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CROSS ADMINITRATIVE CULTURE AND VALUES
A research report submitted in fulfilment of the requirement
for Cross Administrative Culture and Values subject
Presented to:
Dr. Aquila
Prepared by:
Ester Karosekali
PhD Development Administration student
Graduate Studies Business and Management
Philippines Christian University Dasmarinas
Summer 2008-2009
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ADMINISTRATIVE CULTURE - THE CONCEPTS
According to the recently published ENCARTA WORLD ENGLISH
DICTIONARY, it means at least nine different things, three of
which can be ignored here: they relate to 1. Biology as in a
culture for growing micro organisms; 2. The micro organisms
grown in such an environment; and 3. Tillage, as when
preparing land for growing crops. The six other senses are
all relevant to administrative culture, as summarized below.
To help us distinguish between them, a distinctive term is
proposed for each manifestation of administrative culture.
1. The Arts - music, literature, sculpture and painting. We
may write Culture, capitalized, for this concept and
Aesthetic Administrative Culture for the aesthetic products
seen in Public Works that glorify the achievements of a
People and a State - they adorn public buildings, parks,
murals, and sculptures, and they promote ceremonial music and
public festivals.
2. Knowledge and Sophistication - the result of an excellent
education. Preparing humane public officials, such as members
of the Administrative Class, who are capable of integrating
and implementing complex policies for the general welfare is
an example of Educated Administrative Culture at its best.
The tradition of generalist career bureaucracies is as
ancient as the Chinese mandarinate. It reached India via the
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British Imperial Indian Civil Service, from which it migrated
to the English Administrative Class and, radically
transformed, the American career civil services.
3. Shared Beliefs and Practices - the anthropological sense
of a culture includes all the distinctive attitudes and
behaviours of a community - in this sense we may speak of
bureaucratic culture, referring to the characteristic life-
ways of public officials, including military personnel as
well as civil servants. The bureaucratic culture may be seen
as one dimension of a total cultural system that exists in a
single society - or, more broadly, we find patterns of
bureaucratic culture that reproduce themselves in many
societies where the dynamics of governance by officials
generates distinctive cultural features that exist
independently of the local cultural system.
4. People who share a Culture - anthropologists also refer to
the community whose members adhere to shared beliefs and
practices as a culture. In this sense, bureaucratic cultures
pertain to bureaucracies or, more broadly, to societies.
Traditional societies normally have a well-established
cultural system shared by all their members of a society, but
modern societies are increasingly heterogeneous as global
forces intrude into and transform their ways of life. In this
context, bureaucracies increasingly resemble each other
across political boundaries, both because administrative
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organizations spontaneously produce their own distinctive
beliefs and practices, and also because public officials
actively borrow and export some of their characteristic
features.
5. Shared Attitudes - in a metaphoric sense, we speak of a
group's code of conduct as its organizational culture. The
code of silence, for example, is a common attitude of public
officials who conceal each other's misconduct, perhaps hoping
thereby to escape personal responsibility - we may call it
self-protective administrative culture. One way to identify
this form of administrative culture is to observe the changes
in attitude and behaviour of officials when they are on-duty
by comparison with how they act when they are off-duty.
6. Improvement - a systematic effort to enhance skills and
capabilities as exemplified in programs of physical culture.
Administratively, this can take the form of in-service
training and we might understand normative administrative
culture as activities that improve the efficiency and quality
of public administration through research, education and
training. Normative administrative culture results from
efforts by political leaders and top bureaucrats to reform
(or "re-invent") organizational structure and guidelines in
order to achieve more efficiency and responsible governance.
No doubt, conscientious public servants also seek to improve
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their own performance - in this sense administrative culture
involves the enhancement of administrative performance.
Administrative culture marks perception, interpretation and
behaviour patterns of publicly official (an inclusive leading
official). An administrative internal perspective (among
themselves, opposite new co-workers etc.) and an
administrative external aspect (opposite politicians,
citizen, media etc.) can be differentiated.
Culture and Diversity
Culture is a system of values, beliefs, traditions and
practices which structures and regulates the behaviour of
individuals as well as of groups of human beings; as such,
culture influences the lives of individuals and collectives.
A culture is generally embodied in “its arts, music, oral and
written literature, moral life, ideals of excellence,
exemplary individuals and the vision of the good life”
(Parekh, 2000, pp. 143-144). Culture helps citizens to lead
their lives with freedom and dignity, which, over time,
becomes heritage. The cultural heritage of a nation may be
seen as possessing a composite and heterogeneous culture,
drawing upon diverse traditions. A culture is also
represented by its myths, customs, rituals, symbols,
traditions, institutions and the manner of communication. As
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such, it is not uncommon to see different societies
differently interpreting, prioritizing and operational zing
their vision of a good life, moral values, myths and customs
in their respective cultures. Cultural diversity, then,
represents various cultural communities’ distinct ways of
life, beliefs and practices and their views of the world
surrounding them.
Human diversity consists of various attributes or markers,
such as culture, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, caste,
tribe, physical ability, sexual orientation, age, economic,
geographical background and status. In this essay, the author
concentrates on the cultural dimension of human diversity.
There are two main constituent parts of cultural diversity:
cultural freedom and multiculturalism.
Has cultural diversity weakened the merit principle in the
public service?
One of the foundations of the traditional Western public
administration system has been the merit principle, which
emerged as a main component of the Western administrative
culture, largely influenced by Max Weber and other
administrative philosophy gurus. The American scientific
management specialists thought that science of administration
was an end itself worthy of systematic study and improvement.
