PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION The Social Construction of Public Administration Interpretive and Critical PDF

The Social Construction
of Public Administration
SUNY series in Public Administration
Peter W. Colby, editor
The Social
Construction
of Public
Administration
Interpretive and
Critical Perspectives
Jong S. Jun
Foreword by
Frank P. Sherwood
State University
of New York
Press
Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2006 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jun, Jong S.
The social construction of public administration : interpretive and critical
perspectives / Jong S. Jun ; foreword by Frank P. Sherwood.
p. cm. — (SUNY series in public administration)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7914-6725-2 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Public administration—Social aspects. I. Title. II. Series.
JF1351.J87 2006
306.2'4—dc22
2005014020
ISBN-13: 978-0-7914-6725-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my wife,
Soon Ye Regina,
for her support
This page intentionally left blank.
CONTENTS
Foreword xi
Frank P. Sherwood
Preface xxi
1 Introduction 1
The Limitations of Modern Public Administration 3
Social Construction in a Democratic Context 9
Dialectical Possibilities 13
Learning from a Cross-Cultural Perspective 15
The Orientation of this Book 18
2 The Changing Context of Public Administration 21

Unanticipated Consequences in the Twentieth Century 21
Lessons for the New Century 29
Reinterpreting the Meaning of Public Administration 31
Dialectic in Administrative Action 38
Conclusion 41
3 The Social Constructionist Approach 43

The Limitations of the Functionalist Perspective 44
The Interpretive, Critical Theory, and Postmodern
Perspectives 46
Theorizing the Social Constructionist Approach 55
Globalization as Social Construction 66
Reflection 70
4 Public Administration as Social Design 73

The Use and Abuse of Metaphor 73
Design: A Basic Concept 75
vii
viii CONTENTS
Administrative Science, Art, and Social Design 78

The Modes of Administrative and Policy Design 84
Conclusion 99
5 Social Design in Practice 101

Coproduction and Community Policing 102
Bridging the Digital Divide in Silicon Valley 105
Helping Homelessness 108
Designing the Public Transit System 111
The Clinton Health Care Reform Plan: From Social
Design to Incrementalism 114
The Limits of Social Design 119
Conclusion 120
6 Understanding Action, Praxis, and Change 123

The Dialectic of Organizational Action 124
Praxis and Change 134
The Praxis-Oriented Administrators 136
Changing Organizations and Action Research 139
Conclusion 144
7 The Self in Social Construction 147

Social Construction of the Self: Eastern and
Western Views 148
The Self and Sociality: Western Views 159
Postmodern Views of the Self 162
Implications of Eastern and Western Views 166
The Self-Reflexive Individual in a Social Context 168
The Self and Bureaucracy 170
Conclusion 175
8 The Social Construction of Ethical Responsibility 177

The Ethical Dilemma of the Responsible Administrator 178
Constructing Ethics in Organizations 186
A Public Conception of Autonomy: Confucian and
Western Views 196
Civic Virtue and the Public Good 199
Contents ix
Connecting Administrators and Citizens 201

Conclusion 205
9 Civil Society, Governance, and Its Potential 207

The Civil Society Triangle: A New Form of
Governance 207
From Hierarchical Governing to Democratic
Governance 211
NGOs as a Force for Social Change 215
A Case of Local Governance: Resolving the Soup
Kitchen Controversy 220
Designing Modern Development Projects 224
Globalization and Democratization: A Contradiction 228
Implications 232
10 Concluding Thoughts 235

Recapitulation 237
Making Social Construction Effective 241
The Tao of Public Administration 251
Notes 259
References 267
Index 291
FOREWORD
The first priority in this introduction is to ensure that readers of this

book are fully aware of the credentials of its author, Jong S. Jun.
He may be the most outstanding theorist in public administration
today. The quantitative evidence is his remarkable output of scholarly
work. Perhaps more important, though, is the perspective he brings to
his studies and resulting publications. His roots are in the Far East, but
he has spent his entire working career of thirty-seven years teaching in
the United States. He is unique in that he brings to his philosophical
considerations both a Western and an Eastern orientation. That mesh-
ing of the two worlds is very evident in this book, as in many other
works.
While his rich background allows him insights that most of us can
only envy, it is also important to recognize the profound wisdom of this
book, which he regards as the capstone of his long and productive
research efforts. It is his effort to summarize what he has discovered in
nearly half a century of research.
Jun is a native of South Korea and received his early schooling
there, including a Bachelor of Laws degree. In 1961 he came to the
United States and has lived here ever since. He studied political science
at the University of Oregon with a man well known to us old timers,
Bert Wengert, who was highly influential in developing the case
method of teaching in public administration. Wengert undoubtedly
saw Jun as having a promising future and urged him to secure his doc-
torate in Public Administration.
With a master’s degree in hand, Jun enrolled in the PhD program at
the School of Public Administration, University of Southern California.
His thirst for work and learning quickly became evident, particularly to
one of the school’s senior professors, William B. Storm. Jun came to him
one day and announced, “I want to work with you and learn from you. I
don’t care about money. I just want to work and learn.” It was such
enthusiasm that caused Storm to enroll him as a graduate assistant and
to serve as his mentor. It was an extremely fruitful relationship in which
xi
xii FOREWORD
the two collaborated on two books, both published within five years after
Jun had completed his doctoral work.
One of those books, Tomorrow’s Organizations: Challenges and
Strategies ( Jun and Storm, 1973)1 enabled me to become fully aware of
Jun’s capacities. Since I knew this was a real collaboration between Jun
and Storm, I was very much struck how these two had combined to
produce one of the few outstanding books of the last half-century.
Shortly after it came out in 1973 and I had read it, I quickly assigned
it to my graduate students with this observation, “If you read this book
carefully and understand it fully, you will know about all that anybody
knows about organization theory in the public sector.” It was that
good. My sense is that Tomorrow’s Organizations never achieved the
reputation it deserved because it was a collection of readings. That
characterization results in an automatic discounting. In reality, though,
Jun and Storm produced a book within a book. The introductions to
the four sections of readings were absolutely brilliant. They could have
comprised a book by themselves.
As a result of that fine volume, I never took anything Jun wrote
lightly. He certainly had my attention. I do not want to imply I have
read everything Jun has written. He has been far too prolific. He has
published eight books, including three collaborated volumes. My count
shows that he has published over fifty articles, book chapters, and sym-
posium issues, roughly half of them dealing with ideas that appear in
this book. He has been primarily a philosopher of public administra-
tion, as the content of this volume and the many articles and papers
attest.
The mixing of the East and West is also very evident in an exam-
ination of his intellectual output. Various papers focus on South Korea,
Japan, and China. When you examine all the unpublished papers,
panel presentations, invited speeches, and consulting assignments, you
quickly realize how international is his presence. He lists at least thir-
teen countries in which he has made intellectual contributions, the
larger bulk of them in the Pacific Rim. Also, however, he lists a wide
range of countries around the world where he has given lectures or
been involved in other activities: Russia, Brazil, Italy, England, Austria,
France, Australia, and the Netherlands.
South Korea has been, of course, a particularly frequent object of
his attentions. The numerous involvements there are simply too many
to report here. I have heard, however, that Jun’s reputation in South
Foreword xiii
Korea is simply immense. Japan has also received a considerable

