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Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration Volume 44, 2022 - Issue 4
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Research Article

A crowding-out of public values? Managerial vs. Weberian values in public sector reform in Latin America

Pablo Sanabria-Pulidoa School of Government, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia;b Public Administration Division, CIDE, MexicoCorrespondencepsanabri@uniandes.edu.co
ORCID Iconhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-0962-8489View further author information
ORCID Icon &
Cristian Pliscoffc School of Government, Universidad Católica de ChileView further author information
Pages 291-314 | Published online: 24 May 2022

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes whether and how managerial and Weberian value systems can coexist or collide in different organisational settings. We compare six public organisations in two Latin American countries to study whether public sector reforms imply a clash or a crowding-out between these values systems. The article uses data from 60 semi-structured interviews with public officials of different hierarchical levels, in public central government agencies with different ages, modernisation stages, and organisational structures. Our analysis reveals that even in different settings and types of organisations, Weberian values coexist with managerial ones and with other sets of values related to governance or political patronage. We conclude that managerial values do not necessarily crowd out other value systems as previous studies have found and appear to be adapted to the organisational and national contexts in which they operate.

Introduction

Public administration in Latin American countries has traditionally been described as highly politicised and inflexible, reflecting inadequate institutional capacity and elevated levels of corruption (Langbein & Sanabria-Pulido, 2017). Although they might be characterised as reluctant to change, Latin American countries have frequently pursued reforms, without achieving merit and professionalisation in the civil service (Polidano, Citation1999, Citation2001; Sanabria-Pulido et al., Citation2015). As of today, most Latin American countries represent a hybrid model that combines different public administration approaches, practices, models, and values (Dussauge et al., CitationForthcoming; Sanabria-Pulido & Leyva, Citation2022). Although some Latin American authors, Florentino Gonzalez in 1840 (González, Citation1840) and Cerbeleon Pinzón in 1847 (Pinzón, Citation1847), opened the discussion about the public administration requirements of the nascent American nations, even before the 1887 piece by Woodrow Wilson in the US, it would take several decades for most countries in Latin America to consolidate their public administration apparatuses (Kurtz, Citation2013). Thus, after two centuries, most Latin American public administrations have arrived at a diverse mixture of models and practices in their public sectors.

Public sector reforms are both grounded in a set of public values and usually aim to promote a particular set of public and private values through reforms (Boruvka & Perry, Citation2020). David Rosenbloom (Citation1983), for instance, establishes a typology of managerial, judicial, and political values linked with different emphases in public administration. Similarly, Kaufman (Citation1956) argued that shifts in values were essentially the consequence of previous difficulties in public administration and the change intended to face them. Hence, public sector reform operates as a fertile ground to study how each project of public sector reform can be inspired and deliberatively orientated to bestow a particular set of values. Such a process implies potential collisions and clashes among values when implementing those reforms in the public sector.

The actions undertaken as part of public sector reform processes do not necessarily create a consistent group of values instilled among public employees. As a matter of fact, the Latin American experience shows a sui-generis setting where a clash of values across public administrations has unfolded (Donadelli et al., Citation2020; Pliscoff, Citation2019; Sanabria-Pulido, Citation2018b). Longo (Citation2003) argued that the effects of initial reforms had forced the region’s governments to combine efficiency goals with those of the second generation to improve institutional capacities while responding to international creditors. As Ramió (Citation2001) points out, the notions championed by New Public Management (NPM) supporters, designed mainly in developed countries, tend to collide with ingrained practices (political patronage, clientelism, and cronyism) and some established bureaucratic values. According to Oszlak (Citation2003), most Latin American countries have aimed to reshape their public administrations by following a new set of values closer to the new public management/post-bureaucratic approach (CLAD, Citation2003). Even though, he mentions, most NPM strategies have been partially adopted and, to nobody’s surprise, are still waiting to be implemented. Pliscoff (Citation2017) addresses this issue in terms of Chilean cases where NPM practices have yielded wicked administrative problems, particularly in ethical terms. Most Latin American countries have struggled to keep their civil services small while at the same time adopting measures to improve the capacity of the government to develop more professional, merit-based civil services. Such a situation has brought a stark contrast between sets of values. Thus, political patronage and clientelism, which are understood as anti-values, which appeared more ingrained through the years, have collided with the fluctuating waves of reforms and values from Weberian, NPM, and new public governance approaches to reform (Pollitt & Bouckaert, Citation2017; Sanabria-Pulido & Leyva, Citation2022). The mixture of models implies a necessary clash of values that probably does not take place in the same manner in other regions, particularly in the global North.

Along with the frequent reforms of the state in the region, the flourishing empirical public administration research from Latin America has opened questions about the effects of the implementation of management and NPM-like practices on different organisational outcomes such as government coordination (Cejudo & Michel, Citation2017; Culebro et al., Citation2019), public sector effectiveness (Brusca et al., Citation2016; Sanabria-Pulido et al., Citation2014), legitimacy (Rodas-Gaiter & Sanabria-Pulido, Citation2020; Telch & Sanabria-Pulido, Citation2018), citizens’ perceptions (Sanabria-Pulido & Velasquez, Citation2021) and other ethical and organisational issues (Figueroa-Huencho et al., Citation2014; Méndez, Citation2021; Pliscoff, Citation2017). After decades of managerial reforms in the region, most States might have experienced a stark clash of values, yet, the extant empirical scholarship on Latin America regarding the effects of such reforms on public service ethos and public values is still scarce (Mussagulova & Van der Wal, Citation2021; Langbein and Sanabria, Citation2017; Van der Wal, Citation2015). We aim to explore such a phenomenon in this work.

