Michael Lipsky states through his theory of street-level bureaucracy that teachers, among other street-level occupations, often work under a heavy workload due to parameters built into their occupations characteristics and limited resources. Lipsky says that street-level bureaucrats therefor under the influence of their works natural discretion tend to use client-processing strategies to lighten the pressure to make their work situation bearable. Teachers in Sweden is an occupational group that has an important societal function in educating children, teenagers and young adults for their future social lives. At the same time as they work under a heavy workload. This essay aims to see if teachers in Sweden uses the three client-processing strategies tension between capability and objectives, private goal definition and defense against discretion to modify their work and students, to make their work situation more bearable. This is tested quantitively through Pearsons chi2 test of independence and regression analysis. The conclusion is that even though a tendency towards the use of client-processing strategies can be seen in the results, one cannot conclude that this is actually the case and that further studies has to be done to be able to give a more accurate response to the question.

Den här uppsatsen handlar om socialsekreterare som arbetar med barn och unga som riskerar att bli omhändertagna. Kvalitativa intervjuer har gjorts med åtta socialsekreterare på olika platser i Sverige. Syftet är att få en bättre förståelse för svårigheterna som socialsekreterare ställs inför i arbetet med familjer och barn som har hamnat utanför samhället. Teoretiska utgångspunkter är Michael Lipskys teori om gräsrotsbyråkrater, Michel Foucaults teori om makt och Arlie Russell Hochschilds teori om känsloregler. Resultatet visar att svårigheterna som socialsekreterare upplever är att lagar och regler kan försvåra arbetet, vilket kan leda till att socialsekreterarna förlora makten och kontrollen över klienterna. Socialsekreterarna är medvetna om att makt är något de utövar, men att den oftast sker via motivationsarbete där språket är en maktform. Resultatet visar att det finns förväntningar på dem och att allmänheten inte förstår att de måste arbeta utifrån lagar och regler. När allmänheten inte förstår svårigheterna i socialsekreterarnas arbete kan det leda till orättvis kritik från samhället. Socialsekreterarna upplever att det går att styra känslorna efter ett tag, men väldigt jobbiga situationer medförde att känslorna kan sitta kvar en längre period. Man bör helst undvika att visa negativa känslor mot klienterna, då det kan upplevas oprofessionellt. Relationen till klienterna är viktig och det kan bli problematiskt när klienterna inte vill samarbeta. / This essay examines social secretaries working with children, and young people, who are atrisk of being taken into care. Qualitative interviews were conducted with eight social secretaries working in different places in Sweden. The aim is to gain a better understanding of the difficulties that social workers face working with families, and children, who live outside society. Theoretical starting points are Michael Lipsky's theory of street-level bureaucrats, Michael Foucault's theory of power and Arlie Russell Hocschild's theory of emotional rules. The results shows that the difficulties social secretaries experience are that laws and regulations can complicate their work; it can also lead to the social secretaries losing power and control over their clients. The social secretaries are aware of the fact that they exercise power, but that it usually takes place through motivational work where language is a form of power. The results shows that the public has expectations of them, but does not understand that the social secretaries perform their work based on laws and regulations. When the public does not understand the difficulties in the work of social workers, it can lead to unfair criticism from society. The social secretaries feel that it was possible to control their emotions after a while, but very difficult situations can remain in their memory for a long time. A social secretary should preferably avoid showing negative feelings towards clients, because then they can be perceived as unprofessional. The relationship with the clients is important and it can be problematic when a client does not want to cooperate.

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / There are often noted gaps and tensions arise between official government policies and what is implemented on the ground. The two theories that consistently argue antagonistically about the policy processes are the rational bureaucratic model also called the "top-down approach" as opposed to the incremental or bottom-up approach. This research was inspired by a bottom-up perspective and involves a detailed investigation of Lipsky's street level bureaucracy (SLB) theory. Over the years since Lipsky's research much international work has be done on the subject of discretion among policy implementers but in the South the focus has been more on top-down ideas such as increasing state capacity and monitoring workers and not on the Lipsky problematic. Hence, this study specifically focuses on studying the extent, intentions and uses of discretion. Intentions are look e at in a threefold manner: good, bad and conflicting, among nurses as SLBs in a public hospital in Cape Town, in view of the t wo conflicting approaches to policy implementation. I found that the discretion practices among nurses do 'more good than harm' as opposed to the view held by the top down approach. The study further revealed that discretion is also often conflicted or ambivalent. Moreover, it is often based on tacit collective understandings and practices among groups of nurses. This is one element that needs to be explored further in future studies in order to contribute to the body of knowledge. Notably, there appears to be a gap in South African literature on this vital subject area. 111

