Saving time for activation or relationships? The legitimation and performance of automated decision-making for time efficiency in two street-level bureaucracies serving poor and unemployed clients

Figures & data

Table 1. Number of interviewees.

Interviewees	Västerby	Sydstad
Managers and team leaders	2	3
Quality personnel	-	3
Professionals (caseworkers and job coaches)	5	4

Table 2. The legitimacy and performance of ADM.

	Västerby	Sydstad
Time efficiency for what?	Activation (increasing short-term qualifications for, and participation in, work related activities that are useful according to established societal norms) Increase productivity to process clients for jobcentres	Relationships (interaction and communication between social worker and client that intends to enable individualized change and support) Increase productivity to create time spent with clients
Saving time with ADM	Caseworkers control through ADM. Job coaches primarily support. ADM can process more applications.	Caseworkers primarily support clients. ADM facilitates information from applications and reduces control of documentation
Using saved time	Time for more applications (caseworkers) and client meetings (job coaches)	Increased time spent with clients for client meetings
Implication for discretion	ADM relocates discretion: reduced discretion for caseworkers, increased time for job coaches	ADM shapes the form of discretion: determines the structure of client interaction but not its content