Civil Service Reform in a Developing Country: A Critique of the Management and Administration of Zimbabwe's Reform Program. Administrative reforms are one of the most recurring activities of governments around the world. Another problem related to the failure of administrative reforms is the confusion over the meaning of the term reform.
Fifth, administrative reform efforts in the 1990s further strengthened the market-based philosophy of private sector management and governance of the corporate state function.
Administrative Reform in Asia
Impact of Alternative Economic Institutions on China’s Development
In assessing reformist orientations in late twentieth-century China, it is useful to examine attitudes toward economic institutions that provide production-centered alternatives to state enterprises. Such alternative organizations range from joint ventures5 with local, provincial, or national government participation to entirely private enterprises.6 As an approach to identifying the extent of middle management support for the economic reforms initiated by Deng Xiaoping and Zhao Ziyang, this study asked respondents to evaluate the impact of four alternative economic institutions (domestic joint ventures, foreign joint ventures, private domestic enterprises and foreign enterprises) on China's development from 1997. Survey participants who reported that alternative organizations have had a positive impact on China's development are considered to be positively disposed toward recent institutional reforms, while those who indicated no positive effect overall are not considered positively oriented toward this dimension of economic reforms in the People's Republic of China.
About the same proportion of respondents (64 percent) viewed the impact of private domestic enterprises without government participation in a positive light (see Table 7.7). A majority of Shanghai middle managers surveyed also positively assessed alternative economic institutions with foreign participation. Respondents' ratings: Total impact of foreign joint venture with government agency on China's development at present (N⫽134).
Respondents' ratings: The overall impact of the foreign joint venture without government participation on China's development at this time (N⫽131). Finally, nearly two-thirds of mid-level workers in Shanghai had a positive assessment of the overall impact of sole proprietorships on China's development (see Table 7.10). Overall, the results of the institutional assessment show (1) that the majority of middle class respondents have a positive view of the impact of the main alternative economic organizations operating in the mainland today on China's development and (2) that a significant minority holds the opposite view. view.
Although between two-thirds and three-quarters of respondents perceived the impact of each of the five alternative economic institutions in a positive light, it should be noted that most respondents also positively evaluated the overall impact of China's economic institutions before the reform. . With the slight exception of state-owned enterprises at the provincial and municipal levels (65 percent and 66 percent favorable rating, respectively), between 68 percent and 76 percent of respondents reported positive assessments of the impact on China's development of state agencies, quasi-governmental bodies, and state-owned enterprises at all three levels of government.
Personal Values and Preferences
Respondents' orientation: “My actions show that I am generally willing to sacrifice my personal wealth to serve the people” (N⫽179). One interpretation of the findings from Table 7.11 and Table 7.12, therefore, is that while many of the middle managers surveyed are willing to risk their personal economic security to realize extraordinary financial gains, they are unable to neglect or ignore. harming collective social interests in the pursuit of individual wealth and status. The data in Table 7.13 show that nearly three-quarters of middle-class men and women who participated in the 1997 survey believe that various rewards motivate high levels of human achievement.
Respondent orientations: “The importance of merit-based personnel decisions to help overcome problems or constraints that negatively affect my organization's current performance” (N⫽170). Respondent orientations: “The importance of social equity in helping to overcome problems or constraints that negatively affect my organization's current performance” (N⫽170).
Organizational Performance-Improvement Measures
Respondent orientations: “Importance of strict enforcement of anti-corruption measures to overcome problems or constraints that adversely affect my organization's current performance” (N⫽170). Respondents' orientations regarding the importance of strict enforcement of anti-corruption measures form the final organizational reform indicator analyzed here. It should be noted at the outset of this discussion that most cases of corruption in China today occur among bureaucratic cadres at the "implementation level" (Lee see also Rosenthal, 1999b: A9).
In summary, the findings of the study show that the majority of respondents were in favor of three main management reform measures that would affect the organization in which they were involved. With the exception of merit-based decision-making, a considerable minority of respondents in 1997 were not convinced of the importance of these measures.