Since January 1, 2015, the police authority's largest organizational reform took place, and 21 county police authorities were merged into one unified police authority. The purpose of this was to increase the prerequisites for a stronger operating result with higher quality in the efforts. In connection with the reorganization, they sought to have a more distinct management where the operations would be employee driven. In this study, the official's space for action is studied, and to what extent the public works are considered regarding the expertise and knowledge of the employees at local police level. Through an interview study the officials of the local police level shared the experiences and how the reorganization's impact on the space of action has affected their ability on making decisions. The analysis of the study takes the biggest inspiration from Lisky's street-level bureaucracy theory but also shows elements of the authority's structure, i.e. top-down and bottom-up perspective. The study also takes into account the public officials’ tools of power and analyzes the exercise of power.

Latino immigrants are the fastest growing foreign group and appear to be suffering from disproportionate risks of involvement in the child welfare system. Yet, there is limited knowledge in regards to this population when involved in the child welfare system and the day-to-day complexity of issues, stressors, and barriers they face. This qualitative study aims to understand the day-to-day reality of being a Latino immigrant in this system as well as the organizations that work with this population. Street-level bureaucracy theory is used to explore how private non-profit child welfare agencies work to assist their Latino immigrant clients on a day-to-day basis. It also examines the perceptions and experiences of non-profit child welfare staff members in regards to accountability and discretion toward both the organization and their Latino immigrant clients. Qualitative methodology was used to gain in-depth knowledge of how these agencies are working with this population. Three private non-profit child welfare agencies located in Los Angeles County were selected. Each agency has a foster care and adoptions component as well as various other programs such as Project Fatherhood, Family Preservation, and Unaccompanied Child program. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 19 staff members. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings from this study found that the complex issues that exist with this population in the child welfare system are not discussed at a detailed or formal level. Also, there are gaps between policies and practices, in that the universal policies in place are not meeting all the needs of these families and creating barriers in servicing these families. At the organizational level, it was found that these agencies have more time and availability for their immigrant clients due to a lower caseload and agency flexibility. They were able to be more accountable to their clients and used their discretion to spend more time with these clients, advocate more for them, provide more quality work, and have more creativity in filling the gaps these families are experiencing in regards to access to services and service use.

Performance management is prevalent in public organizations and public services, but the push for performance may harm genuine accountability. One critical reason for this is that little knowledge has developed about the scope and effect of actual accountability requirements in the public management field. This dissertation furthers our understanding of accountability and performance by distinguishing them as different dimensions of public management. Building on this distinction, the effect of accountability (A) on performance (P) and accountability management’s (M) mediating role in the relationship between accountability and performance were investigated empirically in child welfare services in Virginia. The study had two stages: interviews and a survey. The qualitative content analysis of the interviews provides several noteworthy findings. Accountability can be understood more with the terms: explanation, expectation, people/society, action/decision, and values. Conversely, performance can be considered more in line with the terms: productivity/outcome, timely work, team playing, learning, and strategy. The incompatible characteristics found between accountability and performance highlight problems behind performance-driven accountability. The survey portion of the study, built upon the interview data, also presents notable findings. (1) Accountability affects performance both directly and indirectly, and (2) accountability management matters in the relationship between accountability and performance. While the empirical literature on the A → P link focuses on the effects of competing accountability requirements, my study examines dimensions of the accountability requirements’ impact. Formal (e.g., legal) as well as informal (e.g., ethical) accountability requirements are critical for ensuring higher performance. Compliance strategies implicitly connect informal accountability requirements with work performance. The findings support the study’s argument that accountability should be stressed for better performance and highlight the need for the careful design of accountability mechanisms in social services. Ultimately, this study may serve as a foundation for future efforts to establish more appropriate accountability and performance arrangements. / Ph. D.