amount of his attention. He spent more than a year there as a visiting
scholar and has written insightfully about those experiences.
While he has lived a highly cosmopolitan life, it is extremely
interesting that Jun’s US. teaching responsibility has been at only one
institution, the California State University at Hayward, California.
He went there as a young assistant professor in 1968, rose through its
ranks, and took partial retirement in 2000, thirty-two years later.
Without wanting to depreciate the overall quality of Cal State-Hay-
ward, I think it is fair to say that Jun, with some remarkably fine col-
leagues he recruited, gave the public administration program a repu-
tation far beyond that of the university as a whole. He helped create
a stimulating intellectual environment that he had little interest in
leaving.
Further, Hayward provided him opportunities that might not have
been so easily available elsewhere. While his research might have led
him to increasing abstractions, he was always grounded by his students.
They tended to work in state and local governments, and thus much of
Jun’ s teaching had to be immediate and practical. This book reveals
that Jun has never strayed far from these moorings.
Aside from having an appreciation of the quality of the author, it
is important to develop an understanding for the departure point of
this book. To summarize his feelings, Jun is profoundly disappointed
with the way things are going in “mainstream” public administration.
He is particularly troubled by the tendency of newly minted PhD’s
from non-Western countries to make the incorporation of Western
ideas their basic agenda. He feels there are severe limitations to the
notion that non-Western countries can be transformed by Western
ideas. In fact, he makes it clear that the consequences of such efforts
are often negative.
While he counsels that culture ought to play much larger part in
our thinking about public administration, Jun is particularly concerned
about two facets of the field. In both areas, he feels an urgent need for
change. We have to understand these shortfalls before we can process
fully the exquisitely reasoned approaches to change offered by Jun. (I
should note that I want to be sure they are understood because I am so
much in agreement with him.)
One is the decline in the importance of the qualifier public, in pub-
lic administration. That is important because public administration is
xiv FOREWORD
not concerned with any type of administration. It is specifically about

handling matters of public consequence. Second, we seem to have only
one way of organizing for any kind of collective action, a structure of
top-down command. The approach has many dysfunctional conse-
quences, which Jun emphasizes in this book. That is why he seeks to
change our thinking and discover new alternatives for handling collab-
orative tasks.
The problem with ‘public’ seems a more geographically discreet
problem than hierarchy, the label we typically attach to top-down
approaches. In the United States we are perilously close to a disap-
pearance of ‘public,’ with a generic administration taking over. That
does not seem to be occurring in Asia in the same degree. Jun writes
that culture makes a big difference. In Asia the sense of community is
much stronger, influenced in great degree by the Buddhist religion.
Both community and ‘public’ convey the idea of other-regarding events,
and thus the modifier continues to have significance in Asian public
administration.
In the United States, where the emphasis is much less on the com-
munity and far more on the individual, public administration is now
regarded only as a minor variant in the variety of ways in which peo-
ple get together to do common tasks. The general assumption is that
administration (or management) is the same in any purposeful context.
No values attach to the process.
The situation is made murkier by differences in the way public
administration is practiced and ways in which it is taught. For the last
thirty-five years governments in the United States have been increas-
ingly politicized. In the federal bureaucracy, for example, there are vir-
tually no career civil servants in top leadership positions, which are
occupied by political appointees whose accountability is to political
interests not to public. Such officials tend to see administration in
highly instrumental terms. They have spearheaded a tremendous
movement toward the contracting out of government activities, once
again emphasizing that there is no public in their concept of public
administration.
In the institutions teaching public administration, there is a sub-
stantial number of professors who share Jun’s views. Yet the product
they deliver is remarkably aligned with approaches in the practicing
world. The typical courses taught are reflective of an instrumental ori-
entation: budgeting, personnel and human resources, organizing, pol-
Foreword xv
icy analysis, information management, and positivistic research. It is

becoming increasingly rare to find even a course in behavior in the cur-
riculum. I am not sure these are the courses many professors would
chose to teach, but they remain pillars of public administration cur-
riculums. That is what the clientele demands.
In the non-Western nations there is a tendency to retain structures
that appear to be public. Such bureaucracies have been influenced,
however, by Western approaches and thus have honored rational tech-
nologies. Such value-neutral instruments have the advantage of pre-
serving for the bureaucrats an independent position of power in the
society. Sadly, that independence and isolation preclude any real inter-
est in involving citizens in their activities. So they operate relatively
free from an engagement with the polity they are expected to serve.
Jun summarizes the problem of publicness in public administration
in the following terms: “The professional bias of public administration
toward rational analysis, efficiency, planning and goal maintenance
means that public administration is largely administration, that is, it
serves mostly to govern and manage the public. The ideas of participa-
tion, deliberation, civic engagement, citizen empowerment, and demo-
cratic process are secondary to public administration.” That is a condi-
tion which, he feels, urgently needs changing.
Throughout his book, Jun points to the great dysfunctions that
arise from the worldwide addiction to top-down systems of organizing,
which we characteristically label “hierarchy.” Because Max Weber
viewed a bureaucracy as rooted in hierarchy, the word (bureaucracy)
tends to be used synonymously with hierarchy. While the concept of
‘bureaucracy’ incorporates a number of other features, it is the com-
mand feature that is honored and adopted. It is a notion of centraliza-
tion where someone is put in charge, given authority, and held
accountable. Things reached an extreme in the United States when the
Department of Homeland Security was created. Over eighty thousand
employees of widely divergent agencies were put under the command
of one person. There seems general agreement that the result has been
chaos. What was undertaken for rational reasons turns out to be highly
irrational.
There are many problems in applying the concept of ‘hierarchy’ to
complex human organizations, as Jun has so ably reported. In my
thinking, two have rendered hierarchy exceedingly vulnerable. In an
organization with eighty thousand people, it has to be recognized that
xvi FOREWORD
there is no simple set of goals to be pursued. Deciding what is most

