Abstract

In this chapter the ways that first-line supervision gets attention in street-level bureaucracy research are addressed. The objective is to make connections between existing theoretical-empirical knowledge on public management and street-level bureaucracy. While a robust literature exists on public management generally, it does not look at the ways in which supervisors’ behaviours shape the policies that citizens actually experience. Instead, that literature addresses the links between management and performance, while mostly focusing on managers in higher positions. At the same time, in street-level bureaucracy research explicit attention to first-line supervision has remained limited as well. The chapter shows that first-line managers are major players in policymaking at the street level of government bureaucracy. While managing upward, downward and outward. they fulfil various roles in the policy process.