Frontline Employees' Responses to Citizens' Communication of Administrative Burdens

TY - JOUR

T1 - Frontline Employees' Responses to Citizens' Communication of Administrative Burdens

AU - Halling, Aske

AU - Petersen, Niels Bjørn Grund

PY - 2024/11/1

Y1 - 2024/11/1

N2 - The literature on administrative burdens demonstrates that citizens may experience different kinds of administrative burdens when interacting with the state. However, we know little about whether citizens' communication of these experiences affects how frontline employees implement compliance demands. Building on the street-level bureaucracy and administrative burden literature, we hypothesize that citizens' communication of direct and indirect psychological costs affects frontline employees' inclination to accommodate citizens. Furthermore, we expect this effect to be stronger for members of the ethnic majority than for ethnic minority members. We test these expectations using a preregistered survey experiment on a sample of 1048 Danish public caseworkers from 32 employment agencies. Results show that frontline employees are indeed more willing to reduce demands and help citizens that communicate their experiences of direct and indirect psychological costs. Further, we find some evidence that frontline employees are more responsive to citizens from the ethnic majority.

AB - The literature on administrative burdens demonstrates that citizens may experience different kinds of administrative burdens when interacting with the state. However, we know little about whether citizens' communication of these experiences affects how frontline employees implement compliance demands. Building on the street-level bureaucracy and administrative burden literature, we hypothesize that citizens' communication of direct and indirect psychological costs affects frontline employees' inclination to accommodate citizens. Furthermore, we expect this effect to be stronger for members of the ethnic majority than for ethnic minority members. We test these expectations using a preregistered survey experiment on a sample of 1048 Danish public caseworkers from 32 employment agencies. Results show that frontline employees are indeed more willing to reduce demands and help citizens that communicate their experiences of direct and indirect psychological costs. Further, we find some evidence that frontline employees are more responsive to citizens from the ethnic majority.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85186919352&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/puar.13800

DO - 10.1111/puar.13800

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0033-3352

VL - 84

SP - 1017

EP - 1037

JO - Public Administration Review

JF - Public Administration Review

IS - 6

ER -