A study of vocational guidance in a federal German agency shows discrepancies
between performance and the formally legislated job description. It is contended
that welfare bureaucrats reduce formally stated role schemes in order to cope.
The relational, normative, and functional aspects of reduction are discussed and
mechanisms of cognitive reconciliation of the actual and the formal role are
explained. Taking into account a third focus, namely, individuals' role images, I
interpret the clash between bureaucratic and professional forces in welfare
agencies as related to the political fate of social reform in capitalist societies.
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