Bureaucratic Professionalism Research Articles

Local Government Administration and the Challenges of Bureaucratic Professionalism in Nigeria: A Study of Transition Committee in Local Government Councils in Anambra State (2015 to 2022)

The democratic essence of governance is expressed and most often experienced at the grass root. The instrument of government that conveys this is the local government through sound bureaucratic experts. But it appears that the introduction of the Transition Committee has encouraged the rescinding of bureaucratic professionalism in local government administration in Nigeria. This paper becomes imperatively tasked with ascertaining the impact of Transition Committee on bureaucratic professionalism in local government councils in Anambra State. Following this, two research questions were adopted to guide the study. First, does the introduction of Transition Committee down played bureaucratic professionalism in local government administration in Anambra State? Secondly, what factors attributed to Transition Committee are responsible for low performance of local government administration in Anambra State? Data were primarily sourced and complimented with secondary source precisely academic journals and government gazettes. Bureaucratic theory was used as relevant tool of analysis. From the study, it was discovered that majority of the members of Transition Committee in local government councils are people of poor academic qualifications with little or no bureaucratic knowledge. These personalities exhibit administrative rascality in their dealings with career civil servants and bureaucratic ignorance in the discharge of their functions. These have adversely affected bureaucratic professionalism in local government administration in Anambra State. Hence, the study recommends total administrative and financial independence in the local government councils by abrogating transition committee in local government.

The Determinant Factors that Affecting Performance Employee in Jakarta Smart City Unit

Public demand for a new paradigm of government administration based on bureaucratic professionalism is getting sharper, therefore good performance is needed in order to provide good service to the community. In this case, the DKI Jakarta government formed a team, namely Technical Implementing Service Unit (UPT) Jakarta Smart City ( JSC), to handle public complaints. Therefore, it is important to analyze the performance of the employees of the UPT JSC as a service to the community. This study aims to determine the effect of work facilities, work environment, and leadership style on employee performance and develop strategy that has improvement effect on the service. This study uses qualitative and quantitative methods, with a sample of 100 respondents from of Technical Implementing Service Unit (UPT) Jakarta Smart City ( JSC) employees using the convenience method. The data obtained were analyzed using the PLS (Partial Least Square) analysis technique. The results showed that work facilities, work environment, and leadership style had a significant positive effect on employee performance. Keywords: Work Facilities; Work Environment; Leadership Style; Employee Performance; Partial Least Square

THE INFLUENCE OF THE POLITICIZATION OF BUREAUCRACY AND THE LOCAL HEAD’S AUTHORITY IN APPOINTING AND DISMISSING STRUCTURAL OFFICIALS ON BUREAUCRATIC PROFESSIONALISM IN THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE GORONTALO UTARA GOVERNMENT

<p><strong> </strong></p><p>The objective of this research is to analyze the simultaneous influence of the politicization of bureaucracy and the local head’s authority in appointing and dismissing structural officials on bureaucratic professionalism in the Gorontalo Utara government. This research engaged structural officials of all regional apparatus organizations in the environment of the Gorontalo Utara government. Findings demonstrate that politiciziation of bureaucracy had a significant influence on bureaucratic professionalism in the environment of the Gorontalo Utara government; the local head’s authority had a significant influence on bureaucratic professionalism in the environment of the Gorontalo Utara government; and politiciziation of bureaucracy and the authority f local head had a simultaneous significant influence on bureaucratic professionalism in the environment of the Gorontalo Utara government. On the other hand, the local government should confront the attempt of development acceleration and hence called for apparatuses’ professionalism; while it was clear that to manifest professionalism in state civil apparatuses, a merit system should be applied in the management of state civil apparatuses. This research was quantitative, and the research samples were 84 officials working at Gorontalo Utara government. The data analysis technique was double regression analysis. In conclusion, 1) Politiciziation of bureaucracy had a significant positive influence on bureaucratic professionalism in the environment of the Gorontalo Utara government at a coefficient of determination of 66.7%, 2) The local head’s authority had a significant positive influence on bureaucratic professionalism in the environment of the Gorontalo Utara government at a coefficient of determination of 53.9%, and 3) Politiciziation of bureaucracy and the authority of local head had a simultaneous significant positive influence on bureaucratic professionalism in the environment of the Gorontalo Utara government at a coefficient of determination of 71.5%, whereas the rest, which was 28.5%, was influenced by other factors not included in this research model.</p>

