Enablers or deterrent? Role of street level managers in use of creativity at the frontlines

Abstract

Using qualitative data from frontline police organizations in Punjab, Pakistan, this article investigates the role of street level management on creativity and improvisation in the frontline. Our findings show that the professional identities and attitudes of the street level managers play an important role in mediating creativity by the frontline workers, especially in the hierarchal organizational structure. If the managers adopted rule‐following attitude, frontline workers often faced hindrances in the use of creativity, leading to alienation. In contrast, if managers adopted a defiant attitude, frontline workers engaged in moderated creativity as they assumed the risk of rule breaking. This shows that creativity and innovation in organizations with no formal mandate to improvize is a messy and political process. Our study indicates the need to extend the research on policy innovation to hierarchal bureaucracies and organisational contexts where team work is not encouraged.