Thus, our research question is: Is there a clash of public values by adopting efficiency and business-like oriented reforms on the (still in development) Latin American civil services? For answering it, we conducted a series of interviews with a group of public agencies with different types of public employees in two Latin American countries: Colombia and Chile. We analyse how new sets of values have arrived in public sector organisations in these countries through different attempts of public sector reform. Namely, we aim to identify which values appear to be more ingrained today, after years of State reform, comparing similar organisations at the national level. Addressing this topic in countries in the global South is worthwhile since these are public administrations still building their models of public values and ethics of public service into government practice. The analysis of that process can provide insights into how the clash of values takes place when administrative systems are in construction.

The context

Although they share historical roots, the Chilean and Colombian cases offer variance in their development paths. The Chilean process in the 90s was characterised by a steady flow of reforms, mainly due to the stability of the government coalition. Those reforms were oriented to change the old Weberian model of public administration to a more NPM-style bureaucracy (Pliscoff, Citation2009). The country’s economic success in terms of reaching important levels of economic growth and a steady decrease in the number of people living below the poverty line demanded a more efficient state. To reach that goal, public management reforms were implemented to make public agencies more efficient, and more results-oriented. The political and administrative elite did not use the traditional tendency in Latin America to increase public spending, on the contrary, the strategy was to use resources more efficiently and save money for times of scarcity. This strategy reached its peak when the structural surplus rule was adopted (Arellano, Citation2006). This tendency of reforms changed substantially on the outset of a new century. Contrary to what happened in Colombia, where a new progressive constitution was adopted in 1991, the Chilean government had to abide by the constitution enacted during the military dictatorship. The role of the state in that Constitution was subsidiary. Therefore, the intention of the centre-left coalition in office, which ruled from 1990 to 2010, to change that role was problematic. Along with that, several corruption scandals erupted, and the public management policy domain changed utterly. New ideas, such as implementing a senior civil service system (Pliscoff, Citation2016) and a Transparency Council in 2009, switched the orientation towards a more neo-Weberian direction. The stability reached in the ‘90s no longer exists, and competing values are at stake when proposing modifications in this domain.

In turn, Colombia, a frequent follower of Chilean policy practices (e.g., in health, pensions, and other policy domains, appears to have followed lately a more hybrid model in terms of public sector reform emphases and approaches (Sanabria-Pulido, Citation2010), by combining practices that resemble the neo-Weberian, NPM, and New Public Governance models (Pollitt & Bouckaert, Citation2017. However, a recent work by Sanabria-Pulido and Leyva (Citation2022) shows that Colombia has been a clear pursuant of NPM practices during the last four decades. Amidst a bloody process of bipartisan violence around the public sector jobs and budget (Sanabria-Pulido & Velasquez, Citation2021), Colombia aimed to develop a Weberian approach at the beginning of the XXth century without much success. Such violent evolution escalated and somehow affected the evolution of administrative capacities in the country. Since the 1960s, Colombia started developing a model that has been characterised by solid orthodoxy in the economy, and sporadic efforts to undermine the overwhelming fiscal pressures that appear from time to time. This has led to an approach to public sector reforms that is usually instrumental to economic goals and values (Sanabria-Pulido & Leyva, Citation2022). Yet, in some moments, the reforms have aimed to achieve other values related to institutional capacity, rule of law, due process, and democracy (Sanabria-Pulido, Citation2018a), particularly since the enactment of the 1991 constitution. Thus, although the country can be very similar to Chile in terms of the decisive role that economic goals and managerial values play, the adoption of a more comprehensive set of values through the current constitution has forced a more hybrid model that combines those managerial with other democratic values.

Thus, although Colombia and Chile share a long tradition of policy transfer and emulation, particularly in terms of the orthodoxy of their economic policy, they differ in key aspects of public sector reform, the structure of the politico-administrative system, and in the quality of different policy outcomes. Despite having a state of siege in different moments of its history, Colombia has been a long-standing democracy, at least in terms of having permanent popular elections. Its economy has developed a very steady trend and is consistently identified as one of the most stables in the region but certainly has grown at a much slower pace than the Chilean one. On the other hand, Chile appears to be a stable, peaceful, thriving country, particularly since the end of the dictatorship in 1990. The country has ever since developed an interesting process of development whereby it rapidly achieves the highest levels of human development in the region and provides high levels of welfare to its citizens. Thus, we will analyse a pair of countries that share key traits in their models of reforms and policy practices but vary in the quality of the results and the type of challenges that their public administrations have historically faced.

Value systems and public sector reforms

We aim to address a potential collision of values in public agencies in a region that has been subject to continuous structural changes in the State in the last decades. Public administration literature has shown that different administrative philosophies and approaches to reform (Pollitt & Bouckaert, Citation2017) rely on different values (or clusters of values) to justify a set of practices (Rosenbloom, Citation2017) or a particular role of the state (Ott & Dicke, Citation2001). The literature has shown how public servants and organisations operate in settings where different values with divergent origins coexist (Van der Wal et al., Citation2011). Namely, they perform in environments where some traditional public sector values and practices are still present but coexist with managerial practices, coming along with new private-sector values that have permeated different public sector activities. Bozeman (Citation2007) claims that the new wave of reforms in the public sector, along with social processes such as globalisation and greater interconnectivity, among others, have brought to the public sphere values that were previously perceived as alien to the public service, supposedly dominant in the private sector.

Public values research has flourished in the public administration literature (Fukumoto & Bozeman, Citation2019) during the last two decades, mainly because of the interest by many scholars to address the potential impact of these new values in public agencies’ activities and, particularly, among civil servants’ notions of service and publicness (Nabatchi, Citation2018; Van der Wal et al., Citation2015; Adams & Balfour, Citation2010; Maesschalck, Citation2004; Newman & Clarke, Citation2009). However, most literature has acknowledged that public structures have not completely dismantled traditional values. Although predominantly from countries in the global North (Samaratunge & Wijewardena, Citation2009), the evidence indicates that agencies tend to preserve vital public values within their organisational culture, accepting new values amid changes.

