Values in Perspective

• Author: Ian Scott,Joan Y. H. Leung,Brian Brewer
• DOI: 10.1177/0095399713494742
• Published date: 01 October 2014
• Date: 01 October 2014

494742AAS46810.1177/0095399713494742Administration & SocietyBrewer et al.
research-article2013
Article
Administration & Society
2014, Vol. 46(8) 908 –928
Values in Perspective:
© 2013 SAGE Publications
DOI: 10.1177/0095399713494742
Administrative Ethics
aas.sagepub.com
and the Hong Kong
Public Servant Revisited
Brian Brewer1, Joan Y. H. Leung1, and Ian Scott1
Abstract
In 1997, the results of an administrative ethics survey of senior Hong Kong
public servants were reported in this journal. Using the same questionnaire
in 2011, we assessed the ways in which values have changed in the intervening
period. Despite major systemic reforms in the civil service, which has evolved
from a classic Weberian to a neo-Weberian bureaucracy, organizational,
rather than individual, values generally appear to have strengthened. The
explanation seems to be that enhanced classical Weberian organizational
values are not perceived to be incompatible with high standards of personal
morality. Adherence to familiar Weberian bureaucratic principles also
affords civil servants some protection in an environment in which their
performance is increasingly subject to critical scrutiny by local politicians,
the society, an ever-watchful media, and the Chinese government.
Keywords
administrative ethics, public service values, Weberian bureaucracy, neo-
Weberian bureaucracy
1City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Corresponding Author:
Brian Brewer, Department of Public and Social Administration, City University of Hong Kong,
Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Email: sabrian@cityu.edu.hk

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Brewer et al.
909
In July 1997, in the pages of this journal, Terry Lui and Terry Cooper
reported the findings of an administrative ethics survey of 279 senior civil
servants in the Hong Kong government (Lui & Cooper, 1997). They were
interested in exploring whether there was any tension within the bureau-
cracy between the demands for compliance with organizational values and
directives and the degree to which personal values could, or would be per-
mitted to, shape decisions. The survey was conducted in 1994, 3 years before
China resumed sovereignty over Hong Kong. The society was fraught with
concern over an uncertain future and in the midst of a contentious debate
about democracy, the maintenance of the rule of law, and the measures that
were needed to protect civil liberties. Senior public servants could scarcely
divorce themselves from this turbulent environment. Most, according to Lui
and Cooper, held personal values that could be described as “liberal”; they
supported the rule of law, the protection of civil liberties and were mildly in
favor of more democracy (Lui & Cooper, 1990, 1996, 1997). Yet their per-
sonal values did not appear to represent any challenge to existing organiza-
tional values and directives. Whistle-blowing was very rare although in
principle some respondents appeared to think that it could be justified; supe-
riors’ orders were invariably seen to be sufficiently legitimate to require
implementation; and most public servants said that they would not resign
even if asked to carry out an order that they strongly felt was wrong.
The Lui and Cooper survey provides a snapshot of senior public servants
at a watershed in history. The authors were consciously describing the values
of public servants working in a Weberian bureaucracy, but they also won-
dered whether there might not be elements of something else: whether per-
sonal values might become more significant in the future in decision making,
whether neutrality might be eroding, and whether public servants were
becoming more externally oriented in their efforts to meet citizens’ needs.
Their concerns might be considered to fit with the change in orientation
described in some neo-Weberian models where closed bureaucracies become
more open and responsive to public concerns without necessarily losing their
traditional focus on hierarchy and the distinctive role of the public service
(Dunn & Miller, 2007; Pollitt & Bouckaert, 2011, pp. 118-119). A study of
value changes is only one dimension of that broader picture, but it is impor-
tant because the relationship between personal morality and public action
stands at the heart of the Weberian model and because questions about public
service values underlie all models of public administration (Denhardt &
Denhardt, 2000; Jorgensen, 2006; Kickert, 1997).
Using the same survey instrument as Lui and Cooper (1997), 18 years after
the original research and 15 years after China’s resumption of sovereignty

