Performance Prospects of Remote Work in Street-Level Bureaucratic Settings: Insights From Teachers and Caseworkers in Denmark

Abstract

What are the prospects of remote work—working from home—in the context of street-level bureaucratic work? This article explores how remote work relates to performance in public service settings. Focusing on the push toward remote work induced by the COVID-19 pandemic and using survey responses from Danish frontline workers ( n = 1,578) in two types of public service organizations, we find that remote work is associated with a loss in self-reported performance. The loss is greater for frontline workers in people-changing relative to people-processing organizations—and appears driven by lacking motivation, work tools, and coworker interactions.