Why Street-Level Bureaucrats Leave: The Effects of Role Ambiguity and Organizational Transparency on Turnover Intention

• In Event: Insights on Street-Level Bureaucracy

Abstract

Street-level bureaucrats interact directly with citizens and exercise discretionary power in decisions that significantly affect people’s lives. However, they often encounter dilemmas in their daily work, such as role ambiguity and a lack of organizational transparency (Peeters & Campos, 2023). These challenges are even more pronounced for social workers in nonprofit organizations, which typically provide less organizational support while placing greater demands on employees compared to government agencies (Godefroid, Plattfaut, & Niehaves, 2024). As a result, social workers frequently report high levels of turnover intention (Cho & Song, 2017).In China, these issues are particularly salient. Empirical evidence shows that over 20% of social workers in Shenzhen left their positions in 2018 (Jiang, Wang, Chui, & Xu, 2019), and more than 25% reported turnover intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic (Qing et al., 2023). High turnover undermines organizational stability, disrupts service continuity, and threatens long-term effectiveness (Cho & Song, 2017). Despite the urgency of the problem, empirical research on how individual and organizational factors—such as role ambiguity and organizational transparency—shape turnover intention remains limited in the Chinese context, particularly with regard to how job demands and resources might moderate these effects.Drawing on Michael Lipsky’s (1980) street-level bureaucracy theory—which posits that front-line public service workers operate under systemic constraints such as scarce resources, ambiguous directives, and conflicting public expectations—this study contends that role ambiguity and low organizational transparency are critical drivers of turnover intention. Role ambiguity, or uncertainty about job responsibilities, performance criteria, or decision-making authority, forces social workers to navigate complex and emotionally demanding situations without clear guidance. Simultaneously, low organizational transparency—manifested in opaque policies, inconsistent communication, or unclear decision-making processes—compounds these challenges by creating institutional uncertainty and weakening perceived support. Such conditions foster a sense of isolation and increase the risk of burnout and turnover.Building on the Job Demands–Resources model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007), this study further examines how job demands and resources—particularly job autonomy—interact with these challenges. We hypothesize that job autonomy can buffer the negative effects of role ambiguity and low organizational transparency.To investigate these relationships, we utilize data from the China Social Work Longitudinal Study (CSWLS), a nationally representative survey of Chinese social institutions and social workers conducted by Yuan, Liu, Sun, and He (2021). Using multilevel regression analysis with both individual- and institution-level variables, we examine how role ambiguity and organizational transparency are associated with turnover intention.Preliminary results indicate that higher levels of role ambiguity and lower levels of organizational transparency are significantly associated with greater turnover intention. Additionally, job autonomy appears to moderate these relationships by reducing the negative impact of both role ambiguity and low transparency.These findings offer valuable insights into how organizational and individual factors influence street-level bureaucrats’ retention. By highlighting the significance of job demands and resources, this study contributes to the broader literature on public management and provides practical recommendations for enhancing talent management and improving service delivery in China’s nonprofit sector.

Authors

• Tingzhong Huang, Fudan University
  Presenting Author

• Wenyan Tu, Fudan University
  Non-Presenting Co-Author