Impossible Jobs or Impossible Tasks? Client Volatility and Frontline Policing Practice in Urban Riots
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6366365 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kevin Morrell (0000-0002-0777-0302, Warwick Business School United Kingdom), Graeme Currie (0000-0002-4825-9711, Warwick Business School United Kingdom) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 75 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 264-275 |
| Publication date | 2015-01-13 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Public Administration Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0033-3352 • E-ISSN: 1540-6210 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/puar.12311 |
| OpenAlex | W1997538599 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 52 |
Various public administration jobs are described as “impossible,” meaning that they have an unpopular or illegitimate client base, stakeholders have conflicting values, and leaders and their agency's mission are continually questioned. Although this framework is widely used, it has also become overgeneralized. The authors propose three theoretical extensions to understanding impossible jobs based on findings from a three‐year multimethod study of riot policing. First, a distinction can be drawn between impossible jobs and impossible tasks. Second, the relationship between impossible jobs and street‐level bureaucracy is clarified; the case of riot police shows that some street‐level bureaucrats face impossible tasks. Third, the authors show that the conceptualization of the client base has been overly static—in some situations, the client base fractures, or grows rapidly, and legitimacy can change in real time
Agency (philosophy · Bureaucracy · Business · Conceptualization · Face (sociological concept · Legitimacy · Meaning (existential · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Law · Policing Practices and Perceptions · Psychology · Public Policy and Administration Research · Regulation and Compliance Studies · Social Psychology
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Street-Level Bureaucracy
Human ecology and rural policing
The Politics of Collective Violence
Dealing with Wicked Problems in Networks
Success? Failure? Something in-between? A framework for evaluating crisis management
Dealing with disorder
Trial by media’
The politics of the police
Reading the Signs of the Times
Impossible Jobs in Public Management
Street-Level Leadership
The American system of criminal justice
Affective Leadership and Emotional Labor
It's About Time
From Street‐Level to System‐Level Bureaucracies
Managing the Diary
The law of moments
Examining Policy Implementation in Health Care
Airport Security, High Reliability, and the Problem of Rationality
Cops, Teachers, and the Art of the Impossible
Social Equities and Inequities in Practice
Wrestling with Intellectual Diversity in Public Administration
Case Selection in Public Management Research
Crises and Crisis Management
Why Do (Some) City Police Departments Enforce Federal Immigration Law? Political, Demographic, and Organizational Influences on Local Choices
Making Narrative Count
Modern Knights and Public Dragons
Re-Creating Street-Level Practice
State Agent or Citizen Agent
Public Management and Organizational Performance
Policy Work
Dilemmas in a general theory of planning
Controlling Street-Level Police Discretion
Integrating Rigor and Relevance in Public Administration Scholarship
The critical incident technique
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,64 |
| Citation span | 2015 - 2023 (9) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |