Path‐Dependent Public Servants: Comparing the Influence of Traditions on Administrative Behavior in Developing Asia

• Published date: 01 March 2021
• Author: Zeger Van der Wal,Assel Mussagulova,Chung‐An Chen
• Date: 01 March 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13218

308 Public Administration Review • March | Apri l 202 1

Abstract: This article compares the motivations and attitudes of public servants in Kazakhstan (n=627) and

Pakistan (n=207) by analyzing quantitative and qualitative survey data. A comparison of these two developing

Asian countries with distinct administrative traditions and path dependencies contributes to the public administration

literature on developing countries. This literature often treats public servants in developing countries as a single

category, with little contextualization of findings. This study finds that despite an overlap in Islamic societal values,

public servants’ motivations and attitudes differ: lower prosocial proclivity and more aspiration for money in

Kazakhstan may be partly explained by the Soviet administrative tradition, while prosocial propensity and lower

concern with pay in Pakistan may be attributed to the South Asian tradition. The authors conclude that historical

legacies help explain cross-country differences in employee motivation and attitudes. The findings also improve our

knowledge about the potential of reforms within the examined conditions.

Evidence for Practice

• Motivational dynamics affecting the performance of public servants may differ substantially between

developing countries, and we cannot always assume that intrinsic motivation in developing contexts is low,

even under conditions of low pay.

• Context matters: culture and administrative tradition influenced by historical legacies provide an explanation

for cross-country differences in employee motivation and attitudes, in terms of whether public servants are

prosocially or materially driven.

• Examining the conditions in which certain employee attitudes and values prevail improves our knowledge

about the potential of management reforms within those conditions and whether improving pay, working

conditions, or career opportunities and learning will move the needle.

• Public sector reform efforts in developing countries need to match complex local realities and path

dependencies, instead of importing best practices from developed contexts that end up contributing to

empty, isomorphic reforms.

Public management discourse often treats public

servants in developing countries as a single

category: they are underpaid and undertrained

and therefore may have low levels of public service

motivation (PSM) (Perry2014); more so, they may be

lazy or even unethical (Banuri and Keefer2016; Frank

and Lewis2004; Pandey and Jain2014). However,

while developing countries face obvious constraints

in recruiting and retaining competent public servants

and motivating them to perform well, many still

exert the effort to create public value in challenging

circumstances. We hardly know whether they do so

out of prosocial proclivity or because of materialistic

benefits that may compare more favorably with

private sector benefits than in developed countries.

Moreover, motivational dynamics may differ

substantially between developing countries as this

crude label depreciates their enormous diversity, even

within the same geographic region.

Indeed, stereotypes that run deep in global reform

paradigms are hard to refute, as motivational research

in public administration is almost exclusively Western

(Ritz, Brewer, and Neumann2016). Emerging non-

Western motivational research also prioritizes developed

settings, mostly in East Asia (Van der Wal2015,2017).

Rare studies in developing or “multiple-incentive”

settings (Perry2014) yield mixed results. In some cases,

public servants prioritize job security, social status,

opportunities to earn additional income, and aspiration

for money or “love of money” (Tang et al.2006); in

other cases, particularly under conditions of low pay,

prosocial drivers matter even more than in Western

settings (Banuri and Keefer2016; Houston2014;

Infeld et al.2010; Liu and Perry2016).

Zeger Van der Wal

National University of Singapore

Path-Dependent Public Servants: Comparing the Influence of

Traditions on Administrative Behavior in Developing Asia

Assel Mussagulova

Chung-An Chen

Nanyang Technological University

Research Article:

Global PA

Symposium

Chung-An Chen is associate professor

at Nanyang Technological University,

Singapore. He earned his PhD at the

University of Georgia. He is interested in

various public management issues, with

a particular focus on work motivation.

His work has been published in

Public

Administration

,

Public Management Review

,

and

International Public Management

Journal

. Email: cchongan@ntu.edu.sg

Assel Mussagulova is a student

at Nanyang Technological University,

Singapore, pursuing a public policy and

global affairs track. Her research focuses

on human resource management and

organizational behavior in the public sector

and bureaucratic institutions, especially in

the postcommunist context. Her work has

been published in

Public Administration

and Development

,

Journal of Public Affairs

Education

, and

Policy Design and Practice

.

Email: muss0002@e.ntu.edu.sg

Zeger Van der Wal is associate professor

in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public

Policy, National University of Singapore,

and Affiliate Chair Professor in the Faculty

of Governance and Global Affairs, Leiden

University. He is a globally recognized public

management expert and the recipient of

teaching and research awards. He has (co)

authored more than 100 publications in

academic journals, books, professional

magazines, and newspapers and serves on

the editorial boards of leading journals.

Email: sppzvdw@nus.edu.sg

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 81, Iss. 2, pp. 308–320. © 2020 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13218.