The Significance of Workplace Relations in Bureaucracy

Street-level bureaucrats, i.e., civil servants who have direct contact with the general public, play an important role in the enforcement of public policy, and law & order in society. Ranging from education, welfare, social services, and the police, street-level bureaucracy is more relevant now than ever before. It has long been recognised that workplace relationships represent an important dimension of bureaucratic behaviour, especially in street-level bureaucracy, because of the high work demands, limited resources, and an uncertain job environment. However, despite the obvious scholarly and practical importance, there has been little research on understanding the decision-making process or behaviour of peer selection at the individual (micro) level among street-level bureaucrats. Understanding the micro-social foundations of managerial and front-line relationships is crucial to designing strategies that attempt to leverage those relationships into organisational improvement.

In their paper published in the Public Administration Review, M. Azfar Nisar and Spiro Maroulis study an intraorganisatioanl network of teachers in a large urban school to investigate the extent to which behavioural and structural attributes are associated with the existence of collegial ties among street-level bureaucrats. In their paper, the authors focus primarily on work relations between street-level bureaucrats.  By work relations, they mean repeated interactions for discussion of work-related issues. Their analysis resulted in two broad findings. First, consistent with the idea that a strong component of peer selection is instrumental, the authors found that more innovative and experienced individuals/peers were more likely to be nominated by others as a strong work relation. They also found strong evidence that reciprocity and the ability to tap into the networks of one’s peers were also important predictors of the formation of workplace relations.

According to the authors’ findings, frontline workers will identify and seek out peers who possess locally valued resources. For example, in the case of the network of teachers studied by the authors, the reform under implementation strongly encouraged innovation inside the classroom, so more innovative teachers were in higher “social demand.” If instead, it had emphasised an action requiring less innovation (such as following a scripted curriculum), then it is quite plausible that teachers who were good at that type of teaching would be in higher demand. Moreover, having those high-demand individuals on board at the time of a planned organisational policy change may increase the likelihood of the success of its implementation.

Both structural and instrumental considerations, such as seeking peers possessing characteristics and resources valued by the reforms introduced by the organisation, figure prominently in the work relations of street-level bureaucrats. The results imply that the introduction of improvement initiatives requiring frontline participation, in addition to altering work practices, may also alter social networks within the frontline of an organisation in a manner that favours some frontline workers over others.

Workplace relations are an important aspect of the work identity of bureaucrats and failure to take them into account could limit the impact of human resource practices and team formation within organisations.

Reference

Nisar, M.A. and Maroulis, S. (2017). Foundations of Relating: Theory and Evidence on the Formation of Street‐Level Bureaucrats’ Workplace Networks. Public Administration Review, 77, 829-839. doi: 10.1111/puar.12719

About the Author

Muhammad Azfar Nisar is Assistant Professor at the SDSB, LUMS. He teaches business ethics and corporate social responsibility, and philosophy of administrative sciences. His research interests include social policy, critical management studies, and street-level bureaucracy. His research has been featured in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration Review, and Gender & Society.

Email: azfar.nisar@lums.edu.pk