Abstract
This article explores the impact of administrative culture on performance appraisal reforms in Uganda’s civil service. Data gathered from 147 questionnaires, 29 interviews and various documents indicates that administrative culture sabotages the actual conduct of performance appraisals and undermines its institutionalization. The study supports the use of power distance and uncertainty avoidance. The additional dimensions of political (neutrality) biasness and ethnicity are a highly relevant addition to the literature on administrative culture and its linkage to instruments of management. Thus, for the successful introduction of performance appraisals, culture matters because the performance appraisal is imposed from abroad and requires a compatible host administrative culture in order to take root. In this case, the host administrative culture was not compatible in many respects with the values underlying the appraisal reforms. Although the Ugandan government introduced appraisal reforms, incompatibility between the values embedded in the appraisal and the host administrative culture watered down the reform.
Highlights
Performance appraisals provide the basis for making selection and promotion decisions, determining salary increases, and they are a vehicle for feedback between supervisors and employees
This article analyses the relationship between administrative culture and the introduction of performance appraisal reforms in the Ugandan civil service
All the four variables scored above the median (i.e., 3) and one may conclude that the Ugandan bureaucracy is characterized by a high presence of Large power distance was evidenced by a steep hierarchy, a wide range of salaries, the colonial chief mentality, disparities in status and a focus on status symbols, Strong uncertainty avoidance was mainly suggested by rule following, risk aversion and lack of innovation, and High political neutrality where bureaucrats prefer to be neutral and independent of the politicians, but at the same time politicians, and deride the politicization of the civil service
Summary
Performance appraisals provide the basis for making selection and promotion decisions, determining salary increases, and they are a vehicle for feedback between supervisors and employees. For the successful introduction of performance appraisals, culture matters. This is because institutions or systems imposed from the centre or abroad – even democratic ones – do not take root by themselves. The purpose of the paper is to propose that it is critical to recognize administrative culture in the developing world, before administrative reforms, like performance appraisals can be considered. It seeks to answer the question: Is the administrative culture of Uganda’s civil service receptive or resistant to the NPM inspired performance appraisal, and how? It seeks to answer the question: Is the administrative culture of Uganda’s civil service receptive or resistant to the NPM inspired performance appraisal, and how? Who in the bureaucracy is more resistant to appraisal reforms, and why?
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