important to do involves delicate negotiations among all those who
have a stake in the organization. In reality it should be accepted that
negotiations must occur with all eighty thousand employees because
each wants different things from the organization. Certainly no single
boss can process those claims. To reduce these kinds of stresses, hierar-
chical organizations are typically reified as technological machines
with fairly standardized parts, subject to orders from above. The effect
is to depersonalize what is an intensely human situation and to act as
if those in it were not people at all. Not only is this a defiance of real-
ity, but also it is stupid. People are still people.
Even more significantly, hierarchical organizations are extremely
poor learners. That is a fatal flaw because, in the last analysis, learning
paves the way for change. Despite the fact that the complex organiza-
tion must be learning in a host of ways, the premise of the hierarchy is
that the person in charge is the principal learner. We need only to rec-
ognize that those at the periphery of the organization are engaged in
the real work and have direct contact with those in its environment to
see where the real learning must occur. The boss and his advisers back
at headquarters are not close enough to the action to know what is
really happening. Things tend to emerge upside down. The boss, with
precious little information, is doing the telling, whereas he or she ought
to be listening, and folks on the periphery do the telling. In the over-
all, Jun is absolutely right that there ought to be a determined assault
on an organizational strategy that gives us nothing but trouble. As I
have indicated, Jun has laid out ways to think about these problems
and how to proceed toward at least more tolerable solutions.
Finally, it may be of some value to provide a small case experience
that, at least in part, bears upon the strategy he espouses. The Federal
Executive Institute, intended to serve as the staff college for the senior
career service in the federal government, was established in 1968. This
was a time of extreme turmoil and unrest in the United States, trig-
gered in major degree by the Watts riots. It was also a period when the
most elemental assumptions of our social organizations were under
severe criticism. Mario Savio, from the University of California at
Berkeley, led much of this assault. He was convinced that everyone
over thirty had sold out to the establishment and could not be saved.
Though the federal government was the bulwark of the establish-
ment, there were stirrings within its ranks, particularly among
Foreword xvii
careerists. They were not about to buy the Savio line, but they really felt
the government was too fragmented, unable to see the whole, and
glacial in its pursuit of change. They believed that the people with the
best prospects for bringing about change were the top careerists, who,
up to that time, had not had formal development opportunities avail-
able to them. These federal executives were, on average, forty-five years
of age, had been out of school about twenty years, and had another ten
to twenty years of government service ahead of them.
The challenges to all the key actors in our complex, huge public
systems were many. As Jun observed, the 60s and 70s were turbulent,
but they were much more receptive to change than the decades that
followed.
It is within this context that the origins of the Federal Executive
Institute must be viewed. The roughly 350 executives who annually
came to a residential campus in Charlottesville, Virginia, were expected
to internalize two messages, one that the government could do much
better and the second that they were agents charged with bringing this
about.
It is clear that change was the word in good currency. But I remem-
ber that much of the original thinking for the institute was that the
executives should be instructed how that new world would look. The
premise was change, not (as Jun has eloquently noted) changing. We
on the faculty saw the problem a bit differently, namely, that it was our
job to help executives embrace the idea of changing, both personally
and organizationally. In all honesty, I do not think any of us felt we
were smart enough or wise enough to instruct senior executives on how
the world should or would look.
We decided on two things: (a) to focus on individuals, not their
roles in organizations or the organizations themselves; and (b) to
heighten their learning interests and then to help them improve their
learning capacities, all as a prerequisite to a greater commitment to
changing.
The goal was pursued in a variety of ways and had clear conse-
quences at the institute. A substantial number of executives told me per-
sonally that the institute was the first situation in their federal careers in
which they thought of themselves as individuals. One small thing we
did was to eliminate from our rosters any reference to civil service rank,
which varied from GS-15 to GS-18. Because we eliminated the virtu-
ally obligatory “pecking order” rules, the way individuals were perceived
xviii FOREWORD
and regarded had little to do with their civil service rank. Generally, the
people from the field got the most attention. They were seen as know-
ing the most about the real world, though they were typically the low-
est ranked. This seemed to support my view that the greatest learning
resources in an organization are those closest to the action, not those in
headquarters.
The concepts of the individual and learning were closely tied
together, as our interest was in building a learning commitment and
capacity in the individual and not the organization. For many this was
a totally new experience. They said they had not thought about per-
sonal learning since they left the university. Conceptually, it did not
occur to them that learning was a part of living, and changing. Life for
them was much more a matter of behaving in terms of learned rou-
tines, carrying little excitement and even less growth.
The learning model we embraced was a very simple one. Exposure
and feedback are required. People learn when they open themselves by
exhibiting an attitude or behavior and thus provide data to others,
drawing feedback. We found that the model was easy to articulate but
hard to implement. Federal bureaucrats had generally found that the
less they exposed themselves the better, and they were similarly reluc-
tant to give feedback to others. One of our great accomplishments was
to turn things around. By the time executives left the institute, they
were particularly disposed to give feedback, recognizing it as an oblig-
ation to their colleagues. They had also become more comfortable with
the idea of exposure.
Another highly important outcome of their experience was that
the executives came to care for each other genuinely. They were
extremely close emotionally and felt the obligation to give each other
support. That was a new experience. It was vastly different from their
work environment, where competition and disdain for personal needs
and interests were the order of the day.
Research on executives who had left the institute about a year ear-
lier (performed by an independent organization) produced a finding
that we had never conceived or anticipated. A substantial majority of
respondents declared that the Federal Executive Institute had signifi-
cantly increased their self-confidence. While that gain may seem
deeply personal, it has enormous organizational implications because
personal confidence is the key to delegation. Moreover, delegation is
about the best way we know to introduce flexibility into muscle-bound
Foreword xix
hierarchies. People who do not trust themselves are highly unlikely to

