Serving Clients When the Server Crashes: How Frontline Workers Cope with E-Government Challenges

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Tummers, Lars; Rocco, Philip
• 署名单位: Erasmus University Rotterdam - Excl Erasmus MC; Erasmus University Rotterdam; University of California System; University of California Berkeley
• 刊物名称: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-3352
• DOI: 10.1111/puar.12379
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 817-+
• 关键词: street-level; public professionals; policy alienation; DISCRETION; implementation; ORGANIZATIONS; motivation; leadership; welfare; REFORM

摘要

Implementing e-government in the contemporary American state is challenging. E-government places high technical demands on agencies and citizens in an environment of budget austerity and political polarization. Governments developing e-government policies often mobilize frontline workers-also termed street-level bureaucrats-to help citizens gain access to services. However, we know little about how frontline workers cope in these challenging circumstances. This article fills this gap by examining frontline workers implementing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Based on a qualitative analysis, the authors find that frontline workers move toward clients when coping with stress: they bend the rules, work overtime, and collaborate in order to help clients. They are less inclined to move away or move against clients, for instance, through rigid rule following and rationing. In other words, frontline workers try to serve clients, even when the server crashes. Frontline workers, then, can play a vital role in the successful implementation of e-government policies.