Which Clients Inspire or Reduce the Trust of Street-Level Bureaucrats?

• Author: Maayan Davidovitz,Nissim Cohen
• Published date: 01 September 2022
• Date: 01 September 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00953997211061686
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997211061686

Administration & Society

2022, Vol. 54(8) 1516 –1541

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/00953997211061686

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Article

Which Clients Inspire

or Reduce the Trust

of Street-Level

Bureaucrats?

Maayan Davidovitz1 and Nissim Cohen1

Abstract

Which types of clients increase or decrease the trust of street-level

bureaucrats (SLBs)? Using interviews and focus groups with two groups

of Israeli social service providers—teachers and social workers—and

comparing them, —we develop a theoretical framework for determining the

types of clients who evoke and reduce the trust of SLBs. Our findings indicate

that there are seven types of clients who inspire or diminish this trust: —

cooperative, honest, familiar, benevolent, aggressive, open, and manipulative.

We discuss the significance of our findings for the implementation and

outcome of public policy and suggest several avenues for future research.

Keywords

street-level bureaucrats, trust, discretion, social service providers

Introduction

The significance of street-level bureaucrats’ (SLBs’) relationships with their

clients in shaping their discretion when delivering services is well known

(Lipsky, 1980; Maynard-Moody & Musheno, 2003). However, in the

1University of Haifa, Israel

Corresponding Author:

Maayan Davidovitz, The Department of Public Administration and Policy, School of Political

Sciences, University of Haifa, Abba Khoushy Avenue 199, Haifa 31905, Israel.

Email: maayandavidovitz@gmail.com

1061686AAS0010.1177/00953997211061686Administration & SocietyDavidovitz and Cohen

research-article2021

Davidovitz and Cohen 1517

literature little attention has been paid to the importance of trust between the

players, specifically, the characteristics of the clients that influence the devel-

opment of SLBs’ trust in them.

Trust is crucial in the process of delivering public services (Van de Walle

& Lahat, 2017; Yang & Holzer, 2006). Trustworthiness has been found to be

a driver of trust (Colquitt et al., 2007; Rotter, 1980;). Trust has also been

linked to a willingness to risk vulnerability (Hoy & Tschannen-Moran, 1999;

Lewis & Weigert, 1985), as well as to loyalty (Butler, 1991), cooperation

(Deutsch, 1958), benevolence, and integrity (Mayer et al., 1995). However,

for SLBs who have daily face-to-face interactions with their clients (Keiser,

2010), some elements of trust seem more relevant than others.

This distinction is especially important, because trust is a critical element of

any social interaction between two parties (Kramer, 1999) and any exchange

relationship. It is particularly important in the context of SLBs and their clients

because the former base their decisions on the information that the latter give

them (Lipsky, 1980). SLBs formulate expectations about the future conduct of

their clients and on this basis decide how to allocate their limited resources

(Davidovitz & Cohen, 2021a). Moreover, they are invested emotionally in their

clients (Lavee & Strier, 2019). They may define their work through their inter-

actions with them and may be willing to go far beyond the demands and restric-

tions of their jobs to improve their clients’ well-being (Maynard-Moody &

Musheno, 2000). In contrast, and somewhat paradoxically, they may give pri-

ority to and even bend and break rules for clients whom they distrust to avoid

being harmed by them. This tendency is particularly strong when SLBs work in

situations where they believe their organizations will not support them in con-

frontations (Davidovitz & Cohen, 2020). It is therefore important to identify

what types of clients evoke and reduce the trust of SLBs.

To date, there is no systematic theoretical framework that categorizes clients

based on these criteria. We aim to provide such a theoretical framework by

researching how SLBs evaluate their clients as the basis for trusting them and the

impact on the decisions they make when providing them with public services.

This study makes an important contribution to the public administration literature

because the phenomenon may have a strong effect on the implementation and, as

a result, the outcome of policy. We propose our theoretical framework based on

empirical data collected from Israeli teachers and social workers.

Literature Review

Trust and Its Implications

Trust refers to the willingness of an individual to be vulnerable to the actions

of the other, or a group or institution that has the capacity to harm or betray