trust others. They do not delegate, and the result is the kind of top
down behavior we see in most hierarchies. A most important outcome
of the FEI experiences, then, may have been a greater willingness to
delegate.
In writing about some of the ways in which the eight-week resi-
dence at the Federal Executive Institute at least opened up the thinking
and behavior options for many executives, I certainly do not want to
claim that these changes carried over in any significant way to the fed-
eral government. In another time and circumstance, these executives
might have made a real difference. But Washington was changing. The
career service was losing ground, and politically loyal operatives were
assuming the levers of government. There was no difference among the
parties. Both wanted their politically loyal people in command. Further,
the effect was to reinvigorate the dedication to hierarchy.
I hope this foreword will be regarded only as a precursor to Jun’s
book, with its thoroughly researched inquiries into the really daunting
dilemmas governments face today. As I have sought to emphasize, we
do need radically new thought, and I believe Jun is leading us in a fruit-
ful, positive direction.
Frank P. Sherwood
P R EFAC E
Countries in the East and West are in the midst of a great transforma-
tion: the democratization of the governing process. The Western coun-
tries, the United States in particular, are working to renew democratic
ideals and practices by strengthening the process of deliberative
democracy. Because of the need for government intervention to solve
complex social and cultural problems, Asian countries—which are rel-
atively new to the great democratic experiment—are ineluctably
immersed in the improvement of political democracy through strong
government. But despite the dynamic transformation taking place
nationally and globally, public institutions in both the East and the
West are slow to change their practices, instead continuing to try to
solve complex human issues with traditional management concepts
and techniques.
To cope with a paradoxical, ambiguous, and continuously chang-
ing world, we need a new framework for dealing with a multiplicity of
realities. There are, I believe, more possibilities in participation and
communication among people collectively and in individual growth
and change than in managing programs and people or typical efforts at
the rearrangement of organizational structure, functions, and
processes. The latter, however sincere, represents domination by man-
agement, which has often proven unresponsive to and ineffective in
resolving contemporary dilemmas. The social construction of reality
introduced in this book is neither a new concept nor a new idiom in
social sciences, although it is not widely known by students of public
administration.
In this book, I present conceptual perspectives whereby we may
gain greater comprehension of our situations, realities, organizational
efforts, social design, action and behavior, the self, ethics, and so on:
this is a vital step in understanding the public and people. As people
become better able to engage in their personal and organizational
worlds, they learn to take joy in their empowerment, in challenging
inhibiting formalisms, management-driven projects, rules, directives,
xxi
xxii PREFACE
and so on. They learn to find meaning in reconstructing organizational

order and exploring alternatives without sacrificing either organiza-
tional goals or functional obligations. We are unlikely to return to the
type of turbulence that we experienced during the 1960s and early
1970s in the United States, a period in which individuals rebelled
against authority, demanding individual freedoms and rights.
Considering the present circumstances of institutional control,
dwindling resources, demands for performance and delivery of service,
information technology, and local and global politics, we must work
with both management and the public. We will, however, be more effec-
tive if we act collectively in questioning the unintended consequences of
hierarchical governing, problem solving, and change. Working through
democratic process of participation, dialogue, and sharing interests is
likely to offer more possibilities than if we each act alone. My empha-
sis is on the interpretation of the different meanings of objects that we
create and the individual experiences that people bring to a situation, by
critically exploring possibilities through the collective empowerment of
the people who are affected by particular policies and actions.
This book is intended for a broad range of readers who have an
interest in their relationships with themselves, with management and
organizational members, with decision makers and marginal people,
and with citizens and their problems. To be as inclusive as possible, I
present social construction as a framework so that all of us may think
about whether construction of action strategies is possible through the
engagement of people and communicative action. More important, I
try to relate the self to the interaction process, that is, to an individual’s
contribution through sharing his or her interests with others, learning
which interests are mutual. People feel more comfortable once they
learn to take risks in a group, to be experimental, flexible, optimistic,
and imaginative. Group members learn to challenge existing ways of
thinking, doing, and finding satisfaction in seeking new possibilities. I
hope through this book, students of public administration will learn
the hazards of oversimplification and develop some action skills as
“complexifiers,” divergent thinkers, reflexive facilitators, and critical
agents of change.
In this book, I try to show that the management orientation
emphasized by mainstream public administration is grossly inadequate.
Instead, I attempt to reconstruct the study of public administration as a
part of social, political, and democratic practice. Thus my most imme-
Preface xxiii
diate concern transcends the idea of the strong administrative state,

bureaucracy, and a single discipline or field of study. My point of depar-
ture is the social and political processes of confronting problems and
searching for solutions and alternatives to them. I do not reject the
importance of management or the technical necessity of public admin-
istration: efficient management as well as implementation of techniques
largely depends upon the collaboration of the people who are affected
by them. If we want to improve the adequacy and effectiveness of pub-
lic administration, then we must change our perspectives. We must use
different ways of knowing that are interpretive, critical, and qualitative.
We must also understand the social, cultural, and political contexts in
which problems originate and the meanings that people attach to them.
In this regard, my approach in this book may be considered critical
pragmatism because my arguments in different chapters emphasize the
pragmatic possibilities grounded in human praxis, as argued by Richard
Bernstein in Praxis and Action: Contemporary Philosophies of Action
(1971). I consider the functionalist and positivistic approach to public
administration to be largely instrumental pragmatism that aims to
maintain rational control of the organizational process.
This book also represents my own agonized efforts to understand,
explain, and bridge the administrative cultures of the East and the
West. Thus my endeavor is to apply the perspectives and problems of
administrative theory to different administrative contexts and to draw
some theoretical implications from cases and examples, comparing and
contrasting different cultures and experiences. The arguments in this
book are as much a reflection of my understanding of the cultural con-
texts of public administration in different countries as they are critical
analyses of the politics, policies, administrations, and people discussed.
I speak as a person who has lived in several Asian countries and who
has lived most of my academic and adult life in the United States. I
think that therefore I have a sympathetic ear for and an understanding
of people in different administrative cultures in various countries. At
the same time, I do not hesitate to discuss the problems in those coun-
tries. My experiences in visiting different countries have greatly fur-
thered my intellectual development.
At annual meetings of the Public Administration Theory Network
and in the journal Administrative Theory and Praxis, a wide range of sig-
nificant theory issues has been introduced and debated. Although I have
immensely enjoyed my participation in dialogue with my theoretically
xxiv PREFACE
oriented colleagues, I have also struggled with the fact that we are talk-
ing among ourselves, not reaching out to our students or to mainstream
public administrators. Other fields in the social sciences face a similar
problem in conveying alternative ways of knowing to those who are more
accustomed to positivistic and scientific inquiry. One important theoret-
ical contribution of the Public Administration Theory Network is the
exploration of different ways of knowing, particularly the interpretive,
critical theory, and postmodern perspectives; this exploration helps to
encourage open dialogue among scholars. This book is the product of my
own learning as I worked with international scholars who were intellec-
tually sincere about studying the effects of theory on practice and the
effects of practice on theorizing.
I am inevitably aware, in a book of this kind, of discussing super-
ficially diverse topics that many other scholars know more about than
I. My only plea is to show the need for going beyond the traditional
influence of hierarchical governing and management. We need to pay
attention to ways of enhancing the responsibility of people in the
process of changing organizations and policies through practicing
social and democratic alternatives. To understand the complexity and
change the institutions, we need to seek ideas and concepts that are
often the opposite of the assumptions of dominant theories and
approaches. The philosophy and the new conceptualization of public
administration need to accept the idea that administrative actions are
embedded in and overlap with the complexity of social practices that
involve the public and the individuals.
I am greatly indebted to Frank Sherwood for his gracious foreword
to this book. His distinguished achievements as former dean of the
School of Public Administration at USC, founding director of USC
Washington Public Affairs Center, founding director of the Federal
Executive Institute, and former Jerry Collins Eminent Scholar at
Florida State University inspired me to learn the importance of inte-
grating theory and practice. Raymond Pomerleau and Richard VrMeer
read the complete manuscript and offered invaluable criticisms and
suggestions. They have been the source of my learning the intricacies
of American culture for nearly forty years. A number of people read
chapters in various forms, including Ann Cunliffe, Dvora Yanow,
Richard Box, Budd Kass, my graduate students, and the anonymous
reviewers for the publisher. To all these people, I owe more gratitude
than I am able to express.
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
We live in an “age of paradox,” in which our good intentions to