Public values: characterising the phenomenon

One key challenge of empirical research on public values is identifying them in the actual practice of public affairs. It was not until Jørgensen & Bozeman’s (Citation2007) ‘s work that this conversation moved to a different level. They recognised a list of 72 public values based on a review of 230 studies, mainly from the US and Europe. Other recent works have explored the actual existence of public values in different public sector organisations (Bozeman, Citation2019; Jørgensen & Rutgers, Citation2015) and in different countries and policy domains (Fukumoto & Bozeman, Citation2019). These initial efforts to specify the public values have helped differentiate those public values essential to the public service ethos from those that are not. Van der Wal & Huberts (Citation2008) compared values among public and private employees, reaching eight values specifically relevant to the public sector. This list overlaps with the one proposed by Jørgensen and Bozeman (Citation2007). Yet, the question of whether public organisations purport a different set of values remains open for countries with less-developed public administrations.

Old and new values: paradigm changes and value clash

It is well known that the traditional bureaucratic model had a set of values that were needed to fulfill the duties imposed on the administrative apparatus when leaving practices such as political patronage. “In the old public administration, it was implicit, …, that focusing on neutrality, efficiency, and a strict separation between politics and administration was the best way for public servants to serve the interest of the public” (Denhardt & Denhardt, Citation2007, p. 74). Consistent with that bureaucratic perspective, the set of values is part of a long tradition that can be traced back to the Cameralist Movement of the XVII and XVIII centuries or the late XIX’s Progressive Movement. Efficiency, political neutrality, and due process were some of the values used to justify public officials’ actions in the middle of the industrial revolution, the emergence of professions, and rapid urbanisation processes.

Yet, some decades later, those values were set aside when the set of practices known as the NPM came to the fore and provided essential changes to how public service was understood. Following Hood (Citation1991), a new view of the State’s role was grounded in new values used to support new administrative practices. Particularly those coined as “sigma-type” values. “Since the ‘sigma’ group of values stresses the matching of resources to defined objectives, the setting of fixed and ‘checkable’ goals must be central to any design for realizing such values” (Hood, Citation1991, p. 12). In this line of reasoning, we begin to “think about citizens as being analogous to customers, and government as analogous to a market, the need to talk about or act upon the “public interest” largely disappears” (Denhardt & Denhardt, Citation2007, p. 76).

Adoption or collision of values?

Still, the debate regarding the impact of NPM values in the public domain has a particular feature that deserves attention. A significant number of values that have been adopted in the public sector, in the context of NPM-style reforms, are generated or predominantly present in the private sector (Box, Citation1999). Heintzman (Citation2007) claims NPM style reforms were supposed to replace the rule-abiding values put forward by the “old” public administration with new and more appropriate ones, which had been successful in the private domain. Other works have somehow recognised the clash and have identified how public servants become, in fact, protectors and guarantors of public values (Furneaux et al., Citation2008; Reynaers & Paanakker, Citation2016)

Moreover, this set of privately originating values enters in stark contradiction with a notion of public service that is germane to the public sector. For instance, one key question is to consider how the concept of public service motivation (Perry, Citation1996; Perry & Wise, Citation1990) enters in direct contradiction with private sector values such as efficiency and profitability. Since private sector values tend to rely on an idea of interests over the public good, following a set of public values without considering public organisations’ particularities might imply a crowding-out effect, as some authors have argued (Georgellis et al., Citation2011). Understanding the organisational effects of such contradiction can make even more sense in the context of public organisations in developing countries with weak, and sometimes failing, states enduring to survive and responding to wicked problems with civil services still in construction (Samaratunge & Wijewardena, Citation2009).

Another related stream of literature that started with the seminal book by Moore (Citation1995) points out creating public value as the actual orientation of public employees’ actions. As Benington and Moore (Citation2011) claim, the initial conceptions of Moore’s concept were developed in a neo-liberal context, in which “public value” was seen, by several authors, as a way public activity might be depoliticised. Using the strategic triangle, public managers should make their decisions according to the “desires” of citizens rather than those ill-defined political intentions. After more than twenty-five years of Moore’s book, public value is re-conceptualised to move its orientation from an NPM-oriented philosophy to a more collaborative governance framework. In so doing, the public value becomes a methodology to listen to the different actors involved in public actions, particularly citizens, who are no longer seen as mere clients and as partners and co-producers of public value. Thus, this development in understanding public value can help understand the actual tensions that economic value brings to the public sector through private sector-oriented practices, particularly in developing countries with complex governance arrangements (Pliscoff & Araya, Citation2012).

Thus, the public administration literature has been aware of the tensions and contradictions that paradigm shifts bring to the practice of government (Jaspers & Steen, Citation2019). Notwithstanding, most of those analyses respond to countries where most state reform stages have followed a chronological order (patronage, orthodoxy/bureaucracy, politics of bureaucracy, and new public management). However, that is not the situation in developing countries such as those in Latin America, where reform processes have not necessarily happened in the same timely manner. In fact, as Sanabria-Pulido and Avellaneda (Citation2014) and Polidano (Citation1999, Citation2001) argued, they tend to generate paradoxical situations whereby the State has to deal with aiming to achieve bureaucratic values such as merit and due process while adopting managerial ones such as results orientation, innovation, and flexibility. In this way, this work expands public values research by focusing on countries that do not resemble the orderly development patterns of bureaucracies in North America and Europe. Instead, they have witnessed a profound clash of cultures and values as a result of State reform processes that have made them coexist.

