The complexities of digitization and street-level discretion: a socio-materiality perspective

ABSTRACT

This study contributes to the debate on eGovernment and street-level discretion by using a qualitative case study of digitization at a street-level bureaucracy. This study advances this debate in three ways. First, we argue that the impact of digitization on street-level discretion can be best understood by examining the affordances and constraints that emerge relationally through the interactions between users (social) and technology (material). Second, subordinate-supervisor relations shape how street-level bureaucrats exercise discretion, and the introduction of technology reconfigures these relations. Third, system-level and street-level discretion shape rather than displace each other through a dialectic relationship.

KEYWORDS:

• Street-level bureaucracy
• discretion
• digitization
• socio-materiality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mohammad Alshallaqi

Mohammad Alshallaqi graduated in December 2019 from Lancaster University Management School with a PhD in Organization, Work and Technology (OWT) studies. He is interested in studying digital transformations in and around public sector organizations with a particular focus on how practices, structures, and technologies interrelate and shape the outcomes of digital transformation reforms.