progress and our efforts to improve the quality of life produce unin-
tended consequences and often contradictory results (Handy, 1994).
This paradox results when policy makers put forth a strong argument
for pursuing one policy and neglecting another, less pressing, one, such
as preferring development over environmental protection, administra-
tive efficiency over effectiveness, or organizational goals over individ-
ual needs. Although economic progress has meant material bounty for
the individual in industrialized and postindustrialized countries, it has
also produced numerous negative consequences nationally and glob-
ally, such as inequality, high consumerism, social divisiveness, and
alienation. Because of the growth and spread of industrialization and
modernization, people in the workplace and in society are often con-
nected in a merely functional way: they lack intimate, social, or authen-
tic relationships. Because of a desire to manage society and institutions
in order to cope with turbulent changes, organizational goals are seen
as more important than democratic governance, participation, human
growth, or social justice. Although bureaucracies see progress and the
management of complexity as necessary for human cooperation,
bureaucratic organizations have been hostile to the promotion of
democratic ideas. Since the latter part of the twentieth century, how-
ever, we have witnessed centrifugal forces working to renew greater
human purposes in governing, development, change, and problem
solving.
A public administration that relies on conventional pluralistic pol-
itics and modern management theories is inadequate for understand-
ing today’s crisis and complex human phenomena. Furthermore, main-
stream public administration, which overly emphasizes the role of
management, is incapable of developing democratic ways to resolve
conflict or generate socially grounded solutions. What is required in
the current crisis is a creative awakening to the dialectical social
process—to the ability to join what is, what can be, and what should
1
2 THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
be—in order to alter the social and administrative structure and

processes. In other words, an appreciation of social processes, of the
interplay of instrumental and technical elements, and of collective and
democratic means of creating a more humane and hopeful society is
needed.
When we examine the conceptual orientation of public adminis-
tration today, we see that the dominant approach to its study, as man-
ifested in the educational curriculum, in research methods used to col-
lect information, in administrative operations, and in reform efforts, is
both intellectual and pragmatic. Mainstream public administration
reflects this orientation in seeking administrative knowledge and con-
cepts grounded in the positivistic and functionalist tradition of episte-
mology.1 But a true understanding of social reality and human rela-
tionships requires more than instrumental and rational ways of
investigating human knowledge.
This book explores constructive ways of understanding the com-
plex phenomena of public administration by introducing the interpre-
tive and critical perspectives. The concepts applied are a hybrid of phe-
nomenology, ethnomethodology, hermeneutics, critical theory, and
postmodern ideas. The interpretive approach focuses on social practice:
public administrators act in a social situation by listening to other
voices. The primary concern of administrators is not to use a theory (or
theoretical knowledge) to guide administrative action: rather, their
effort is to understand and interpret people’s experience and form a
sense of mutuality by sharing “intersubjective meanings” (Taylor,
1985b; Schutz, 1967). The critical theory perspective, however, criti-
cally reflects on established assumptions, theories, values, and methods
and reconstructs possibilities that are democratic and socially accept-
able without dismissing the importance of theoretical knowledge and
“technical interest” (i.e., the use of instrumental knowledge to control
the environment) to administration (Habermas, 1971). The field of
public administration needs a critical, self-reflexive practice if it is to
improve current practice, which is largely influenced by the people at
the top. Members of this elite work hard to justify their ideas and activ-
ities, which have produced the current crisis. Western public adminis-
tration (U.S. public administration in particular) has become a ratio-
nal-instrumental model for most non-Western countries to keep pace
with industrialization and modernization. The growth of bureaucracy
in both the Eastern and the Western governments has produced the
Introduction 3
management and professional capability. The bureaucratization of

public institutions, however, has generated various unintended conse-
quences and faced limitations.
THE LIMITATIONS OF MODERN

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
The characteristics of modern public administration are adequate

administrative guides in a stable organizational environment in which
services and everyday operations do not require much innovation, in
which people’s values and needs remain persistent; and, in which exter-
nal elements, such as politics, clientele, technology, and economics,
remain predictable. In today’s globalizing world, however, no organiza-
tion is so placid. In a rapidly changing society, social phenomena do
not remain stable: they are dynamic and continuously changing into
new values, new meanings, new structures, and new networks. Coping
with turbulent and evolving conditions of the postindustrial era is,
nowadays, an inevitable task for organizations. The complexity of envi-
ronments, organizations, information technology, and people’s values
requires new ways of understanding and collaborating with people
through interaction, dialogue, and information sharing.
A complex public bureaucracy is designed to maintain organiza-
tional order, to suppress activities that are disruptive to organizational
policies and goals, and to coordinate functional processes in order to
assure productivity. Organizational order and survival are stressed by a
group of top executives and managers, who exercise power and author-
ity. The establishment of a new government agency, public policy, or
goals is social construction because many officials from the executive
and legislative branches are involved in the design and passage of the
new legislation and policy. For example, the Homeland Security Act of
2002, which created the Department of Homeland Security, brought
together twenty-two diverse agencies to help prevent terrorist attacks
in the United States, reduce the vulnerability of the United States to
terrorist attacks, and minimize damage and assist in recovery if an
attack should occur. The demands imposed by management often cre-
ate the false impression that dehumanizing organizational control and
order are justified. Organizational members are expected to be loyal,
committed, and able to manage crisis situations, no matter how strict
or depersonalizing the atmosphere in which they function. One of the
most difficult issues facing a complex organization such as Homeland

