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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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