Discretion and its Effects: Analyzing the Role of Street-Level Bureaucrats’ Policy Enforcement Style

Abstract This study examines street-level bureaucrats’ discretion as it informs their enforcement style during personal encounters with clients and considers how that style defines bureaucrats’ perceptions of their clients. A conceptual model is developed based on street-level bureaucracy theory and existing implementation literature and is tested using field data collected from a sample of 241 labor inspectors in the Malaysian Department of Labor. Structural Equation Modelling results show that discretion was positively related to client meaningfulness, and the relationship between discretion and client meaningfulness was significantly mediated by the accommodation and facilitation dimensions of enforcement style. The findings are significant as they illuminate street-level bureaucrats’ behavior and perceptions during encounters with clients and confirm that enforcement style is a three-dimensional concept. Moreover, this research argues that the perceptions of bureaucrats toward their clients redefines their behavior during the policy enforcement process and ultimately shapes their encounters with the public. Furthermore, theory and practical implications derived from the findings are discussed.