Resistance to Major Administrative Reforms in South Asian Bureaucracies

Khan, Mohammad Mohabbat

doi:10.1177/002085239105700106

Cited by 11 publications

(23 citation statements)

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“…Administrative Reforms (AR) are seen as 'those efforts which call for or lead to major changes in the bureaucratic system of a country intended to transform the existing and established practices, behaviors and structures within it' (Khan, 2013b). Turner and Hulme (1997) opine that these different meanings indicate several common elements.…”

Section: Administrative Reforms and Npm: Conceptual Discoursementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such a demand has emerged due to the prevalence of inefficiency of traditional system of public administration and management. Similarly, Bangladesh public administration has reached an unprecedented level of inefficiency (Khan, 2013b;Sarker, 2004) with the need for the expansion of operations for the private sector and enhancing the level of accountability and responsibility, both administrative reform (AR) and new public management (NPM) approach have been intertwined in many efforts to bring about changes within the administration. Samaratunge, Alam and Teicher (2008) view NPM as the key agent of AR in South and Southeast Asian countries.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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New Public Management-based Reform in Bangladesh: A Review of Public Administration Reform Commission

Islam

2018

Indian Journal of Public Administration

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This article highlights that Bangladesh has not been able to achieve desired success in implementing Public Administration Reform Commission’s (PARC) new public management (NPM)-driven reform recommendations as there are major challenges such as lack of political commitment, bureaucratic unwillingness to bring about change, lack of advocacy for NPM reform among the people and inefficient public service management. To face the challenges of NPM reform implementation, it is needed to ensure political commitment, bureaucratic support, awareness among the people through government, non-government and social organisations.

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Section: Administrative Reforms and Npm: Conceptual Discoursementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Public Management-based Reform in Bangladesh: A Review of Public Administration Reform Commission

Islam

2018

Indian Journal of Public Administration

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“…Review of the literature on bureaucracy, reform and development reveals that civil servants of South Asian countries have been resistant to administrative reform and change for development (Khan 2002). Humphrey (1990) argued that bureaucratic obstructionism, downright venality, and red tape had been the key reasons for the failure of successful implementation of the privatization programs in Bangladesh.…”

Section: Stating Privatization Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Robert K. Merton (1940) contends that bureaucratic structure tends to produce esprit de corps, which protects the bureaucracies to defend their own interests rather than protect the public interests. Critics of public bureaucracy in developing countries argue that public bureaucrats keep themselves alienated from the public and maintain status quo, resisting any reform or change that goes against their interests (Khan 2002;Zafarullah 2002;Farazmand 1997;Peters 1997).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptions of Civil Servants Toward Privatization and Development: A New Exploratory Study

Islam

Farazmand

2008

Public Organiz Rev

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“…Intractability has to be managed, and this reformers must begin doing at the design stage by keeping their agenda limited to essentials. This applies particularly to staffing reforms, where vested interests can be at their most entrenched and resistance to change at its stiffest (for example, Kellner and Crowther-Hunt 1980;Khan 1991;Mathur 1991). Here reformers may find themselves in perilous waters indeed.…”

Section: Scopementioning

confidence: 99%

Public Service Reform in Malta, 1988‐95: Lessons to be Learned

Polidano

1996

Governance

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Malta's latest round of administrative reform has produced mixed results. While it has achieved more than any previous initiative, vital elements of the reform program have not been carried out and results have fallen short of initial expectations.The reform initiative yields a number of lessons, some of which have already been brought to light-the need to keep the reform agenda small, the need for sustained political backing-nd others which are less well known, such as the dificulty of creating an efective authority to direct reform, and the drawbacks to giving reform agencies lavishfunding and a high profile.The preparations to implement Malta's 1988 administrative reform initiative were impressively thorough. Three new organizations were set up to act as change agencies. Funds were voted on a generous scale. Acabinet committee was established to monitor implementation. All the prerequisites for successful reform seemed in place, and hopes for change were high.Several years later, those hopes have not been fulfilled. The changes that have taken place are radical by previous standards, and activity continues. But serious setbacks have been suffered in core areas of the reform program, and these will be very difficult to overcome.This article outlines the course of the reform initiative up to the end of 1995 and evaluates the changes that were brought about. It also attemptswith the benefit of hindsight-to assess whether different approaches could have yielded better results. This is done in the light of lessons emerging from the literature on administrative reform. Malta's experience itself adds a few lessons to the accumulated wisdom on the subject.As Caiden (1991) notes, evaluating the outcome of a reform initiative is a risky undertaking because it depends on one's perspective. Results may be compared with the goals proclaimed by reformers, which are almost certain to remain partly m e t . Or the results may be compared with the way things were before, in which case considerable progress can become evident. Those in the cockpit of reform will favor the latter perspective. They may feel that the former-which they might well label "the view from the armchair"-nails them to the cross of unattainable goals and fails to take account of the constraints within which they have to work.

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Resistance to Major Administrative Reforms in South Asian Bureaucracies

Cited by 11 publications

References 10 publications

New Public Management-based Reform in Bangladesh: A Review of Public Administration Reform Commission

New Public Management-based Reform in Bangladesh: A Review of Public Administration Reform Commission

Perceptions of Civil Servants Toward Privatization and Development: A New Exploratory Study

Public Service Reform in Malta, 1988‐95: Lessons to be Learned

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