Street‐level workers’ judgments, decisions, and actions touch on questions of social equity, a dominant theme of H. George Frederickson's deep contributions to public administration scholarship. Based on empirical work, the authors question the dominant implementation‐control‐discretion narrative and suggest an alternative framing based on the concepts of agency and pragmatic improvisation. Street‐level workers are often conservers of institutional norms and practices, but their work surfaces tensions between practice and the goals of social equity.
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This article analyzes the impact of an administrative effort to increase the educational attainment of correctional officers employed in a medium security facility department of corrections in a western state. Following an era of riots and judicial intervention, higher educational qualifications have been a major component of attempts to professionalize prison security staff. Three competing expectations regarding the relationship between educational attainment and job satisfaction are evaluated: (1) higher education increases job satisfaction; (2) higher education leads to greater dissatisfaction; and (3) work environment negates the importance of worker educational background. Educational attainment is found to be negatively associated with correctional officer job satisfaction even when other important determinants are held constant.
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