National Policy Positions
In this case, the majority (55 percent) of Shanghai's mid-level managers held views that were inconsistent with the government's reform policy of encouraging greater foreign investment in China (see Table 7.18).8 Nevertheless, a significant majority (87 per cent) 1997 supported the official policy for admission to the World Trade Organization (WTO) (see Table 7.19). A survey instrument asked study participants to rate each of these reforms as important or unimportant in terms of the country's future economic development. The data presented in Table 7.20 show that as many as 78 percent of middle managers surveyed in 1997 rated the reform of state enterprises as important.
An even higher proportion of survey respondents (82 per cent) rated overcoming corruption as important overall. Respondent orientations: the importance of the reform of the legal and regulatory system for China's continued economic development (N⫽182). In addition, 70 percent of respondents supported reform of China's legal and regulatory system as an important measure for China to realize sustained economic development (see Table 7.22).
A majority of respondents adhered to perspectives considered supportive of China's administrative and economic reform measures on 16 of the 18 points analyzed above. These exploratory findings suggest that support for China's administrative reforms and economic development paths can be found among a broad cross-section of the middle management cadres who play crucial roles in policy implementation at the municipal, provincial, and national levels—at least in the progressive city. of Shanghai.9. The data also suggest several cautionary interpretations regarding the extent of commitment to reform at the middle levels.
Furthermore, only 18.2 percent of respondents (N⫽170) considered increased foreign investment important to overcoming problems or constraints their organizations faced in 1997. High wages and rewards—one of the main incentives supported to stimulate individual motivation in the early stage of China's economic reform (Guthrie) were also rated as important or very important by the majority of study participants (73 percent).
Administrative Reform, Reorganization, and Revolution
U ¨ mit Berkman and Metin Heper
The Democratic Party (DP) defeated the Republican People's Party, the only party of the last 27 years, in the general election of 1950 (Karpat, 1959). After World War II, administrative reform became an important issue in many of the developing countries. In any case, the establishment of the State Planning Organization (SPO) and the State Personnel Department in the early 1960s meant more say and therefore more power for the civilian bureaucracy.
Some Notes on the Assumptions of the Theory of Administrative Reform in the Ottoman-Turkish State." Development Studies (Ankara). An analysis of the government's strategy regarding downsizing in the Turkish civil service: downsizing or curtailment. The power of the bureaucracy is a derivative of the great power of the Arab state and its leadership.
The concentration of wealth in the hands of a few ruling families and their cronies caused frequent popular outbursts and street violence. Given the limited variation in the practices of these states, the excessive centralization and usually undefined powers of the head of state provide a political safety valve. In conclusion, the administrative reform practices of the Arab states (and many other developing countries) seem to exhibit certain peculiarities.
Often the problem to be addressed is whatever the political leader decides it is, regardless of the facts in the field. Excessive centralization and the usually undefined powers of the head of state constitute a political safety valve.
Administrative Reform in Africa
The White Paper on Human Resource Management in the (South African) Public Service, December 1997, has the following core ideals. a) The South African Civil Service becomes representative of all the people of South Africa; Public service requires civil servants to be accountable for their actions; and (f) the public service conducts its business professionally, transparently and ethically (White Paper on Human Resource Management in Public Administration, 1997: summary). In 1997, women made up 49 percent of civil servants, although only 11 percent of women in the South African civil service were at director level or above.
In the process of public service reform, all personnel should be trained in the best techniques of dealing with diversity. What ultimately happens to South Africa as a nation will depend largely, but not entirely, on how well diversity is managed in the public service. Every appointment, promotion and dismissal in the public service must be in accordance with the constitutional principles of South Africa and cannot contravene any of the provisions of the South African Bill of Rights.
It is therefore essential that the foundations are laid for healthy human as well as working conditions throughout the South African public service. What also seems ironic, perhaps even tragic, is that it is not always dead who leave the South African public service. It is clear that redundant and redundant staff should be allowed to leave the public service.
A guiding principle, as set out in the Green Paper on Transformation of Public Service Delivery 1996, must always be that the South African public service must be at the service of the people. All public service activities must aim to minimize the use of scarce resources (inputs) and maximize the outputs of goods and services (see Chapter 10 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, Act 108 of 1996).