For them, government administration was a machine to be
driven by scientific management theories such as POSDCORB
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principles, PPBS, MBO, etc. It was also thought that the
scientific study of administration led to the discovery of
principles of administration analogous to the principles or
laws of the physical sciences. And finally, it was assumed
that the principles of administration determined the way in
which specific administrative values such as efficiency and
economy could be realized. In such a scientific environment,
the use of merit principle became the main ingredient which
sustained the functioning of government administration.
Although the human element was introduced at a later stage,
public administration remained a scientific endeavour. The
individuality was emphasized in scientific management because
the individual was the unit of measurement in relation to
output, efficiency and accountability. Such a philosophy was
well suited for the entrenchment of the merit principle,
which encouraged individual achievement. The merit principle
was initially used to control political interference and
patronage as well as corruption in the government service
recruitment and appointments. It also meant that public
servants would not be permitted to engage in any partisan
work. The principle, when applied to recruitment and
promotion in the public service, emphasized individual
suitability to perform a fixed set of duties. Merit, then,
involved the determination of an individual’s basic abilities
(including educational qualifications, training and
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preparedness for the task) and the ability to develop new
skills as change dictated.
It was much later, after World War II, which a different
philosophy of administration emerged which stated that public
service administration cannot be reduced to a science alone
because the imperatives of ethics and morality could remain
fenced out. Emergent values such as equity, social justice
and non-discrimination based on race, ethnic origin, culture,
language, etc. started making inroads into the monolithic
world of administrative culture. However, the introduction of
social equity in the public service (human resources)
management also created an uncertainty including the fear for
loss of objectivity, efficiency, economy and accountability.
Thus, a tortuous evolution occurred when the issue of
managing diversity (or social equity, as well as affirmative
action) in the public service was raised which was perceived
as the beginning of the end of the merit principle.
In each of the countries where an affirmative action, equal
employment opportunity or a quota system was introduced,
various objections were raised:
a) It was thought that such a social equity programme may
not in reality benefit those who were the real victims
of discrimination but assist and accelerate the mobility
of those in an organization who (because of their race
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or ethnic origin) were already doing well under the
existing system.
b) It was also claimed that if the high test scores were to
be reduced or waived especially for the disadvantaged,
then such a discriminatory practice would get entrenched
indefinitely thereby weakening the effectiveness of
government operations.
c) It was suggested that without a sunset clause to such a
practice even after the public service employment has
achieved it target level for representation of the
proportion of disadvantaged groups to the population at
large, the practice would be continued.
d) Finally, if such a privilege is granted once, it could
turn into a fundamental right to those cultural
minorities for generations to come.
These questions are still asked in many countries. These
tough questions need to be discussed thoroughly, not because
they are raised by those who are the sufferers of reverse
discrimination, but mostly because such issues influence the
trust of people in the process of democratic pluralism and
good governance.
A New Administrative Culture
Whether or not public administration moves beyond its current
crossroads, it is likely that a new administrative culture
will emerge. Public administrators of the future will have to
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be at ease with complexity, law and flexibility. They will be
performance-oriented, have a strong service ethic, span
boundaries, and be adroit at conflict avoidance and
resolution. The public sector will increasingly manage
without mangers, in Shan Martin's phrase. Public
administrators will be personally responsible for their
actions. They will have to be comfortable with change, often
rapid change. But some things will remain constant. Public
administration will remain interesting, challenging, and a
key to a better society and world.
In 1926, Leonard White wrote that administration has become,
and will continue to be the heart of the problem of modern
government. More than half a century later, Dwight Waldo
reiterated White's point in words that instruct and remind us
of public administration's overarching importance:
Whatever the future, accepting only oblivion – no future
– public administration will have an important role in
it. Public administration joins two major forces,
government and administrative technology. Together they
have been an integral part of the enterprise of
civilization. They will not disappear unless and until
civilization disappears, through decay or destruction, or
through transformation into a new human condition.
To improve public administration is to improve civilization.
The NPR invites everybody to participate.
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We have to do it ourselves, individually and through
association with one another. There are people in America
who think that any individual who attempts to take
responsibility for the common good is hopelessly naïve.
There are others who think such actions are dangerously
radical. But we are a nation of hopelessly naïve radicals
– of people who will not give up the dream of a nation
run by its own people.
Administrative Value
Administrative value is "the value of records for the ongoing
business of the agency records creation or its successor in
function". According to Business Dictionary the definition of
administrative value is Usefulness of record to its creator
or receiver in current operations. It is also called
operational value.
Administrative values are generally considered useful or
relevant to the execution of the activities that caused the
record to be created and during an audit of those activities.
Traditionally, archivists have seen administrative value as
transient. For administrative records to be considered
archival, they must also possess other values.
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References
Riggs, F. W. (2001). Administrative culture – the
concepts. Retrieved on September 10, 2009 from
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~fredr/sharma.htm
Dwivedi, O.P. (2001). The challenge of cultural
diversity for good governance. Retrieved on September 10,
2009 from
http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/UN/UNPA
N000573.pdf
Retrieved on September 11, 2009 from
http://books.google.com.ph/books?
id=oAWmUFAYjq8C&pg=PA32&lpg=PA32&dq=cross+administrative+cult
ure+and+values&source=bl&ots=ib4IplNFUw&sig=J-
HxGPiA_0xMuPCu4Y4gUSFSybM&hl=en&ei=-v-pSqn6Hs-
BkQX4yM2VBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#v=onepage&
q=cross%20administrative%20culture%20and%20values&f=false
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