Methodology

To address our research question, we identify the dominant values that exist in a sample of comparable public organisations in two countries in Latin America. We follow a deductive exploratory approach employing qualitative methods, namely case studies from six public organisations in Colombia and Chile. Following the case-study approach allows us to “investigate a contemporary phenomenon (the ‘case’) in depth and within its real-world context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context may not be evident” (Yin, Citation2018). Our cases focus on organisations of different ages and sizes, looking for variance in the analysis. The questions we study explain why we use a qualitative approach (Corbin & Strauss, Citation2014). This approach is also appropriate because most empirical research has used quantitative data from countries in the global North, with public administration structures and processes that do not necessarily resemble the rest of the world. Hence, theory development benefits from exploratory approaches that include cases far from the most frequent research settings in public administration (Stebbins, Citation2001).

The article uses data from 60 semi-structured interviews conducted to gather data in public central government agencies with different modernisation levels and structures in Chile and Colombia. We chose the organisations using the notions of diversity and similarity. On the one hand, we identify diversity in selecting agencies as those that have been part of managerial reforms. In turn, we recognise other agencies classified as traditional bureaucracies. We designed an interview instrument that allowed us to ask individuals in Colombian and Chilean public agencies about the predominant values that characterise their organisations and their work within them.

To design the instrument, we followed approaches from a set of academic articles (see Annexe B) that have inquired about public values in the context of public organisations and proposed instruments that help identify them. In doing so, we included three main groups of works. First, we chose a group of academic works focusing on ethical values (Rayner et al., Citation2010; Van der Wal et al., Citation2011). Then, a second group specifically inquiries about public values (Persson & Goldkuhl, Citation2010; Rutgers, Citation2008; Van der Wal et al., Citation2011). Finally, we explored a group that attempts to disentangle the role of private sector values in public sector organisations (Walker et al., Citation2011).

From their instruments, we aimed to identify potential questions and wording that could be included in our study, also considering their suitability for the context of Latin American countries. To do so, we utilised the following criteria: 1) identified questions that explore values that motivate public service and define the ethics of the public sector; 2) identified questions that inquire about the presence of mechanisms to protect public values; 3) find questions regarding actors and contexts that determine public service’s values and give them a specific meaning; and 4) most importantly, identify questions that might help observe the crowding-out effect of bureaucratic public values by managerial ones.

Accordingly, we developed an instrument (see Annexe A) composed of three main sections. The first section focuses on personal views on the public sector in each country. The second section aimed to identify the subject’s perspective about his or her particular organisation. Finally, the third section attempted to explore whether the individual perceives a shift in the predominant values in these countries’ public sectors amid the increasing presence of managerial practices.

Then, in choosing our cases for analysis, we explored a sample of three organisations in each country, aiming to identify, in each country, one organisation fitting within the following categories: a) Traditional Bureaucratic Organization (Weberian-like), b) Transitional Organization, c) Recently Created (NPM- Managerial Organization). We identified a set of organisations in each country that could conform to these parameters and still allow us to compare the two countries. After reviewing the feasibility of accessing the information, we selected the following organisations ().

Table 1. Sample of organizations.

According to that selection of organisations, we conducted a set of ten interviews in each organisation (i.e., 30 interviews by country, 60 total), attempting to identify individuals representing different demographics in terms of job levels, age, seniority, and gender. We interviewed individuals in similar positions to identify trends, patterns, and sets of values. Additionally, officials in different roles and hierarchy levels (i.e., internal auditors, managers and officials in client service-related positions, liaisons with private contractors or third-party deliverers, etc.). Also, we targeted public officials in different hierarchical levels (five levels: Direction, Advisory, Professional, Technical, Assistant) and two seniority categories (less than five years and more than five years). Thus, we aimed to interview two individuals by hierarchical level, one of them with more than five years in the organisation and the other with less than five years.

Although we recognise the limitations in terms of external validity that come from our case study approach, this research design may allow us to identify patterns and differences across diverse organisations, hierarchical levels, and between “old” and “new” employees. In each country, the organisations granted direct access to the authors to interview employees in 2013 and 2015. Interviews were digitally recorded after the subjects signed informed consent forms. Interviews lasted between 20 and 45 minutes and were semi-structured according to the instrument in Annexe A.

The Chilean case

For this study, three organisations were selected. The first agency chosen was the Dirección Nacional del Servicio Civil (National Civil Service Agency), which was created seventeen years ago. This office shows one crucial trait: more than 70% of professionals in its workforce, making it perhaps more prone to new ideas and new concepts. Next, there is an organisation with more than 137 years, Registro Civil e Identificación (National Registry and Identification Office). It is seen as old-fashioned, not because it can be chiefly portrayed as resistant to change, but because it must maintain specific stability to maintain order and continuity in registration and ID processes. Finally, the third selected agency, Contraloría General de la República (CGR) (General Comptroller of the Republic), is 96 years old and is one of the three autonomous bodies defined in the current Constitution. It has two key characteristics: an essential share of its workers are administrative staff, and it has received several quality awards in the past. Accordingly, it has a robust organisational culture with explicit expressions that changes are in place.

Two caveats need to be made in the Chilean case. Firstly, the government in office finished 20 years of the same coalition in office when we conducted the interviews. This change brought significant modifications in several agencies because newly elected officials hired senior positions in the public sector, mostly with people from the private sector. Although their initial intention was openly make the State more efficient, their ideas and changes were not well received by a group of agencies and ministries because they saw this as more than an intervention rather than an improvement. The agencies selected in this research project were affected by these changes, but not significantly. Despite that, several conversations move to things known among public employees so that this historical context might influence the conversation. Secondly, the “Transparency and Freedom Access to Public Information Law” was enacted in 2008, establishing a set of practices that might have affected how public agencies understand issues such as transparency and integrity, giving more relevance to those topics.

Public values in a set of Chilean public organizations

In this section, we identify the general values portrayed by the interviewees. Public officials, when asked, put particular emphasis on values such as transparency and responsibility, the latter understood as a commitment to fairness and the common good. These values are explicit when asked directly and evident in the motivations that guide public officials’ conduct and shape the meaning of “public service”.

First, transparency corresponds perhaps an essential value, as all interviewees mentioned. As was already mentioned, in Chile in 2008 a transparency law was enacted (Law N° 20.285), and the Chilean government undertook a significant change in the way citizens could access public data. It implied a change in the relationship between public employees and citizens. After the initial resistance to change, public officials had to abide by the law, and thus an everyday discourse regarding transparency in the public sector emerged. It has permeated all the institutions involved in this research. Every single interview had a reference to transparency, showing the arrival of new public governance values. We observed that the officials conceive transparency as a positive value, which is an end in itself and a means to empower citizens vis-à-vis the State. A more transparent state’s disadvantages were higher workload, uploading information to web pages on time, creating devices to ease access, and being more careful with procedures and decisions. All information to support decisions and all the procedures pursued are subject to public scrutiny. It is a burden for officials that used to make decisions according to their expertise or technical justifications, without disclosing information to citizens.

The second value is responsibility. The interviewed officials conceived it as a commitment with their co-workers or with their superiors and citizens. It is an internal motivation to work harder and better and is related to the purpose of the public service, and in some cases, it is understood as “social responsibility”. In this sense, this value forms the notion of “public service” as the driving force behind working for the state. Helping others, improving citizens’ well-being, and achieving social justice, among others, are all concepts that the interviewees used to clarify their notion of public service. Most of the interviews talked about working for something bigger than myself, something transcendent that could change people’s lives. Only one interviewee mentioned that she did not believe or think in the notion of public service. For her, that notion is not only vague but also empty. She mentioned she has been working in the same agency for more than seven years, but she did a similar job in a private company. For her, moving from the private to the public sector was not significant, and the reason to do it was only a matter of stability and salary.

To sum up, only two interviewees mentioned two types of public employees despite their motivations: those with a public service spirit and those working for individualistic interests. The problem, for those acknowledging these categories, is that public agencies have both types, and it is tricky to make interventions while having these differences in perceptions:

-” … In my point of view, there are two types of individuals working for the state: the public employee who has the public service spirit and knows that her work could impact the quality of life of others and the second type who sees this as a regular job without other inspirations. In this organisation, in particular, we deal with these two types of public employees. “(Top Official)

Regarding the adoption of managerial values and the crowding-out effect of bureaucratic public values, it should be noted that in the Chilean case, NPM-style policies were implemented during the 90s and part of the year 2000. It is easily recognisable because most of our interviewees mentioned concepts such as efficiency, effectiveness, quality, and the like, as part of the NPM mindset. However, referring to these indicate that it is not a matter of being efficient. It is a matter of measuring it and how much time s(he) spends (wastes) in testing her/his efficiency. According to the responses, sometimes one spends more time measuring and qualifying services rather than delivering them. Overall, they do not consider that bureaucratic values are incompatible with NPM values.

Comparing across organisations

Among the three institutions analysed, rather than finding significant differences in terms of public values, we found differences in emphasis in each institution. Both the Comptroller General and the Registration Office especially emphasised the significance of the “Responsibility”, while in National Civil Service Agency, there were more robust references to transparency. In the Registration Office’s particular case, values like “friendliness, quality, and collaboration” were also reported. For them, being an institution with constant interaction with citizens defines their set of values.

Comparing new and older employees’ views

Our results show that there is a generational gap between old and new employees. The main differences are organisational commitment and motivation. Those with more seniority tend to report being more committed to public service, while new generations appear less. One person mentioned that it is not a lack of interest in public service among younger generations, it is an outcome of living in a society with more opportunities to find a job.

A second element to highlight between old and new employees is the relevance they gave to public personnel rules. Both groups consider the State a good employer. However, older employees think that younger generations tend to abuse of the situation and take advantage of the positive elements of being a public employee. One old employee claims that:

“ … in my personal view, I justify my decision to work for the state because of the working hours, coworkers and top officials have good relationships, you have several positive things that are not considered in the private sector. Of course, some take advantage of the system. They lack personal values and good manners, which usually are developed in your home. For instance, if you are sick for three days in this entity, you can have a sick leave and the ministry pays. In a private company that is not the case … So, coworkers use and abuse of that norm, particularly, those newly hired or young workers” (Professional Employee)

Comparing along the hierarchy

Regarding the values identified, it is interesting that the notion of responsibility is differently understood according to the place in the organisation. There are two groups in this matter. The first one claims that public employees should be accountable to their superiors, while the second, primarily professionals and decision-makers, highlight that public employees should be responsible to citizens.

A second idea is that there are differences regarding what is considered to be an “excellent” public servant. While the lowest levels consider that, to be a good public employee, they must comply with the rules and have a correct job performance, higher levels professionals and top officials consider it more important to be proactive and give an extra effort than what is expected. This notion is presented in the following quote:

“Some offices have deplorable conditions where they provide services, and some colleagues do not even have a computer to work. However, they work hard, even in poor conditions, remain in the institution, cling to the institution and work for something, maybe that is a good public servant. “(Professional Employee)

Regarding the effect of adopting NPM practices, those in higher positions complain about the workload these new practices have had on them. It is not a matter of being efficient. It is a matter of measuring it and how much time you spend (waste) to make sure you are efficient. Sometimes you spend more time trying to measure and qualifying your services rather than delivering them. Lower levels of the organizations do not see these contradictions, maybe because they are not responsible for that task. A top official presents this tension:

“I do not think that ‘good inspiration’ moves public employees to improve their performance, nor a whole set of performance indicators. I think the State can combine both approaches, but it is necessary to look, from the Budget Office, and all the rationality of the indicators … If I could tell you at what point we are today, as a balance, I think that we are less inspired and more obsessed with measurement, in terms of tools or purpose, we are immersed in this, and carrying out scarce actions in this dimension”. (Top Official)

To sum up, the Chilean case portrays an interesting process in which certain managerial practices have not necessarily crowded out public values. It is an unexpected result considering it is usually classified as a very orthodox country in policy, traditionally leaning towards markets. Interestingly, public values and public service notions are similar to public officials in three different organisations with different cultures. It also seems that the 20.285 law has had an important effect among interviewees, making transparency a broadly accepted public value.

Regarding differences in hierarchy, individuals in the higher echelons were more likely to be identified with public service notions and to be accountable to the general citizenry. Yet, people in lower levels tend to portray responsibility more intensely as a critical public value. There is also an interesting generational divide. Older individuals appear more connected to public service values than younger ones, who seem more pragmatic and see the public service as a regular job.

The Colombian case

We interviewed 30 public officials in three different organisations: one traditional bureaucratic organisation: the Ministry of Mines and Energy, with roughly 77 years after its creation. Another organisation transitioned to the managerial model around 69 years: Registraduría Nacional del Estado Civil (National Registry Office), and, finally, one recently created organisation, the National Commission of Civil Service, with less than two decades. The three organisations differ in size and age and have different purposes. First, the Ministry of Mines and Energy resembles a traditional bureaucratic organisation. Created in 1939, it oversees the design and implementation of policies related to the exploration and exploitation of minerals, oil, and biofuels in the country, the definition of frameworks for energy generation and commercialisation, and the design of programmes for the rational use of energy. According to the age, size, and organisational structure, we classify it as a bureaucratic organisation. Secondly, we have the National Registry Office, created in 1934. It currently has two primary duties: the organisation and due process of elections, the identification process, and the national ID documents for Colombian citizens. It has been subject to several reforms during the last decade, purporting it today as an institution that has adopted a more managerial perspective. Finally, we analysed the National Commission of the Civil Service, in charge of the country’s merit-based recruitment of career officials. After the Colombian Political Constitution of 1991, it was created as an autonomous entity and defined a new institutional setting for civil service.

Public values in a set of Colombian public organizations

Aiming to identify a clash of Weberian vs. managerial values, we asked individuals to list a set of values of the Colombian public sector in the interviews. We did not provide any detailed list but asked them to freely indicate the ones they identified as characteristic of the Colombian public sector. Regarding this, across the three organisations, we did not find stark differences or evidence of a clash of values or crowding out of Weberian values by managerial ones. Instead, most interviewees listed a combination of both Weberian values (efficiency, merit, tenure) with managerial (NPM) ones (high performance, teamwork, transparency, leadership) without implying tensions.

Furthermore, the Weberian values tend to be very similar across the board and generally relate to public service (Sense of duty, commitment, service, and common good). There were fewer mentions of managerial values in the first place (economy, effectiveness) or governance-related (service and transparency). More statements about NPM-related values were second and later mentioned (Leadership, simplicity, teamwork, and proactivity). Likewise, Weberian-like values came as part of the last mentions but frequently appeared in combination with managerial and service ones.

There were mentions of negative values (corruption, clientelism, cronyism), but some differences appear. For instance, newer employees and individuals in the organisation’s lower levels were more likely to mention such anti-values. This situation might illustrate the recent corruption scandals that have prevailed during recent years and greater exposure of newer individuals to education and training regarding ethical behaviours. On the other hand, individuals at lower hierarchical levels appeared more prone to list such anti-values. Perhaps because they are closer to the public and may be envisioning the tensions of top managers, whom they can see as more likely to be involved in notable corruption scandals. Nonetheless, it is evident that most interviewees primarily listed values traditionally related to public service but later mentioned, in no particular order, other managerial and Weberian values.

Comparing across organisations

Individuals across the three organisations show remarkable similarities regarding their views about adopting managerial values and the role of more bureaucratic values such as rules and tenure. In general, younger employees are more easily linked to ideas of effectiveness, performance measurement, and governance/service orientation, closer to managerial-like values and new public governance ones. Also, individuals in leadership positions often report a more managerial approach and see themselves as defenders of their organisations’ managerial practices. This situation was evident in both Ministry of Mines and the Registry Office.

However, individuals at the National Commission of Civil Service, perhaps due to its role as implementer of merit practices in the Colombian public sector, show a remarkably stronger focus on traditional values such as merit and due process, less evident in the other two organisations. It operates as an autonomous organisation, explaining the relative isolation and apparent differences to the other analysed organisations. It is interesting that although we included this organisation as one that might be closer to NPM-like values due to its recent creation, the interviews with individuals from this organisation reveal a strong affinity with Weberian values. This organisation’s role in the Colombian State, which comes from a clear constitutional mandate to adopt Weberian precepts regarding merit-based selections, might explain this situation.

The other two organisations reveal a more reformist outlook. In both the National Registry and the Ministry of Mines, the interview responses imply a rapid adoption of NPM-related values. All interviewees in these two entities mentioned, to some degree, “the importance” of adopting a “client” orientation and pursuing performance measurement to ensure effectiveness. It seems that this is a strong trend in the Colombian public sector since most interviewed employees appear to be confident with the managerial jargon. Most interviewees in these two organisations emphasised the importance of adopting such values and practices as a needed strategy to overcome the ineffectiveness and the bad imagery that Colombian public organisations often purport, to reflect governance-related values. Several of them mentioned how their actions generate public value.

