Creaming among Caseworkers: Effects of Client Competence and Client Motivation on Caseworkers’ Willingness to Help

• Published date: 01 January 2021
• Author: Thorbjørn Sejr Guul,Mogens Jin Pedersen,Niels Bjørn Grund Petersen
• Date: 01 January 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13297

12 Public Administration Review • Januar y | Fe brua ry 202 1

Abstract: Frontline employees cope with high workloads and limited resources by directing their work attention and

efforts toward particular clients. Yet, the role of client attributes in frontline employees’ efforts to help clients remains

undertheorized and empirically understudied. Using a survey experimental vignette design (2 × 2 factorial) among

1,595 Danish caseworkers, the authors of this article provide new knowledge on how two generic nondemographic

client attributes—competence and motivation—shape frontline employees’ willingness to help their clients. We found

that both the competence and motivation of clients affect caseworkers’ willingness to exert extra time and effort helping

clients. Specifically, caseworkers are most willing to help a client appearing both competent and motivated. Moreover,

our data suggests that client motivation is more important than client competence for caseworkers’ willingness to help.

We end the article with a discussion of policy implications and directions for future research.

Evidence for Practice

• Nondemographic client attributes—competence and motivation—affect caseworkers’ willingness to exert

extra time and effort to serve a particular client.

• Client motivation has a larger effect than client competence on caseworkers’ willingness to spend extra time

and effort helping clients.

• For ensuring that citizens receive fair and equitable public service, public managers must be cognizant of the

various client attributes influencing frontline employees’ behavior and decision-making.

A

large group of public employees are “street-level

bureaucrats” (Lipsky1980), frontline employees

interacting directly and frequently with citizens

and having substantial discretion in the execution

of their work (Gofen2013; Hupe and Hill2007;

Thomann, Van Engen, and Tummers2018). Frontline

employees operate in the context of cross-pressure.

They face the challenge of having limited available

resources to perform their work while experiencing

interminable client demands for services. To obviate

insurmountable workloads and psychological

exhaustion, frontline employees are therefore

compelled to use what Lipsky(1980) calls “coping

mechanisms.” In particular, frontline employees may

resort to a coping strategy involving “cream-skimming”

(Lipsky1980; Tummers2016; Verdung2015; Winter

and Nielsen2008). Using this strategy, frontline

employees selectively focus their attention and efforts

on those of their clients who exhibit the best prognoses

for achievement of substantive policy goals (e.g.,

the greatest likelihood of rapid recovery, successful

rehabilitation, or high performance).

Although frontline employees’ focus on particular

clients serves as a means to cope with high workloads

and limited resources, the exercise of more help to

particular clients constitutes an issue of scholarly

attention and societal concern. In some policy areas,

frontline employees have formal authority to direct

their attention and efforts at particular clients, such

as those most in need or first in line. Yet, “creaming”

does not form a legitimate basis for helping some

client more than others. Except for rare cases (e.g.,

triage), differences in willingness to help clients based

on creaming considerations constitute a break with

administrative principles of equity and impartiality

that are not supported by formal rules and regulations

and that may result in unequal treatment of citizens

(for recent discussions, see Battaglio and Hall2018;

Gooden2015).

This article expands our knowledge about the

factors shaping frontline employees’ willingness

to help particular clients. In line with public

administration research on how client race and

ethnicity affect behavior and decision-making

(Grohs, Adam, and Knill2016; Jilke, Van

Dooren, and Rys2018; Pedersen, Stritch, and

Thuesen2018), creaming among caseworkers

may ensue based on clients’ demographic

Thorbjørn Sejr Guul

Aarhus University

Creaming among Caseworkers: Effects of Client Competence

and Client Motivation on Caseworkers’ Willingness to Help

VIVE—The Danish Center for Social Science Research

University of Copenhagen

Mogens Jin Pedersen

Niels Bjørn Grund Petersen

Research Article

Niels Bjørn Grund Petersen is a

postdoc at the Department of Political

Science at Aarhus University, and a

Researcher at VIVE—The Danish Center

for Social Science Research. His research

interests include street-level bureaucracy,

performance management, management

and employee involvement, administrative

burdens, and political psychology.

Email: nibj@vive.dk

Mogens Jin Pedersen is an associate

professor at the Department of Political

Science, University of Copenhagen, and an

affiliate senior researcher at VIVE—The

Danish Center for Social Science Research.

His research focuses on work motivation,

public management and performance,

employee behavior and decision-making,

gender and racial biases, and research

methodology.

Email: mp@ifs.ku.dk

Thorbjørn Sejr Guul is an assistant

professor at the Department of Political

Science, Aarhus University, and a fellow at

TrygFonden’s Centre for Child Research.

His research focuses on representative

bureaucracy, discrimination, and coping

behavior of street-level bureaucrats.

Email: tsg@ps.au.dk

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 81, Iss. 1, pp. 12–22. © 2020 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13297.