Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

This paper critically analyzes use of autonomy or discretion by street-level and representative bureaucrats in execution of their tasks, and seeks to investigate various social, cultural, and psychological factors that determine this bureaucratic outcome.

This paper uses the theoretical frameworks provided by socio-psychological/ organizational behavior theories, and examines how group formation, group membership, group dynamics, and group processes influence the attitudes, prejudices, and the bureaucratic outcomes at the point of service delivery. Couched within the social equity framework, this study uses the case survey method and systematic review to investigate the social, psychological, and cultural factors that influence bureaucratic discretion, especially for those bureaucrats who are at the intersection of race and gender.

This study fills an essential knowledge gap in public management and administration literature by using socio-psychological theories to explain the bureaucratic motivation for discretion, unlike the previous studies, and proposes a new conceptual framework.