received much scholarly attention, nor are they generally studied in much detail. This article uses Breckler's psychological multicomponent model of attitude to develop a scale to measure street-level bureaucrats' general attitude towards their clients. By means of a test study ( N=218) and a replication study ( N = 879), the article shows that street-level bureaucrats' attitude towards clients consists of four different components: a cognitive attitude component, a positive affective attitude component, a negative affective attitude component and a behavioural attitude component. It also establishes a conceptual and empirical distinction from related attitudes, such as prosocial motivation, work engagement, bureaucrats’ rule-following identities and self-efficacy, and suggests avenues for application and further validation among different groups of street-level bureaucrats. This instrument opens up opportunities for theory testing and causality testing that surpasses case-specific considerations.

Source: Public Policy and Administration

DOI: 10.1177/0952076718789749

Authors: Shelena Keulemans, Steven Van de Walle

Institutions: Erasmus University Rotterdam, KU Leuven

Language: English

Topic: Public Policy and Administration Research

Subfield: Public Administration

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek

Award: G1299424009