AbstractEssay in political science, C-level, by Line Säll, spring semester 2007.Tutor: Susan Marton.?To do things by the rule of law -A study in the Discretion of front-line bureaucrats?This essay has it´s starting-point in the theoretical problem of social science to unite democracy and bureaucracy. The purpose is to illustrate the problems with the Discretion of front-line bureaucrats in a democratic state. The theoretical approach is front-line bureaucracy-theory. Certain characteristics of the work of street-level bureaucrats makes it impossible to severly reduce Discretion.

AbstractSocial welfare workers employed in the same county base their assessments on the same laws, routines and guidelines, yet it seems that they sometimes come to different decisions. It's the Discretion that enables the social workers to make individualized decisions adapted to each clients unique situation.The purpose of this paper is to examine social welfare workers reflections on Discretion and what influences their Discretion in the professional role.Six qualitative interviews were conducted with social welfare workers in three communitys i the middle of Sweden.The main result shows that it is primarily four factors that affect the social welfare workers Discretion in the professional role :External factors such as other organizations change of regulations and cooperation with other organizations.Organizational factors such as routines, rules and guidelines .Professional factors such as the opportunity to use experience and professionalknowledge to determine which measure works in different situations.Individual factors like the workers ability for initiative and the clients individualcircumstances. Social welfare workers feel that they have a relatively wide Discretion in their profession. They believe they have the ability to make individual evaluations of each client, however they also believe that their Discretion often is limited by lack of time.Key words: social welfare workers, clients, Discretion, assessments. .

The aim of the study was to understand limitations and possibilities to the Discretion of managers in order to fulfill wishes of users. The study is based on six interviews, three with managers and three with staff in common homes for mentally disabled people. The study took place in a municipality in Sweden in the spring of 2010. We used an interview guide with specific themes and questions. The theoretical framework was based on organizational theories as well as theories about management and Discretion.

The overall purpose of this essay was to provide a better understanding of the importance of Discretion for social workers in direct social services. To answer the purpose three questions were formulated: (1) How do social workers define and describe their Discretion and their ability to independently accomplish their work? (2) How do social workers experience that workplace organization, policies and economic conditions interact with their Discretion and (3) How do social workers experience that the interaction with the client can affect how they use their Discretion in the individual case? The method used was qualitative interviews. The theoretical framework was Michael Lipskys (1980) Street-level bureaucracy and the four themes organization, professional role, skills and interaction.The results showed that the respondents, although they did not consider themselves to be affected by the economy still adapted to budget restrictions when they said that they were cost conscious in their work. This adjustment to budget framework could possibly be what made them not feel limited in their work.

This study regards the Swedish documentation system, BBiC, which is translated from the English version LACS. BBiC is created to make sure that the children?s needs are put in centre of attention in child protection investigations. The BBiC-system becomes problematic regarding unaccompanied refugee children because of the parent-perspective which is a keystone in the system. Therefor BBiC creates Discretion for the social worker which is not BBiC: s original intension.

The overall aim of this study is to investigate how social workers who are dealing with financial assistance are experiencing Discretion in their daily work. The aim of the study is also to examine how social workers who are dealing with financial assistance relates to the controlling and the supporting functions of their daily work and how this in turn affects the attitude to the client. In order to examine the aim of the study, qualitative method was used. Eight social workers have been interviewed and presented with two fictitious cases that they have been able to discuss. Theories regarding the street-level bureaucrat and its Discretion have been used to interpret and understand the collected material.

Social workers in the Social Services are seen as professionals and they are associatedwith a substantial degree of freedom to carry out their work in order to interpret theSocial Services Act and make decisions. This freedom is referred to as Discretion andis a central aspect of the role of the social worker. But the social worker is employedwithin an organisation that exists in an environment influenced of political decisionswhich sets boundaries to how far the freedom stretches. The general aim with thisthesis is to gain insight in how social workers within the Social Services experiencetheir Discretion. Secondary this thesis also aims to explore how Discretion is shapedand negotiated.

