Street level bureaucrats

In this chapter the question is raised what impact the transitions in public administration as a consequence of ICT developments, and especially of the shift from e-government to m-government, as the most important development of the last ten years, might have on the power position, the functions and the routines of the street level bureaucrats. During the last decades the discretion of many street level bureaucrats is gradually becoming hollowed out. The dominant organizational position of the managers in the technostructure compared to the bureaucrats in the operational core is, amongst others, visible in the application of Knowledge Management on the different dimensions of discretion and in the growing dissatisfaction with the administrative burdens. The roles of the street level bureaucrats as well as of the citizens, and the relationship between State and Society, are becoming step by step redefined.

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