However, that trend is not so clear when it comes to practice. There seems to be a gap between how public officials talk about those values and how they see managerial procedures. In all three organisations, the subjects claimed poor performance measurement practices (worker assessments, strategic planning, and monitoring). According to the interviews, managerial trends have just reached public organisations at the de jure level. However, organisations still lack the resources to adequately implement related practices and overcome classic pathologies of public organisations. This excerpt from the interview of one old employee at the direction level in one organisation reflects that clash:

“ … here what I see is that the changes take place by a legal requirement if the rule comes out and we do not implement it we are faced with legal action … A good example is the monitoring processes, performance management processes, and performance evaluation processes (…) Since it is an external body that demands the audit processes, they only respond to that external body, but not because we really want to improve our performance. On the other hand, with such a huge workload, people live saturated and do not have the time to undertake self-assessment processes. Also, the performance evaluation process is affected by legal actions. I have an example, here if you give a bad evaluation to public servants, people turn to legal action, they sue the evaluator, so if you want to avoid legal problems, you have to give good evaluations to all people even the low-performers”. (Top Official)

Comparing new and older employees’ views

Newer employees seem highly familiar with managerial values. Whereas most of the older employees claimed tenure and stability as the main reason they chose and kept their public sector jobs, newer employees, particularly at the top level, were less likely to purport those as their reasons to work for the public sector. Moreover, newer employees frequently mentioned the importance of adopting a deeper managerial perspective in public sector organisations. Furthermore, negative comments regarding this new wave were almost absent among younger interviewees. Some of them claimed openly widespread adoption of such practices to improve the functioning of their organisations.

On the other hand, older employees, perhaps surprisingly, did not appear highly nostalgic of the classical bureaucratic values. However, they tended to purport more critical positions regarding the implementation of NPM-like practices. More interestingly, several of the interviewees in this category also mentioned it as the strategy to follow in Colombian public organisations:

“Yes, now organizations try to make their operation conform to all these new managerial parameters, guidelines, and practices of audits and monitoring, strategic planning, self-control. In fact, they must adapt what they do to those new regulations … [But] Even though such new tools are useful and necessary, my concern is that they are becoming the end in itself … fill the form, calculate the indicator, write the report … it is very exhausting … Although it certainly helps to organize things and make the actions more orderly, it perhaps would be even worse without them” (Middle-level manager)

To add up, in this category, we find three patterns from the interviews. First, it is evident that young employees are more attuned to managerial values and practices. Still, surprisingly, although highly critical, older employees are highly conscious of adopting such values in the Colombian public sector. Second, both groups see the adoption of such values as something that can improve public organisations’ management and the implementation of public policies. Third, less evident, older employees tend still to privilege values related to the characteristics of the employment itself (tenure, seniority, knowledge). In comparison, newer employees are more likely to mention values related to service (service, responsibility, society) but appear more critical by frequently mentioning negative values such as corruption and unethical behaviours.

Comparing along the hierarchy

Given the complexity and differences in structure in each of the reviewed organisations, in this section, we compare across two levels: Top Management (which includes both direction and advisor positions) and one professional/assistant level. First, there appears to be greater socialisation at the top level regarding managerial values and governance-oriented values such as service orientation. That might be coherent with the leadership role that individuals in those positions have to play. But also, might be explained by the greater managerial and financial awareness that they get from the top. In other words, managers tend to have more information by hand regarding organisational performance and sustainability and strategy, and connection to the citizenry. Similarly, according to the Santos administration’s strong managerial line at that moment, it makes sense that they become highly socialised regarding the adoption of modern management practices and governance-like values.

Individuals at lower-level jobs appear less concerned about the long-term impact of managerial values and practices and more oriented towards operational issues. Similarly, this awareness makes those individuals more conscious of the impact of NPM (managerial) values on organisational functioning and self-performance.

Finally, following previous scholarship about differences in public values along public sector hierarchies (Van der Wal, Citation2014), individuals at lower positions appeared more likely to mention more Weberian values when asked about a set of specific values in the Colombian public sector. They mentioned more frequently terms such as tenure and the rule of law. One key reason is that they are career servants who either obtained their positions through a merit-based recruitment process or are waiting for them (provisional employees), as opposed to top-level officials who are almost uniquely employed and subject to free appointment and dismissal.

In conclusion, we recognise two trends in this category. First, top managers seem to be prone to managerial NPM-like values and public service notions related to the new public governance approach. It seems that when one travels down the hierarchy lines, most of the individuals at the top seem to be highly socialised by that set of values. Still, as soon as one advances to the lower levels, individuals appear less aware of managerial values. Second, top officials tend to be more conscious of the impact of managerial values on performance and appear to be further socialised by client orientation and performance management and measurement ideas. Third, individuals in lower hierarchy jobs appear to be more motivated by traditional values (tenure, merit) than individuals in leadership positions.

Comparative discussion

Our analysis shows that even in different settings and different types of organisations, Weberian values can coexist with managerial ones, and even with other sets of values related to political patronage or governance. The analysis of six different organisations in two countries in the global South (see, ), shows that NPM-revalues do not necessarily crowd-out other value systems as other studies have found (Lapuente & Van de Walle, Citation2020), nor are unable to coexist with Weberian-like values (Barzelay, Citation1992; Boruvka & Perry, Citation2020).

Table 2. Summary of main findings by country.

The Colombian case shows that that people tend to adapt to the coexistence of different value systems. The interviews that public officials have systematically adopted the managerial set of values, although they still appear critical of some managerial practices and values. Individuals in top positions are more prone to defend managerial values but are also more precise about public service and governance notions. Yet, people at the lower and middle-level echelons seem more likely to report traditional values, perhaps because the career system has been more extensively implemented at those levels in the Colombian account. Younger and newer public employees are more likely to recognise and defend managerial NPM-like values. Whereas seniors and older employees appear more concerned about the long-term impact of adopting such a values system

As per the Chilean case, more than a clash, it is evident that different value systems have “learned” to coexist in organisations with different ages and models of reforms. Regarding differences in hierarchy, individuals in the higher echelons were more likely to be identified with public service notions and to be accountable to the general citizenry, while people in lower levels tend to portray responsibility more intensely as a critical public value. There is also an interesting generational divide. Older individuals appear more connected to public service values than younger ones, who seem more pragmatic and see public service as a regular job that they can leave quickly if new opportunities arrive.

