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ROMANIAN STREET LEVEL BUREAUCRACY: A DESCRIPTIVE FOUNDATION

Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences

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Title ROMANIAN STREET LEVEL BUREAUCRACY: A DESCRIPTIVE FOUNDATION
 
Creator BALICA, Dan Octavian
HENDERSON, Alexander
ȚICLĂU, Tudor Cristian; Lecturer, Department of Public Administration
and Management, Faculty of Political,
Administrative and Communication Sciences,
Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
 
Subject street-level bureaucracy; Romania; discretion; rule abidance; conformity; public sector motivation; power distance; uncertainty avoidance; goal ambiguity; organizational commitment.
 
Description Despite our relatively broad and robust understanding of street level bureaucracy in a Western context, this area of inquiry remains somewhat understudied in an Eastern European context. This is particularly problematic for Romania, where poor educational stock, weak accountability mechanism, and rather frail media make front line bureaucrats’ behavior disproportionately critical to public service provision. This article partially fills this void and brings a muchneeded overview of street-level bureaucracy in Romania. Relying on recent survey data collected from 407 front line workers, the study covers four key public administration services (taxation, consumer, environmental, and labor protection) and street-level bureaucracy, describes demographics, values, work environment, and attitudes towards rules and citizens. It shows that Romanian front line workers are relatively willing to bend and break the rules if their organizational goals demand so, and that they enjoy important levels of discretion and work autonomy. These bureaucrats also depict high levels of organizational commitment, low levels of uncertainty tolerance, and high power distance. The article concludes with comments and implications for future research in policy implementation at the front lines.
 
Publisher Babes Bolyai University
 
Contributor
 
Date 2018-12-28
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Peer-reviewed Article
 
Format application/pdf
 
Identifier http://rtsa.ro/tras/index.php/tras/article/view/577
10.24193/tras.SI2018.1
 
Source Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences; 2018: Special Issue; 5-26
1842-2845
10.24193/tras.SI2018
 
Language eng
 
Relation http://rtsa.ro/tras/index.php/tras/article/view/577/563
 
Rights Copyright (c) 2018 Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences