Hvad forklarer frontmedarbejderes reaktion på klientadfærd?

Because street-level bureaucrat must interact with clients on a daily basis, the content of this interaction becomes important. When interacting with clients bureaucrats can choose different styles of interaction, but the client can also react in different ways towards the bureaucrats. In this study we test whether the bureaucrats’ style of interaction affects the decisions they make when assessing the demeanour of the client and whether the bureaucrats’ style of interaction is linked to the core task (service/regulation) they perform. The study gives important insight into under what circumstances client demeanour becomes a challenge to impartial decision-making. The study draws on nationally representative survey data involving 668 employees from three Danish institutions. The findings confirm that the bureaucrats’ styles of interaction affect the decisions they make when assessing the demeanour of the client and that the bureaucrat’s choice of style varies systematically across the core task performed.