Breaking the Mould of Centralization? Path Dependence and Local Government Reform in Ireland: 1898–2014

ABSTRACT The landmark Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, with its extension of local democracy, presented Irish nationalists with an opportunity to advance the cause of national independence by curbing British influence at the local level. Post-independence local government reforms stressed the consolidation of central government institutions because of the need for regime security and stability. The introduction of the ‘County-Manager’ reforms, centred on the notions of bureaucratic professionalism, efficiency, and coordination of local services, further entrenched centralism. Using historical institutionalism as a framework for analysis, this article argues that in the period under review local government reforms in Ireland exemplify a perpetuation of the legacy of centralization. This legacy has two sources: the exogenous 1898 Act, and the perceived need to subvert its provisions to the greater goal of national independence, and the continuity in post-independence reforms, which left undisturbed the institutional processes of the inherited political order. This article concludes that notwithstanding reform efforts, the impetus for change was neutralized by constitutive features of Irish political culture, conventional practices, and established elite interests. While critical of existing arrangements, politicians found it impossible to accomplish change.

Managing Dissonance and Dissent: Bureaucratic Professionalism and Political Risk in Policy Implementation

This article examines the implementation of a Michigan rule requiring vaccine‐critical parents to attend an education session at a local health department prior to receiving an immunization waiver. During interviews (N = 35), public health professionals recognized that providing waivers deviated from their professional mission. Yet, they chose to prioritize client service in their interactions, thereby managing and absorbing conflict at the parent level. Politically, vaccine critics have succeeded in proposing bills to undo this rule. This suggests that conflict management and absorption is a vital policy function because conflict can turn into political action, endangering the future of a promising rule.

Professionalism among employees in Lebanon: the Lebanese University

PurposeThe present paper tries to assess empirically the level of professionalism. In addition, this paper tries to analyze the factors affecting professionalism. For this reason, the purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to provide an empirical assessment of professionalism in a bureaucracy, and second, to assess the relationship of age and education, on the one hand, and bureaucratic professionalism, on the other hand. Because whims make a poor basis for change, an objective empirical assessment of the level of professionalism is provided and that is where the strength of this paper lies.Design/methodology/approachThe data for this study are obtained from a survey administered to employees.FindingsThe findings of this paper are as follows: low professionalism among civil servants in Lebanon, no relationship between professionalism and age of employees and the direct relationship between professionalism and education of employees.Practical implicationsIt is true that the woes of the administration lie in the confessional political system of the country; however, concentrating on contextual and behavioral variables that can be controlled could alleviate the problem.Social implicationsRecruiting educated employees based on their competency levels may alleviate the behavioral problem and may lead to improved professionalism.Originality/valueNo previous work was done in this regard.

Who is in charge here? Legislators, bureaucrats and the policy making process

Scholars in comparative politics often assume that political parties are the primary instruments for translating citizens’ preferences into specific policy outcomes. However, the crucial but often forgotten link between preferences, parties, and outcomes is the bureaucracy. Are bureaucrats able to affect policy outside of parties’ control? And, if so, how does this bureaucratic policy drift differ across institutional contexts? I argue that institutions that regulate the nomination process by which parties in government select bureaucrats (meritocratic versus partisan recruitment) determine the levels of bureaucratic influence on the policy making process, specifically in terms of policy change. I test my theoretical argument using two large cross-national datasets on budget allocations and policy stability. I find that bureaucratic professionalism partially explains changes in allocation to the “ideological” budgetary categories and is positively correlated with policy stability around the world.

A Cross-Country Study of the Relationship between Weberian Bureaucracy and Government Performance

This paper challenges the long-term criticism of the efficiency of the Weberian model of bureaucracy, on the hypothesis that its performance or competitiveness might be context specific, as what works best in some bureaucratic settings is unlikely to work to the same degree in others. To perform this assessment, this study analyzes relationships between characteristics of the Weberian model of bureaucracy and government performance in nations possessing different levels of democratic development. The key finding of this research is that the Weberian characteristic of bureaucratic professionalism is most strongly and positively associated with good government performance in nations where democracy is less developed. This can have special implications for developing countries, where democracy is usually not well established and furnishing good governance with a well-functioning bureaucracy is an urgent goal for effective implementation of development programs.

