Professionals in public service do not have it easy. They suffer under the constraints of government, market and managers, and are confronted with ever-higher demands that threaten their discretionary space. Freidson (2001) sees an advancing market logic in which citizens present themselves as vocal and demanding consumers who do not want to hear about the considerations and assessments that professionals normally make on the basis of their professional standards. Administrators, civil servants and managers are also constantly making higher demands on professionals that have little to do with the work itself. Standardisation and protocols resulting from this bureaucratic logic also limit professional space.

The results of research in the degree to which the discretionary space of social professionals is threatened are less clear. Jordan (2001) predicts that in the near future professionals will no longer be able to make professional judgements. Instead, they will have to service government guidelines and policies, instructions from research departments, and orders from management. Practitioners will thus become executors instead of professionals. In the Netherlands, Tonkens (2003) also concludes that professionals find themselves in the middle of a painful fissure between highly demanding citizens and officious managers.

Further research reveals that policy developments such as accountability, free-market processes and demand-oriented work have not yet acquired an urgent meaning for the practice of many social professionals. The government does want to be in charge of things by demanding accountability and threatening to use market practices, but it does not yet know where that might eventually lead. It also seems that in some parts of the social sector (like community work) things are not so bad regarding the forceful and intrusive behaviour of managers, because they usually know from practice that a professionals’ space is not a trivial concern. In fact, they often try to protect it. Social professionals aren't taken aback by citizens’ outspokenness. On the contrary, fostering the empowerment of citizens is one of their main tasks (Kremer & Verplanke 2004; Spierts et al. 2003). In short, although at present – at least for part of the professional group – there is no great urgency, there are indications of a creeping curtailment of professional space.