The police and ‘the balance’— managing the workload within Swedish investigation units

Liljegren, Andreas,1970Gothenburg University,Göteborgs universitet,Institutionen för socialt arbete,Department of Social Work,Department of Social Work, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden (författare)

Professionals within street-level organizations are essential for the delivery of public services to citizens. However, among a number of difficult dilemmas, they have to deal with an extensive workload. The police can be seen as a good example of this; they are expected to solve most crimes, including the so-called mass crimes and the more spectacular cases that make it into media headlines, and often on a continually decreasing budget. A key regulating mechanism for investigation departments in the Swedish police is the so-called balance. The balance can be described as a basket in which they put the cases that there is a desire and potential to work on but not in the immediate term. The purpose of this article is to analyse the balance as a way of rationing the workload within the Swedish police. Working with the balance consists of two processes: limiting and buffering the workload. Limiting is the practice of reducing the work in a situation. Buffering is the process of putting some work on hold to deal with later, of which the article identifies five kinds; functional, problematic, quasi, progressive, and symbolic buffering. The exploration of ‘the balance’ contributes to our understanding of how street level organizations attempt to defend their professional jurisdictions, their well-being, and their ability to complete their duties.

Berlin, Johan,1975Högskolan Väst,Avdelningen för socialt arbete och socialpedagogik(Swepub:hv)jbe (författare)
Szücs, Stefan,1964Gothenburg University,Göteborgs universitet,Institutionen för socialt arbete,Department of Social Work,Department of Social Work, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden(Swepub:gu)xszust (författare)
Höjer, Staffan,1953Gothenburg University,Göteborgs universitet,Institutionen för socialt arbete,Department of Social Work,Department of Social Work, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden(Swepub:gu)xhojst (författare)
Göteborgs universitetInstitutionen för socialt arbete (creator_code:org_t)

Ingår i:Journal of Professions and Organizations: Oxford University Press (OUP)8:1, s. 70-852051-88112051-8803

Av författaren/redakt...: Liljegren, Andre ...; Berlin, Johan, 1 ...; Szücs, Stefan, 1 ...; Höjer, Staffan, ...

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