Creative Discretion on the Frontline of Public Services: A Longitudinal Qualitative Digital Diary and Interview Study

“Creative discretion”—defined as street-level bureaucrats' use of their discretion to generate novel and useful ideas for customizing services to meet the needs of service users, superiors, and themselves—is vital as governments shift from traditional public management to a more user-centered approach, emphasizing responsiveness over technocracy. Central to this shift is creative discretion, which fosters innovative solutions tailored to citizens' needs. However, literature suggests the public sector may hinder creativity due to risk aversion and increased accountability demands. Our explorative diary and interview study examines stimulators and barriers to creative discretion among street-level bureaucrats in Dutch integrated neighborhood teams. These frontline social work teams provide a typical context to study factors determining creative discretion. Our findings highlight the importance of creative discretion and factors influencing it in practice. This study fills a research gap and contributes to understanding creative discretion in public sector service delivery.