Five Bureaucratic Roles in the Age of Digital Transformation: – Insights from Scandinavian Public Organizations

The traditional street-level bureaucrat’s (SLB’s) role has undergone significant changes in the age of digital transformation. These changes have challenged Lipsky’s description of the SLB. To address this, our study aims to analyze how the ongoing digital transformation influences the role of traditional SLB’s, their work activities, and organization. The research question we ask is: How does digital transformation in the public sector influence the roles and work activities of traditional street-level bureaucrats? We have analyzed three large government agencies that administer public services in Scandinavia. We applied Nograšek & Vintar’s framework as a sociotechnical analytical lens in our exploratory qualitative study of three large public organizations. Focusing people, work activities and processes, and enabling digital technologies, we have identified five bureaucratic roles: (1) The automated bureaucrat, (2) the self-servicing citizen, (3) the front-office employee, (4) the back-office employee, and (5) the specialized bureaucrat. While the SLB was an essential actor in the traditional street level bureaucracy, these five roles are equally essential to a functioning contemporary bureaucracy. We argue that the five roles have greater explanatory power for understanding bureaucratic roles, including digital technologies, and contemporary ways of managing public services in the age of digital transformation.