Governance at ground level: The frontline bureaucrat in the age of marketsand networks

Many governments have attempted to reform their public management systems o ver the past decade. But how do reforms play out at the frontline of govern ment where the work is done We looked at the impacts of system changes on f rontline staff. In an effort to understand the actual work orientations of frontline bureaucrats, we identified four distinctive images of bureaucrati c work: procedural bureaucracy, corporate bureaucracy, market bureaucracy, and network bureaucracy These images each have different foci on the use of goals, relationships with clients, approach to supervision, disciplinary, strategies, and relations with other key organizations in their environment . Looking at government, private non-profit, and private for-profit organiz ations, we found only three distinct images. The distinct market and corpor ate orientations we proposed merged into a single orientation not previousl y identified or analyzed in the research literature. We also found consider able variation among frontline bureaucrats in their orientations toward bur eaucracy. Practitioners appeared to follow three common repertoires, but th ese were not. determined by the type of organization they worked in. Manage rs wishing to prioritize frontline work may now identify the Key attributes of these alternate approaches and compare them with performance informatio n or use them to assess the training need of agencies contributing to their programs. Clients and their advocates may also use these results to assess their changing prospects under different bureaucratic conditions.