Security is how to establish trusting relationships among a wide vari-
ety of federal, state, and local agencies so they can share information
regarding vulnerability to and incidents of terrorism. Furthermore,
changing the administrative cultures of twenty-two agencies into that
of one new cabinet-level department requires the participation of
employees from different professional backgrounds in order to
strengthen the process of change, allowing employees to share their
experiences and shape policies.
The major limitation of modern public administration is the unin-
tended consequences of the elements that are supposed to contribute
to the efficient management of agencies. In today’s changing environ-
ment, these elements tend to hinder human action and undermine par-
ticipation, horizontal relationships, and human collaboration. Various
authors criticize the limitation of both old and contemporary public
administration (for example, see Denhardt and Denhardt, 2003;
McSwite, 1997; Farmer, 1995; Fox and Miller, 1996; and Kass and
Catron, 1990). In this section, I briefly summarize seven common
characteristics of traditional public administration and their limita-
tions. They are as follows: (1) vertical governing; (2) professional dom-
inance; (3) instrumental-technical rationality; (4) reified bureaucracy;
(5) complexity; (6) placating citizens; and (7) dualistic thinking.
Vertical Governing
Public administration is vertically governed. That is to say, administra-

tion in every country is hierarchically organized in order to manage the
basic functions of the agency and to enforce rules and regulations in
relation to the agency’s policies and goals (Goodsell, 1983; Stillman,
1987; Kaufman, 1981; Richardson, 1997). Because authority and power
reside at the top of organizational echelons, executives and managers
often make important decisions without consulting the people below
them. Power is essential for executives and managers in maintaining a
bureaucracy: it is a means of controlling the behavior of its members
(Hummel, 1994). From the bureaucratic point of view, power must be
exercised in order to accomplish established goals. Moreover, power is
relational, in that the effective use of power by one actor depends on the
perceptions of and cooperation of other actors in interpersonal and
interorganizational situations. The traditional way of governing is grad-
Introduction 5
ually being transformed into the democratic process of horizontal gov-

ernance, which puts federal government agencies in a more collabora-
tive role with state and local governments, nongovernmental organiza-
tions (NGOs), international organizations, and businesses (Kettl, 2002;
Sirianni and Friedland, 2001; Nye and Donahue, 2000).
Professional Dominance
Public administration is greatly influenced by groups of professionals:
these include scientists, engineers, health specialists, systems analysts,
policy analysts, planners, computer specialists, and economists. Freder-
ick Mosher points out that government creates professionals, legit-
imizes professions, subsidizes all forms of professional endeavors, and
employs an everincreasing proportion of professionals. The professions
provide knowledge, training, and leadership to public agencies; influ-
ence public policy; and shape the structure of many public agencies
(1968, p. 104). The most obvious path to power for professionals in
public service is through their specialized training and knowledge.
With the command that professionals have of the specialized language
and information of their disciplines, they naturally tend to control the
decision-making processes and the creation of policy for the public
agencies that they represent. Professionalism in a public bureaucracy
often impedes the political process. Agencies dominated by profes-
sionals often attempt to avoid public debate or the scrutiny of past or
future decisions in, for example, dealing with sensitive environmental
issues. The narrow focus of most professionals in public service, com-
bined with an impatience and a lack of sensitivity toward the real world
of politics and clientele interests, creates an atmosphere of tension and
conflict that is inconsistent with the higher moral aims of public ser-
vice and the ethics of democratic government. Jethro Lieberman, in
The Tyranny of the Experts, warns that overdependence on profession-
als in an industrial society hampers the prospect of a more open and
democratic society (1970).2
Instrumental-technical Rationality
Further, modern public administration operates under the assumption
of instrumental-technical rationality, which Max Weber characterizes as
the rationale for the ideal bureaucracy (1947; Gerth and Mills, 1946).
For Weber, instrumental rationality is attained by the elaboration (on
the basis of scientific knowledge) of rules that try to direct, from the top
down, all behavior toward maximum efficiency. Weber’s rationalization
is the product of the scientific specialization and technical differentia-
tion peculiar to Western culture, and Weber sometimes associates it
with the notion of intellectualization. Guerreiro Ramos (1981), in his
critique of the assumptions of the functionalist theories, points out that
bureaucratic institutions confront the problem of administrative order
by embracing the instrumental requirement of administration
(described as instrumental rationality), which denies the potential of
individuals to create a new administrative order (or substantive ratio-
nality), and focuses mainly on the economic needs of large organiza-
tions. Weber, however, is concerned not only with causal explanation
and generalization of institutions from an instrumental-rational point
of view but also with an interpretive understanding of the subjective
meanings that people attribute to their actions (Weber, 1947, p. 88). As
Julien Freund describes it, Weber stresses “meaningful relatedness . . .
through which we are able to understand, quite apart from objective
development, the subjective meaning which a social relationship holds
for man and by which he is guided in his social conduct” (1968, p. 89).
Modern bureaucracies adopt various technical means of accom-
plishing the established goals of management. Individuals in a bureau-
cracy, however, do not always behave rationally, as top executives and
managers expect them to do. Perceptions of employees and clientele are
different from those of policy makers. As a result, a supposedly rational
bureaucracy is, in practice, often irrational, inefficient, and incapable of
understanding the situation or of solving many nonroutine or unantic-
ipated human problems. As Weber argues, in order to understand how
people behave in their community and society, we need to understand
how they create and destroy various relationships through their actions.
Reified Bureaucracy
When we attempt to understand a bureaucracy by means of Weber’s

ideal construct, we are conscious of its existence as an objective phe-
nomenon with basic characteristics. Presenting typical functions of a
bureaucracy, such as hierarchical relationships, specialized role perfor-
mance, application of technical skills, and enforcing rules and regula-
tions, is itself an example of objectifying the institutional process. We
explain administrative phenomena by adopting words and abstract
Introduction 7
concepts for analytical purposes. As time passes, we tend to forget the

