How Do Citizens Assess Street‐Level Bureaucrats’ Warmth and Competence? A Typology and Test

Abstract

Citizens encounter many street‐level bureaucrats in their lifetime. How do they assess the traits of the bureaucrats they meet? Understanding citizens’ assessments of bureaucrats is important, because citizens are not passive receivers of policies. This article explores citizens’ classifications of street‐level bureaucrats based on their core task. Using a factorial survey (n = 580), three clusters of bureaucrats are identified: those who are regulation oriented, those who are service oriented, and those who are both regulation and service oriented. Then, the article tests how these three types of bureaucrats are assessed on warmth and competence and whether their gender matters. A between‐subjects experiment (n = 1,602) reveals that regulation‐oriented bureaucrats are assessed as least competent and warm. Moreover, regardless of core task, female bureaucrats are assessed as warmer than males. Female and male bureaucrats are assessed as equally competent. This article shows that bureaucrats are stereotyped by citizens and discusses the implications for the public management literature. Evidence for Practice While researchers and practitioners tend to focus on commonalities between street‐level bureaucrats, focusing on differences—for instance, in terms of core task and gender—may be helpful to understand how citizens see and react to their encounters with bureaucrats. Much like street‐level bureaucrats’ stereotypical notions of citizens, citizens stereotype the bureaucrats they encounter. These stereotypes are based on cues related to the bureaucrats’ core task and gender. Especially for regulation‐oriented organizations and street‐level bureaucrats, such as inspectorates, being aware of stereotypes may be useful when engaging with citizens because they are rated as the least competent and warm.

Processing stereotypes: professionalism confirmed or disconfirmed by sector affiliation?

“…However, Willems (2020) finds that negative words are associated with public servants, but that these play only a minor role. This is supported by a study from de Boer (2020) that finds that both, positive and negative characteristics are associated with various types of street-level bureaucrats.…”

Employer Branding and Recruitment: Social Media Field Experiments Targeting Future Public Employees

“…Still, as transaction costs of job shifting are higher than those for job seekers, longer‐term employer branding endeavors with attractive employer branding signals are necessary. Continuous social media ads might support building employer brands and help address negative stereotypical images of public employers (de Boer 2020).…”

“…Potential recruits may be prejudiced against working for public employers (Asseburg et al. 2020; de Boer 2020) due to stereotypes of lethargy and contempt for—or at least no appreciation for—organizational performance orientation (Korac, Saliterer, and Weigand 2019). This study attempts to counter this perception with a third ad emphasizing the organizational attribute of performance orientation to generate interest in a target group, which might otherwise be more focused on private sector jobs.…”

Discretion in Traffic Stops: The Influence of Budget Cuts on Traffic Citations

“…Traffic stops are where most citizens have face‐to‐face interactions with the police. Citizens' experience during traffic encounters affects their perceptions of fairness, their satisfaction with, and trust in, the police (de Boer 2020; Reisig and Parks 2002). Although the occasional implementation of zero‐tolerance traffic enforcement can raise public awareness of traffic safety, budget‐induced zero‐tolerance traffic enforcement erodes citizen–police relations.…”