Finding the Heart and Soul of Bureaucrats: A Practitioner Talks Back
| Author | Claire Mostel |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2009.02000.x |
| Published date | 01 May 2009 |
| Date | 01 May 2009 |
544 Public Administration Review • May | June 2009
Claire Mostel
Offi ce of Neighborhood Compliance, Miami–Dade County, Florida
Finding the Heart and Soul of Bureaucrats:
A Practitioner Talks Back
Ralph P. Hummel, e Bureaucratic Experience:
e Post-Modern Challenge, 5th ed. (Armonk,
NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2008). 288 pp. $79.95 (cloth),
ISBN: 9780765610102; $34.95 (paper), ISBN:
9780765610119.
My fi rst reading of the fi fth edition of e
Bureaucratic Experience fi lled my head with
many knee-jerk, negative reactions. How-
ever, that is because I read it as a practitioner fi rst,
and as a scholar second. If the roles were reversed, this
review would be diff erent. I recognize that much of
the review will hit a nerve with the academic commu-
nity, and that is my intention. I would like to see the
academic and practitioner community work together
and complement each other. While many of the
points made by Ralph P. Hummel accurately describe
working in government, many of these situations exist
simply because of the nature of the “beast.”
I went from chapter to chapter, seeking new insights
into bureaucracy, and new ideas about how to be
truly responsive to those we serve. Instead, I struggled
through one organizational and psychological theory
after another. Chapter by chapter, Hummel states
what everyone who has visited a government agency
has already fi gured out: Many government employees,
from frontline staff to management, do not exercise
independent thinking, do not appear to be good
listeners, and seem to have lost their individuality and
forgotten the human aspect. However, I did not fi nd
any practical prescriptions or strategies to deal with
these issues.
e strength of e Bureaucratic Experience is
Hummel’s consistent statements regarding bureaucracy
as heartless, sterile, and having lost the way in
providing service. Unfortunately, the weakness of
the book is his inability to deliver this message with
practical applications and in a “language” that crosses
the bridge between academe and practice. e theories
that Hummel discusses are steeped in rational and
scientifi c behavior, but he does not discuss theories of
those who advocate caring and compassion in public
service. For example, the disconnect between theory
and the real world is discussed in great detail, but the
book does not consider theories in which “[t]he focus
on caring illuminates the disconnect between the
actual performance of public service and the theo-
retical development of public administration” (Guy,
Newman, and Mastracci 2008, 38).
e lack of attention in e Bureaucratic Experi-
ence to the “feminine side” of putting the heart into
public service is very apparent. I noticed an absence
of input from female authors who could exemplify
that “[t]heorists may extol the virtues of the respon-
sive, caring bureaucrat who serves the public inter-
est, but the argument will face uphill sledding until
we recognize that responsiveness, caring, and service
are culturally feminine qualities and that, in public
administration, we are ambivalent about them for that
very reason” (Stivers 2002, 58).
e fi rst chapter of Hummel’s book briefl y discusses
the bureaucratic experiences of fi refi ghters, welfare
managers, corporate executives, and others, as well
Claire Mostel is Compliance Support
Coordinator for the Offi ce of Neighborhood
Compliance – Miami-Dade County, Florida,
and an adjunct professor at Barry University,
where she teaches ethics, public policy,
public budgeting, American government,
and public planning. She received her
master of public administration degree from
Florida International University.
E-mail: ctel@miamidade.gov
PUAR1999.indd 544 10/4/09 8:06:44 AM
To continue reading
Request your trial