original intention of constructing such metaphors, accepting them as
real things that control bureaucratic life. In other words, we tend to
reify the bureaucracy as having a life of its own.
Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann illustrate reification as the
process whereby human beings so lose consciousness of their poten-
tial—and their past—as creators of society that they treat a social insti-
tution as if it had a life of its own, above and beyond human control
(1968, p. 89; also see Gabel, 1975). If changing the undesirable charac-
teristics of bureaucracy is to be possible then understanding the process
whereby bureaucracy is reified is of the utmost importance. None of the
troublesome elements of bureaucracy apply to Weberian bureaucracy.
Rules, roles, and job classifications are historically and culturally con-
structed as people interpret and accept them as the necessary require-
ments for maintaining organizational order and operation.
Complexity
The bigness and complexity of public bureaucracy have become

another broadly accepted idea in public administration, although not
all bureaucracies are large. As society has become more technologically
and economically advanced, we have also witnessed the growth of a
number of large organizations, along with the rapidly increasing expec-
tations of citizens. In fact, in all industrialized (and postindustrialized)
countries, people’s lives are very much affected by large organizations,
such as government agencies, schools, hospitals, business enterprises,
military establishments, and prisons. Complex organizations are net-
works of social interaction, with socially constructed meaning and col-
lective action (Czarniawska-Joerges, 1992).
In addition to the large size of many public organizations, the
explosion of information technology and the globalization of all areas of
human activity have also contributed to the expansion of networking
and interaction, domestically and globally. In dealing with social and
political complexity, professionals and policy analysts, however, tend to
rely on “excessive rationalism,” which ignores effective public delibera-
tion and is unable to realize “failures of rationality” (Bohman, 1996, p.
157). James Bohman argues that in a public situation that involves
“hypercomplexity,” which means that full knowledge of the situation is
impossible and that there are multiple nonlinear interdependencies
between the system and its environment, rational public decision mak-
ing is impossible. Because of complexity and hyperrationality,3 public
organizations tend to emphasize the technical and informational neces-
sity of managing organizations and are thereby less open to the public
and less responsive to public criticism.
Placating Citizens
In a democratic society, citizen participation in the political process is

essential (Pateman, 1970; Barber, 1984). Since the late 1960s, Ameri-
can public administration has recognized the importance of citizen
participation in federally assisted programs. Government agencies that
administer programs are supposed to teach citizens how to participate
in and influence the many government decisions that affect their lives,
as well as to improve government efficiency at all levels.
Unfortunately, although many administrators view citizen partici-
pation as an element of democratic administration, they are more
interested in placating citizens than in taking citizens’ ideas seriously.
Government officials and professionals often see citizen involvement
(or citizen governance) as “threatening to their interests” (Box, 1998, p.
157). Because bureaucracies at the federal and state levels are so large
and complicated, ordinary citizens are not commonly involved in
national or state government policy processes. Because of this lack of
participatory opportunity in the policy process, more and more citizens
are now questioning the effectiveness and competence of policy mak-
ers and public administrators. Because citizens are particularly con-
scious of political issues that affect their lives, administrators often try
to influence the attitudes of interest groups and individual citizens. At
the same time, public bureaucracies at the local level have become more
sensitive to citizen involvement.
Although the idea of citizen participation in democratic countries
has become increasingly important, many non-Western countries still
control citizen movement by, for example, legally restricting the for-
mation of NGOs. Even in Japanese public administration, although
the internal administrative process seems to be more participatory than
that of the United States, and many important decisions are made by
Gacho ( Japanese for “department heads”) with the involvement of
employees, status-oriented Japanese bureaucrats are less open to citi-
zens’ ideas (Muramatsu, 1997; Jun and Muto, 1995).
Introduction 9
Dualistic Thinking
Dualistic thinking is still common in public administration. As I dis-
cuss in chapter 2, managerially oriented administration has a tendency
to separate the public from the governing, or administrative, process.
For example, the new public management movement of the 1980s and
1990s emphasized the need for providing efficient services to cus-
tomers (“citizens as customers”), assuming that public administrators
were the active agents, serving clientele. Serving the public efficiently
is paramount, and yet in order to improve services, administrators also
need to work with citizens. The citizens are the “owners of govern-
ment” and, as such, have the right and the obligation to question and
inform administrators about ways of improving their governance and
services (Schachter, 1997). Citizens should be encouraged to be criti-
cal and active human beings, not passive recipients of government ser-
vices. Dualism is also evident in the study of public administration,
most conspicuously in its epistemological and methodological
approaches, which pit functionalist epistemology against interpretive
epistemology, empirical and quantitative research against human sci-
ence and qualitative research, and objective reality against subjective
reality.
Any serious student of mainstream public administration needs to
realize its limitation and develop the organizational capacity to over-
come those limits, possibly by facilitating the democratic and partici-
patory process of governance. Social and administrative phenomena
are so complex that the current practice of rigid bureaucracy, in which
most decisions are made at the top, is inadequate, in that it does not
reflect the complexity of socioeconomic, political, or human contexts.
Furthermore, the dominant emphasis on the structural and functional
necessity of administration grossly undermines the importance of
understanding the problems and experiences of people throughout the
organization, the community, and the world.
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION IN A DEMOCRATIC CONTEXT
In this book, I introduce a fresh perspective on the study and under-

standing of public administration by depicting it in a large social and
global context. To broaden our perspective, I apply other people’s ideas
largely from other academic disciplines put into my framework and
into my interpretation in order to help students realize the value of

learning new ideas that are different from those of mainstream public
administration. I also attempt to explore problems of public bureau-
cracy and instrumental rationality that have preoccupied public admin-
istrators for a very long time. Thus, the social constructionist frame-
work discussed throughout the book is broad in scope, covering
problems of public policy, bureaucracy, administrative action, change,
rigid hierarchy, and ethical responsibility.
As people engage in activities of mutual interest and coordinate
their efforts, a form of social construction that entails human relation-
ships emerges. Not all social constructions, however, are democratic
social constructions. On the contrary, most constructions in govern-
ment are either political, involving pluralistic, exclusionary politics and
an autocratic attitude on the part of top executives and managers
toward people at the lower echelon of bureaucracy, or they are rational-
economic and technical with experts sharing scientific and analytical
interests. In this book, the democratic nature of social construction is
discussed as a critique of the prevalent modes of construction. Demo-
cratic social construction is grounded in the idea of multiple actors
sharing, learning, deliberating, and contesting. This type of social con-
struction provides a new perspective on public administration, distin-
guishing it from current practice by relating it to broad political, social,
and cultural contexts. It goes beyond the limitations of modern (and
traditional) public administration by emphasizing the views of critical
modernism and even embracing fragmented ideas of postmodernism
in light of a global perspective.
Through social construction, we shape our social (and adminis-
trative) world. Thus social construction is a framework for transform-
ing reality, rather than explaining how bureaucracy works in a histor-
ical, legal, or political context or promoting new management
strategies in order to improve organizational efficiency. The following
is a synopsis of the social constructionist approach and its relevance to
public administration. A conceptual exploration of this approach and
examples of its application are discussed throughout the rest of the
book.
My first assumption is that we should reflect critically on the
accomplishments of policies and administration in the twentieth cen-
tury and the limitations of the theories and methods that are the foun-
dation of modern public management. We need to explore the possi-
Introduction 11
bilities of reconstructing public administration in the twenty-first cen-

