Enculturated Weberian and Confucianism values in public administration: Does culture matter in designing civil service training?

The paper tries to compare administrative culture of Europe and East Asia and to link with their organizational characteristics as well as their civil service training. The two cultures are considered completely different as... [ view full abstract ]

The paper tries to compare administrative culture of Europe and East Asia and to link with their organizational characteristics as well as their civil service training. The two cultures are considered completely different as the first based on legalistic-Weberian public administration model, while the latter based on Confucianism values. However, historical review and organizational analysis reveal that even the latter has been influenced by the Weberian model and thus features an interesting mixture of two apparently opposite cultures in their organizations. The Weberian public administration model was indeed imported to various East Asian countries in the second half of the 19th century in order to support comprehensive modernization of governance and influenced their public sector organizations.
Based on historical legacies, both models were enculturated and provide for tangible elements of contemporary public administrations in various countries. Cultural differences are reflected in public sector organizations and especially in civil service trainings.
The paper investigates if the characteristics of the legalistic-Weberian models and/or the Confucianism models are still decisive or there is a certain “drifting away” from the original concept in public sector organizations, in particular, in countries with Confucianism tradition, which introduced Weberian model during their modernization process. The paper focuses on organizational characteristics and training cycle to understand if the cultural aspects influence the contents, structure, and cycle of civil service training.
The topic is relevant to the panel, as it is about culture and its influence on training. There are not yet so many comparative study between Weberian and Confucianism models, although there have been rising interests on the topic in recent years, thus making this research a valuable contribution to the field. The results could be used in reviewing and designing civil service training.