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Administration & Society 46(8)
over Hong Kong, we seek to examine the question of how those values might
have changed. Has there been a strengthening of organizational values or, con-
versely, have personal values found greater institutional expression in the
affairs of the Hong Kong government? Or has a more complex picture of the
interaction of personal and organizational values emerged? What do the sur-
veys tell us about whether the externally oriented community values of a neo-
Weberian model that were posited as a possibility in the 1994 survey have
actually emerged?
Profile of Respondents
In 2011 and 2012, with the permission of the authors, we administered the
1994 survey instrument, with minor modifications, to 355 senior public
servants in the Hong Kong government. Although we tried to match the
profile of respondents to the original survey as far as possible, there have
been changes to the demographics of the senior civil service since China’s
resumption of sovereignty. Promotion prospects, for example, have become
slower so that senior public servants tend to be older. There are also more
women in senior positions. In 1994, 77.8% of the respondents were between
the ages of 35 and 50, 13.6% were above 50; in 2011-2012, some 70.4%
were between the ages of 35 and 50, 27.4% were above 50. In 1994, 79.3%
of respondents were male, 20.7% were female; in 2011-2012, 75.1% were
male, 24.9% were female.1 There was little difference between the respon-
dents in educational levels with most holding tertiary or postgraduate quali-
fications. The 2011-2012 respondents had slightly more administrative
experience than those in 1994 and a larger proportion worked in the disci-
plinary services (police, correctional services, immigration, customs, and
fire services). The respondents in the 1994 survey were either participants
in a senior staff training course or part-time students on a Master of Public
Administration program. In 2011-2012, we also drew on participants in two
senior staff training courses organized by the central Hong Kong govern-
ment and obtained some responses from members of senior staff training
courses organized by individual departments and the remainder from sur-
veys in departments using the good offices of ethics officers in the Hong
Kong government.2 As Lui and Cooper (1997) noted, the respondents can-
not be taken as representative of the whole Hong Kong civil service.
However, in their positions of seniority, they are likely to be very influen-
tial within their bureaus and departments and can therefore be regarded as
exemplars of what is thought to be appropriate ethical behavior within the
civil service.

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Brewer et al.
911
Survey Findings
Adherence to Bureaucratic Values
The Hong Kong civil service has long been characterized as essentially
Weberian in character. It derives its structure and hierarchy, definition of roles
and expectations of civil servants from the pre-1980s British administrative
tradition as it was applied to the colonies (Scott, 2010). The degree to which
senior public servants continue to adhere to classical bureaucratic values is
shown in Table 1, which compares the findings of the 1994 and 2011-2012
surveys. The results suggest that adherence to bureaucratic values has been
strengthened since 1994. Not only do factors such as the rule of law, duty to
the organization, respect for organizational rules, and regulations receive even
stronger endorsement than in 1994, but there is also some evidence that senior
civil servants are supportive of a more cohesive, less-conflictual organization
than their counterparts in 1994. There are seemingly conscious efforts to avoid
conflict within the organization and the opinions of coworkers, professional
colleagues, and superiors as important factors influencing ethical decision
making in the workplace show substantial rises.
It would appear from Table 1 that personal values such as respect for
human dignity, privacy, and freedom and autonomy have also strengthened.
However, this finding has to be treated with caution. In the decade before the
resumption of Chinese sovereignty, a Bill of Rights was introduced and vari-
ous measures were introduced to safeguard privacy and personal data.
Whether or not senior public servants personally hold these values to be
important, they are required as part of their everyday work to observe the law
and take issues of privacy and protection of personal data into account when
making decisions. In short, values such as respect for freedom, dignity, and
privacy may have become organizational values. Lui and Cooper (1997)
pointed out that most Hong Kong public servants do not see any incompati-
bility between the law in general and organizational values. Very high per-
centages (95.9% in 1994, 99.2% in 2011-2012) believe that respect for the
law is important or very important. By implication, and when taken in the
context of...