Six Forces' Role in the Development of Administrative Cultures in the Middle East - Essay Example

Task: Question One According to Jabbra and Jabbra (2005), six forces have a role in the development of administrative cultures, in the Middle East. These forces challenge the adoption of Western management innovations, administrative approaches and philosophies. In this case, two of the forces play an immense role in administrative cultures. These include complexity and rigidity of rules, and overstaffing. In my opinion, these factors limit the abilities of organizations to establish organization cultures similar to Western cultures. For instance, the government of UAE has a tendency of overstaffing departments. In most of these cases, these individuals do not have the necessary educational backgrounds and experiences to fit, in these departments. The need to overstaff government departments and agencies arise from the unemployment rates (Jabbra & Jabbra 137). Additionally, this need arises from the country’s dependence on oil production and economy. Recent efforts focusing on branching out face stiff competition and resistance from the oil industry and government activities directed towards the oil industry. Few non-energy based businesses face challenges in thriving in this economy because they lack the work force that has been concentrated, in the energy industry. The complexity and rigidity of rules in UAE further provide challenges to the adoption of Western governmental cultures. These rules are developed with an aim of concentrating power and growing the size of the government. This has led to an increase in unethical practices such as nepotism, corruption and misuse of public resources and office. The government or public sector creates immense job opportunities for the UAE residents. However, these jobs are usually open for UAE residents. For instance, Etisalat, which is a semi governmental corporation, is overstaffed with UAE residents (Jabbra & Jabbra 140). Additionally, the corporation has complex and rigid rules that limit its expansion into potential markets such as African and Asian markets. Question two In my opinion corruption is a major impediment to the advancement and embracing of Western management methods in governmental departments and operations. Corruption is a fundamental issue in UAE government administrative processes. For instance, in 2010, the government was rocked with several corruption scandals that threatened its administrative processes. The size and extent of power, in UAE government, facilitate instances of corruption. In addition, corruption is a crucial issue in government owned corporations especially in the oil and telecommunication industries. Though corruption is not as rampant as in other states, it occurs through careless and unscrupulous businesses. It is essential to note that administrative processes in UAE occur in an environment that does not facilitate accountability (Jabbra & Jabbra 141). The administrative environment in UAE does not have proper checks, balances, and appropriate safeguards that can prevent these instances of corruption. As public servants carry out their official duties, they lack accountability for their behaviors and actions, which favors instances of corruption. Establishing accountability in administrative processes is a crucial tool and strategy in reducing the unenthusiastic effects of corruption. In this case, all public servants will be accountable for their actions and decisions. This ensures that these public servants reach decisions that aim at improving their departments. Accountability is essential because workers become answerable for their decisions and actions (Jabbra & Jabbra 138). Additionally, it creates awareness that negative actions, behaviors and decisions lead to possible legal proceedings. Accountability will also help in addressing bureaucracy because it helps in the development of a functional administrative structure with spelt out duties and responsibilities for each administrative function. Question 3 In my opinion, public administration is both an art and science. Public administration involves decision and policymaking, which involves the incorporation of arts and sciences. For instance, in order to ensure effective decision making that represents the ambitions of the public, it is essential to incorporate essential public administration sciences such as management science and organizational theory. Organizational theory involves the study and application of sociology and social psychology, which emphasizes on the importance of government, in administrative functions. Public administration also involves the use of management techniques in improving the efficiency of tasks and improvement of economies. These tasks lead to the improvement of mathematical and scientific techniques of management sciences. As a science, public administration satisfies laws of universality, predictability of events and exactness of results based on scientific laws. Public administration also occurs as an art because it requires focused knowledge and skills. Additionally, public administration requires conviction and leadership, which occurs as arts (Jabbra & Jabbra 145). Public administration also requires talents in order to succeed in administration and management. This includes conflict management and tactfulness. Successes in public administration depend on the application of skills. The changes I would make in order to improve public administration will target the formal control mechanisms present in the administrative culture. This formal control cultures would facilitate accountability and integrity by ensuring all individuals within the public administration structure are responsible and accountable. I will introduce laws that ensure that all public servants know their responsibilities, positions and rights. This control mechanism will also target political administration, monitoring and juridical (Jabbra & Jabbra 139). These strive to ensure accountability, productivity and efficiency in administrative processes. Question 5 In order to improve empowerment, I would propose decentralization in government agencies. Administrative processes in the UAE are characterized by over centralization and overconcentration of authority. This limits employee empowerments and their abilities to construct decisions, and contribute towards effective administration. Decentralization involves the transmission of responsibilities and duties down the administrative structure. This gives employees the flexibility and ability to control administrative processes without excessive monitoring. In this case, the employee knows the importance of accountability because their decisions and actions will be monitored and analyzed after the process. Decentralization will not reduce accountability, but will help in decentralizing responsibilities from one officer or office to several officers. Over centralization, places immense pressure on the officer and fails to utilize the talents of the subordinates (Jabbra & Jabbra 144). As a result, of over centralization, authority is usually concentrated on the top bureaucrats. Decentralization is a crucial structural change that will help the administrative process harness the talents at the organization and provide flexibility. In my opinion, the implementation of this structural change will depend on the willingness of the authority to cede some powers. Based on the bureaucracies that this heads enjoy, they may refuse to cede some of their responsibilities and powers to their subordinates. It is essential to note that over centralization of responsibilities in an organization has its basis on pragmatic realities of the bureaucratic life in the administrative culture in UAE (Jabbra & Jabbra 148). In this case, the overall authorities assume immense roles and powers in the operations of the administrative structure. Based on the opportunities arising from devolution, employees may engage in competition to gain some of the ceded responsibilities that will hurt the administrative processes. Works Cited Jabbra, Joseph & Jabbra, Nancy. Administrative Culture in the Middle East: The Case of The Arab World, 2005. Print Read More