Ever since Lipsky wrote about street-level bureaucrats in 1980 the main belief has been that certain characteristics of their jobs make it exceptionally difficult to severely reduce their Discretion. However, Discretion comes at a price and if public servants abuse their power the legitimacy of government is at risk and ultimately even the democracy.This thesis address this question by analysing the Swedish employment service which in the beginning of 2001 started a project called ?Af Sverige? trying to improve internal rule of law. By comparing two local and fairly equal jobcentres and how the street-level bureaucrats within use their Discretion, I seek to find support for my hypotheses that organizing local jobcentres according to the principles of machine bureaucracy plays a significant part in reducing Discretion.My findings show that a jobcentre characterised by strict rules, few units, good communications and a forthright manager who delegates formal power to the employees results in a stricter and more uniform application of regulations among the street-level bureaucrats. My conclusion is therefore unambiguous.

This study is about job training for people with psycho-social problems without income. The purpose with this sort of job training is to bring these people back to the regular labor market as well as the experience of having a job. In the labor market situation in Sweden today there?s no guarantee that the individual will return to the labor market after having undergone job training. The aim of this study is to understand how supervisors at job training activities experience that the organizations of the activities and resources affect their work.

The aim of the study is to describe social workers Discretion when it comes to the relation between children placed away from home and their biological parents.The study describes how the social worker designs the contacts with the biological parents, for instance the extension for the actual meeting. The results are based on six interviews conducted with social workers who work with foster children. They have responded to questions related to the contact between children and their biological parent. The questions are based on eight vignettes. The contents of the vignettes show different conditions that affect the contact, for example age and foster care attitudes The results of the study have been compared to other previous research in Discretion of the social worker and contacts between children and their biological parents.In summary the study shows that there is  high degree of independence for the social workers designing their work and that their level of Discretion.

The aim of this study has been to highlight how school social workers experience their Discretion, and furthermore how they feel about working in a context mainly dedicated to teachers. The study is executed with a qualitative research method where ten interviews with school social workers, in eight schools in the area of Stockholm have been conducted. The theoretical framework used to analyze the results was Discretion, street-level bureaucracy and human service organizations.The main findings of this study imply that the most important ambition of the social work that was conducted in the schools was to help the students reach their knowledge goals. The assignment is, however, not clearly defined, which has lead to school social workers defining the mission and goals themselves. They all have wide Discretion and great possibilities to decide how to execute their work, but how they use the freedom that was given seems to vary among them.

The aim of our study was to increase the awareness of the importance of implementation when a policy document is widely introduced. We wanted to examine how a political decision was implemented on different levels in a social care administration. We also wanted to examine the Discretion related to the decision on different levels in the organisation, and if the work is followed up. The theoretical frame of reference in our study is Vedung?s implementation model and Lipsky?s theory about street-level bureaucrats.

Title: [Frontline bureaucrats Discretion in the transition to Establishment Reform]This essay aims to study Discretion among frontline bureaucrats as an important factor in the integration of immigrants. In contrast to other studies of Discretion this essays has its focus on a new establishment reform that has been recently legislated. The theoretical frame is based on the concept of frontline bureaucracy developed by M. Lipsky (2010). In the analysis of the Discretion in this specific area I have been inspired by I.

Our aim of this study is to analyze how the concept of reasonable standard of living is by assistance officers in geriatric care, as well as the impact of their Discretion on the assessment. We conducted a qualitative study with the help of interviews. During the collection of the empirical material, we have experienced greater confusion among assistance officers opinion about the concept of reasonable standard of living. We lacked a clear answer to the concept content. The interview subjects' responses did not differ so much, they said, among other things, that the concept is difficult to interpret, fuzzy, or that they do not have a good understanding of it.

The purpose of this essay is to study seven different school counsellors? way of working and collaborating with students with an ADHD diagnosis. The informants we met come from different high schools in southern Sweden. The study is based on a qualitative approach and the primary knowledge was established through semi-structured interviews. The secondary knowledge is accounted for the form of previous research and theories.