Abstract
What factors influence street-level bureaucrats’ willingness to risk their lives during acute crises? The research on street-level bureaucrats’ willingness to risk their lives is in its infancy. While previous literature has identified several factors that influence street-level bureaucrats’ routine risk-taking behavior, the motivations that drive them to put themselves in harm's way during crises may differ. To explore this question, we conducted interviews with 29 police officers who were first responders during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. All interviewees actively risked their lives during this event. Our findings suggest that the motivations for street-level bureaucrats to risk their lives during crises differ from those during routine operations. In times of crisis, street-level bureaucrats are primarily driven by personal and organizational values such as purpose, duty, and camaraderie. Content warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of a warzone.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 615-626 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | American Review of Public Administration |
| Volume | 55 |
| Issue number | 7-8 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1 Oct 2025 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Keywords
- crisis management
- police
- risking life
- street-level bureaucrats
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Sociology and Political Science
- Public Administration
- Marketing