Evaluating Urban Public Schools: Parents, Teachers, and State Assessments

Among the most contentious questions in public administration is how the performance of public organizations should be evaluated, and nowhere is this issue more salient than in urban public schools. While significant attention has been devoted to studying administrative measures of public organizations, the views of citizens concerning performance have been widely criticized and are not frequently gathered by schools. How these assessments relate to each other is central to many questions in education policy (e.g., choice, equity) and has important implications for democracy, bureaucratic professionalism, and public performance. This debate can be viewed as focusing on the distinction between convergent validity and discriminant validity. Using data from New York City's public school system with a cross‐sectional time‐series approach, parent and teacher evaluations are compared to government records of schools’ characteristics and performance. The findings suggest that parents and teachers are able to conduct intelligent, meaningful evaluations of school quality.

E-Government and Anti-Corruption: Empirical Analysis of International Data

Case studies demonstrate that e-government is an effective tool to reduce corruption by promoting good governance and strengthening reform-oriented actors. Specifically, e-government can reduce corrupt behaviors externally by enhancing relationships with citizens and internally by more effectively controlling and monitoring employees' behaviors. This study examines the impact of e-government on corruption using national level data. The impacts of other traditional factors—bureaucratic professionalism, bureaucratic quality, and law enforcement—proposed by the public administration literature are also examined. Statistical analysis reveals that e-government has a consistently positive impact on reducing corruption, as do the traditional anti-corruption factors.

Ideology and Professionalism

Scholars have prepared few quantitative analyses of long-term political influence over policy choices, particularly those involving simultaneous decisions in the American states. We analyze both the politics of state electricity rate making in the two decades after the energy crisis of 1973 and the politics behind the policy change of state electricity deregulation in the late 1990s. By analyzing two separate, but related, electricity policy choices across the states and over time, we are able to better understand the elements of institutional choices in regulatory regimes focused on publicly salient and more explicitly redistributive issues versus those focused on more complex, technical questions. Even in this regulatory arena that is partially insulated from electoral politics, legislative ideology is a central driver of redistributive decisions, and legislative and bureaucratic professionalism are associated with more technical policy choices.

Linking Citizen Satisfaction Data to Performance Measures: A Preliminary Evaluation

A dvocates of citizen surveys assert that the idea of surveying citizens is not contrary to representative or a first step on the slippery slope toward direct democracy, but an exercise in deliberative democracy where elected representatives bring citizens into the decision-making process (Miller & Miller, 199 la, p. 7). This kind of direct input into the political process can enhance community participation in decision making, if not community control over service decisions. Contrary to the expectations of those who believe citizens dislike and distrust government, citizens give their local governments generally high marks for service delivery (Miller & Miller, 1992). It is not so much, it seems, that citizens do not trust government, but that many administrators do not trust citizens to render fair judgments about government. A recent study revealed that administrators in Atlanta municipal government believed that citizens would rate city services much lower than they actually did (Melkers & Thomas, 1998). Those opposed to the use of citizen surveys in public policy, many of whom are grounded in the public administration literature of bureaucratic professionalism, argue that government professionals are uniquely qualified to assess service quality and quantity. Sometimes characterized as technocrats (Lovrich & Taylor, 1976), this camp relies on objective internal measures of service quality like performance measures or benchmarks as opposed to citizen evaluations, which are unquestionably subjective. And so the two sides of the service evaluation debate are engaged. What is missing from the debate is a quantitative evaluation of how these two tools of service quality evaluation intersect. Proponents of performance monitoring assume that public service professionals know what constitutes good performance and can measure it accurately. Proponents of citizen satisfaction surveying assume that the public can evaluate service quality even if they have had no direct contact with the service provider. Advo-

Inequality in the Delivery of Urban Services: A Reconsideration of the Chicago Parks

The literature on urban services delivery supports the conclusion that the distribution of services is a function of bureaucratic norms and professionalism, and is largely impervious to political forces. A recent study (Mladenka, 1980) of the distribution of park facilities in Chicago showed essentially no relationship to city politics, in terms of race. Some feel that this study provides the evidence necessary to finalize the conclusion that the distribution of urban services is independent from political considerations. In this paper, we reexamine the Chicago Parks case study. First, it is shown that using a similar research design it is possible to replicate the 1980 findings. Next, it is shown that the results are equally attributable to exogenous variables which were not considered in the earlier study, and which have generally been overlooked in research on this subject. Finally, a regression model is estimated to test several competing explanations of urban services distribution. The results show that efficiency and politics are independently significant explanatory factors in the distribution of park facilities, while equity is not. At least in Chicago, there is impressive evidence that some urban service delivery is highly responsive to political considerations as well as bureaucratic professionalism.