This mixture of values illustrates that public employees combine managerial and Weberian value systems with other government and public service principles. In this way, there does not seem to be a clash of values but rather an adaptation of three different perspectives: neo-Weberian, new public management, and new public governance (Pollitt & Bouckaert, Citation2017). Our results indicate that, in the Colombian case, it is possible to observe hybridity, as has been argued by prior research (Van der Wal & van Hout, Citation2009). Such hybridity is consistent with several developing civil services like the Colombian which have a particular mix of managerial practices coexisting with other methods resembling the Weberian and political patronage models.

Concluding remarks

Our results indicate that the cases from Colombian and Chilean organisations and public officials reflect significant similarities at several levels (see, ). First, there is no evident clash of values in the perceptions of public officials. In fact, what we observe is the result of how organisations, and especially public servants, appear to be adaptable to the introduction of new value systems (for instance, NPM-like values) without giving up previous sets of values or even professional values. Our analysis shows that public officials interviewed tend to adopt different value systems, identify them and their crucial differences, and do not claim one of them as predominant over the other. This is consistent with what Boruvka and Perry (Citation2020) claim as a process of “adaptability though learning” (579) in the adoption of different administrative practices in the public administration domain. We found that this process of adaptation does not imply discarding “old” values, on the contrary, it implies their adaptation and the adoption of new ones, more attuned with the current state of affairs in the matter. One possible avenue for future research is that the results would be different if we had analysed public services operated by private providers, where the clash is more evident (Reynaers & Paanakker, Citation2016). In the cases studied, we observed adaptation and assimilation of different sets of values rather than a clash between values.

In terms of managerial values, our evidence indicates that they have come to stay. Even older employees appear to identify and abide by them, yet younger and newer employees appear better connected to the logic of managerial tenets – furthermore, hierarchy matters. Our results indicate that those at the top levels appear more connected to managerial mindsets and practices and can better identify impact in terms of public service. Yet, people at the lower echelons are more related to traditional and new governance values such as responsibility and service in both cases.

Although we do not explore how adopting those values affects other key values as transparency, due process and public value creation, which appear to be critical for public service, the question remains open (Reynaers & De Graaf, Citation2014). If there is a clash of values in response to greater private sector participation, the literature shows that frequently public officials become protectors and guarantors of public values themselves. Our evidence confirms that officials with longer careers appear to be defenders of values that resemble the idea of a professional, independent bureaucracy, even though it is an unfinished goal for most Latin American countries.

Two countries in Latin America characterised as prone to undertake frequent public sector reforms appear to adopt practices and procedures that have shaken paradigms and views regarding the role of the state and its organisations. Considering the particularities of these two cases, one might claim that public values must be part of an extended debate whenever countries are interested in significantly modifying organisational procedures and cultures. There are nuances when comparing both cases. However, it is relevant to highlight that what we found in this exploratory effort is that differences within agencies are more relevant than those found between two countries in the same region with slightly different reform paths. “Traditional” and “modern” sets of public values appear to coexist in public sector organisations in Latin America, confirming the hybridity that characterises different systems of public values across the world. Thus, governments have an opportunity to create a more consistent discourse, in terms of public service values, with those who are listening to the call for a more open and more effective state.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pablo Sanabria-Pulido

Pablo Sanabria-Pulido Associate Professor School of Government, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia and Affiliate Professor, CIDE México. His areas of interest are public management, policy analysis, organisational behaviour, corruption/transparency, local government, and public affairs education.

Cristian Pliscoff

Cristian Pliscoff Associate Professor and Director of the undergraduate programme in Public Administration, School of Government, Catholic University of Chile. His areas of interest are public administration, State reform, ethics in public administration, public service motivation and public administration education.

References

Appendix A

Protocol and Instrument for the Interview (original in Spanish)

Goal: Explore evidence regarding public values among public officials in a set of organisations in Chile and Colombia.

Subjects: Ten public officials per organisation in different hierarchical levels and with different lengths of seniority,

Protocol:

  1. Describe and explain the research project.

  2. Explain how we selected the organisations.

  3. Allow questions from subjects.

  4. Sign informed consent form.

Instrument for Semi-structured Interviews (original in Spanish)

Methodology:

The following questions have been designed from the review of a group of recent journal articles that have proposed questionnaires to inquire

  1. about public values. Each question deals with different aspects of public values. Also, each question is supported by prior scholarship that has qualitatively explored public values.

  2. Questionnaire:

  3. ¿What is your name?

  4. How long have you worked in this organisation?

  5. How long have you worked in the public sector?

  6. In your opinion, what are the reasons/motives of people to work in the public sector?

  7. Why do you mainly work in the public sector?

  8. Which values are intrinsic to public organisations?

  9. Are there any differences between working in the public sector and working in the private sector?

  10. When you started to work as a public official, were you informed of the organisation’s purposes?

  11. To whom must public officials be accountable?

  12. How would you define a good public official?

  13. How do you think Colombian society appreciates the service that public officials provide? How?

  14. Does the social impact of your work influence your and other people’s performance?

  15. What are the characteristics that define the organisational culture of your service?

  16. How an increasing tendency to measure results through indicators and measure performance has affected your organisation?

  17. How has it affected your performance?

  18. Do you think that efficiency, results, and other similar indicators have replaced traditional principles of public service?

  19. (If the answer is yes) Could you say those values that have been replaced?

Appendix B

Instrument Review

Table

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