Frontline discretion from a Bourdieu-inspired field perspective: an ethnographic case study of a Norwegian activation measure for sick-listed employees

ABSTRACT

Frontline work is increasingly undertaken in multi-stakeholder settings, indicating a need to revisit issues of frontline discretion. This ethnographic case study, based on an activation measure for sick-listed employees in Norway, applies a Bourdieu-inspired field analysis of frontline discretion. We approach frontline discretion in the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) as comprised by ‘position-takings’ in an available space of possibilities in the field of work reintegration. A key feature of this field is that stakeholders employ opposing forms of capital: the NAV caseworker employs activation capital; sick-listed employees use individual or client capital; client employers draw on economic capital; and the clients’ general practitioners employ medical expertise capital. We find that NAV caseworkers undertake three specific position-takings in manoeuvring the other forms of stakeholder capital: nudging and negotiating with and between stakeholders; legitimising NAV’s interests and demands; and making other stakeholders accountable. Notably, frontline discretion is constituted in the configuration of the forms of stakeholder capital, including that of their own organisation, which requires administration and compromises between them. Our theoretical contribution is that an administrative form of capital becomes symbolic, potentially incorporating frontline workers’ future professional habitus.

SAMMENDRAG

Frontlinjearbeid utføres i økende grad settinger der flere aktører er til stede, noe som indikerer et behov for å utforske førstelinjearbeideres skjønnsutøvelse. Denne etnografiske casestudien, basert på et aktiveringstiltak for sykemeldte i Norge, anvender en Bourdieu-inspirert feltanalyse av skjønnsutøvelse i førstelinjen. Vi tar utgangspunkt i førstelinjearbeid som ulike posisjoneringer i et tilgjengelig felt av posisjoner innen arbeidsintegreringsfeltet. Et sentralt trekk ved dette feltet er at ulike aktører (her arbeidsgivere og allmennleger) besitter ulike former for kapital fra sine respektive organisasjoner. Vi finner at førstelinjearbeiderne tar i bruk tre spesifikke posisjoneringer relatert til aktørenes kapital: ‘dulting’ og forhandlinger mellom aktører, legitimering av egne interesser og krav, og ansvarliggjøring av andre aktører. Førstelinjearbeidernes skjønnsutøvelse dannes dermed i konfigurasjonen mellom de ulike aktørenes interesser, inkludert førstelinjearbeiderenes egen organisasjon. Dette fører til et behov for å administrere og inngå kompromisser mellom dem. Vårt teoretiske bidrag er at en administrativ form for kapital blir symbolsk og potensielt påvirker førstelinjearbeidernes fremtidige profesjonelle habitus.

KEYWORDS:

• Frontline discretion
• street-level bureaucracies
• Bourdieu field analysis
• multi-stakeholder setting
• activation policies

NØKKELORD:

• Skjønnsutøvelse
• bakkebyråkratier
• Bourdieu’ feltanalyse
• multidimensjonale settinger
• aktiveringspolitikk

Acknowledgements

The Norwegian Social Science Data Service approved the study, no. 59650. The authors would like to thank colleagues at the University of South-Eastern Norway for commenting on earlier manuscript drafts. The authors would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for valuable comments, and last but not least, the participants in the study.

Disclosure statement

The article is part of the first author’s PhD project. The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Notes

1 Approximately 45,000 DM2s are conducted annually (Oslo Economics, 2021).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Norwegian Research Council [272967].

Notes on contributors

Karianne Nyheim Stray

Karianne Nyheim Stray is a postdoctoral fellow at the School of Business at the University of South-Eastern Norway (USN). The article is part of her PhD project, affiliated with the Person-centred healthcare research PhD program at USN. Karianne was also admitted to a Norwegian Research Council program to enhance research and innovation in Norwegian public administration services, as she was employed by the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV). Her research areas include social welfare, activation policies and frontline work. In her PhD work, she studied NAVs follow-up work of sick listed employees. Karianne holds a MA of Health Promotion from the USN.

Ole Jacob Thomassen

Ole Jacob Thomassen holds a PhD and is an associate professor at the School of Business, department of business, history and social sciences, at the University of South-East Norway. His research area lies within critical organisation and management research, work environment research, public administration research and the Nordic welfare model. Thomassens main area of teaching is in organisational sociology (BA), New Institutional Theory and qualitative methods (MA) and he supervises candidates at BA, MA and PhD – levels.