SammanfattningSyftet med det här examensarbetet är att undersöka hur lärare och specialpedagoger på gymnasiet uppfattar att reformen av det pedagogiska stödet som infördes i skollagen den 1 juli 2014 fungerar, samt vad som påverkar genomförandet av politiska ideal och reformer i praktiken.Intervjuer med specialpedagoger, enkätsvar från lärare, studier av forskning om inkludering, policy och praktik utgör en mixed methods-ansats. Metodvalet syftar till att bredda underlaget för analysen och förståelsen av en mångfasetterad verklighet och verksamhet.Resultatet av undersökningen tyder på att alla elever på gymnasiet inte får det stöd de enligt skollagen har rätt till. Det visar också att reformen, tvärtemot sitt uttalade syfte, har ökat lärarnas dokumentations- och arbetsbörda. Slutligen blir det tydligt att olika dilemman och konflikter kan uppstå när ideal ska förverkligas, att en omtolkning av de politiska direktiven görs på flera nivåer i det byråkratiska systemet och i klassrumspraktiken – och att de många politiska direktiv som skolan utsatts för under senare år inte alltid har den effekt beslutsfattarna hoppas eftersom de delar ut fler påbud än resurser att efterleva dem. Slutsatsen är att makthavarna i framtiden borde basera reformer på vetenskaplig grund och i dialog med dem som arbetar och går i skolan, samt att lärarna borde ta sitt ansvar som demokratins väktare och protestera mot att de inte ges förutsättningar att tillmötesgå elevernas behov och tillvarata deras rättigheter.Nyckelord: Dilemmaperspektiv, extra anpassningar, inkludering, kategoriskt perspektiv, relationellt perspektiv, resurser, segregering, street level bureaucracy, särskilt stöd.

Tahe starting point of this study is to investigate how the school organizationally works as an institution to counteract problematic school absence. The school is a large part of society as well as an institution that shapes the citizens, at the same time as the schools have a mission to promote the individual´s progression and learning. The schools function to benefit society as well individuals with their personal development make the school a complex organization. The school's organization includes many different areas and it’s therefore difficult to examine in this individual study. We have therefore chosen to focus on the school staff´s work with problematic school absence. The theoretical ground this study is based on is called 'street level bureaucracy'. This theory describes the school staff’s labor from within an organization while having direct contact with members of the general public. The Swedish analogy of this term is gräsrotsbyråkrati. The material that will be used consists of existing literature on the subject as well as interviews conducted with school staff in which they provide their experience of how the organization works with students' problematic school absence. Through the school staff’s experience, we can get a deeper insight into schools organizational structures. The study's conclusion is that school staff need to have a greater influence in the organization's management. Furthermore this study concludes that school staff in general have a much higher need to influence the creation of government documents than they currently have. This need for more influence stems from the fact that they themselves have to carry out these policies on a daily basis and therefore have the necessary expertise on the subject.

Since 2007, about 300 unaccompanied children have annually disappeared in Sweden. This study investigates whether authorities are aware of the problem and how they look at risks, responsibilities and causes of disappearance of unaccompanied children. This is done through a combination of text analyzes of relevant reports as well as qualitative interviews of selected social service professionals and the National Method support against prostitution and human trafficking. The empirical findings have been analyzed with the help of Michael Lipsky’s (2010) Street-Level Bureaucracy theory and Carol Bacchi’s (2009) what’s the problem represented to be – approach. There seem to be a mixed awareness amongst those who are dealing with the problem that unaccompanied refugees disappear. There seems to be, however, a national goal as well as a local interest, to improve the preventive work against the problem that unaccompanied refugee children disappear. Yet the results show that other aspects and participants are to be considered for an extensive understanding of the problem.

The purpose of this study is to investigate/evaluate how employment officers handle the refugees who have different backgrounds and therefore different conditions for entering the labour market. Semi-structured interview was used and a total of seven employment officers participated and the result shows that all the participants experienced cultural clashes in their work. Everyone has their own way for solving this issue, for example to inform the clients how the employment officer works or helping the clients with their issues and questions. The aspects of ethnicity and gender are important especially for female clients during conversation for establishment since the living conditions between the genders are not always equally. Depending on the clients individually qualifications the employment officers will decide how to help the clients. Furthermore, the employment officers considered that those efforts offered to the clients are sufficient. However, establishment within two years is hard to achieve, especially for clients who are illiterates and women who have been housewives their whole life. The result should be interpreted with caution due to the few participants.