tury, based on the lessons that we have learned from the past. Admin-
istrative ideas such as efficiency, functional rationality, hierarchical gov-
erning, and the role of experts, which may have been appropriate in a
time of industrial and economic development, are now constraints to
the democratization of public service, that is, to working with the peo-
ple, realizing their values and needs, and helping them to self-govern.
Thus public administration should face its critical function of examin-
ing the past and the present and actively facilitate the process of con-
structing policies and action strategies through public engagement
with the enlarged role of public administrators.
Perhaps the essential idea of social construction is the process of
reality construction. In everyday administration, we do not question
what reality is or what we perceive reality to be. The inquiry into the
relationship between people and reality raises the ontological issue4 of
people’s existence in the organizational world. We have a tendency to
define and interpret the situation according to our experience by apply-
ing a stock of knowledge and do not realize that our experience and
knowledge may be the “result of social construction” (Holzner, 1968, p.
1). In organizational and social situations, how reality is interpreted
and defined affects our course of action. Because perception is largely
influenced by administrators’ personal interests, needs, and past expe-
riences, the way that situations are viewed will vary from individual to
individual: our view of reality is subjective.5 The question is, how can
we come to a common understanding of reality or a social situation,
that is, to a shared view of the division between self and significant
others, the division between self and the social world? In the social
construction of reality, the concepts of both ‘reality’ and ‘objectivity’6
are constructed according to the intersubjective experiences of the
actors in a shared world. The shared consciousnesses of relevant actors
can eventually provide a common ground for identifying and defining
the nature of a particular problem. By sharing their thoughts and expe-
riences, participants begin to give structure and meaning to issues that
were previously incomprehensible. This process forms the basis for an
exploration of possible solutions to problems and an evaluation of pos-
sibilities as they develop.
One challenging alternative is the enhancement of public admin-
istration, linking it closely with the public both nationally and globally.
Today the world has become so interdependent and interconnected
that nation-states increasingly depend on one another economically,

politically, and technologically (Mulgan, 1997). More important, the
connectedness between citizens and government and among people
globally through economic exchanges, media, the Internet, e-govern-
ment, and networking has greatly increased, allowing people to
choose from a wider variety of options. Face-to-face interaction and
collaboration among people, however, has not improved; thus the
social constructionist approach aims to help people develop relation-
ships in order to share their experiences and interests, learn from one
another, and work together on common agendas. Executives, man-
agers, and professionals can be far more effective when a diverse
group of people is involved in solving nonroutine and difficult prob-
lems. In addition, citizen groups appreciate administrators when
administrators facilitate the process of making connections among
citizens and helping citizens explore possibilities of effective self-
governance.
The social constructionist approach emphasizes a process of delib-
eration, dialogue, and discourse, and argumentation as people discuss
issues and problems (Bohman, 1996; Dryzek, 2000; Fischer and
Forester, 1993; Forester, 1999; Guttmann and Thompson, 2004; Hajer
and Wagenaar, 2003). In the literature on interpretive policy analysis,
deliberative democracy, and participatory planning, the process is
grounded in social practice, which stresses that people work, learn, and
act together through sharing their knowledge, stories, agreements and
disagreements regarding the issues and problems at hand. In this delib-
erative process it is crucial to minimize hierarchical relationships, work
toward horizontal collaboration, and promote communicative action
and intersubjective understanding.
Finally, social construction is practiced more effectively in decen-
tralized organizational units or in local government than in centralized
management. Centralized governing tends to limit the participation of
people in decision making; decentralized governing offers a possibility
for nonhierarchical and collaborative forms of governance by linking
organizational units and people through open interaction, dialogue,
and the sharing of socially distributed knowledge. Although arguments
are often made against decentralization and citizen participation, cit-
ing their fragmented nature, current trends suggest that democratic
social construction offers the potential to improve public services and
develop a more responsive public administration.
Introduction 13
DIALECTICAL POSSIBILITIES
This book is also about the divisions in administrative theory today and
how to weave disparate concepts and ideas into a useful conceptual
framework by exposing the interdependence of different perspectives in
order to see the totality of public administration. I attempt to help the
reader understand the concepts and ideas of dialectic; the relationships
among the individual, the organization, society, and the world; each
entity in its multitude of contradictory relationships; and the conse-
quent implications for the coexistence of opposing elements. Hegel’s
discussion of “master and slave” in his book Phenomenology of Mind pro-
vides an example of dialectical thinking. The master according to Hegel
is independent and therefore enjoys life; the slave is dependent, so he or
she does not partake in enjoyment, but instead carries the load of labor.
The master’s identity comes to depend upon the slave, whereas the
slave, through labor, gains consciousness and thus independence. Each
side can be described in an unambiguous fashion. Although this discus-
sion is abstract, this dependency in authority relationships may be found
in many bureaucratic organizations. This dialectical analysis presents
the contradictions inherent in the activities of public administration.
The conceptual and practical tools that are germane to the
improvement of public organizations can be found in various manage-
ment approaches. Each approach has its own merits, and each has its
own inadequacies in explaining and understanding the social world
and the operations of public organizations. In this book, I first critique
the dualistic approach to administration and the individual, and the
effect of this approach on administrative theory and practice. Dualistic
thinking can be seen in a number of administrative theories: the func-
tionalist or the interpretive perspective, positivism or antipositivism,
and objectivity or subjectivity. Second, I discuss the meaning of the self
and how organizational members share their experiences and mutually
learn how to confront personal and organizational issues.
Third, I explore the task of reconceptualizing opposing perspec-
tives in light of a dialectical alternative: the social constructionist
approach. Conceptualizing, or theorizing, is a social production in
which a theorist, researcher, or practitioner reflexively generates ideas
and knowledge through interaction with individuals in a social setting.
This is different from deductive theorizing, in which a practitioner is
guided by a set of rules. These rules specify ways that the researcher
accomplishes self-conscious activity. The social construction of public

administration helps us go beyond one-dimensional thinking and con-
sider the possibility of a critical synthesis of seemingly polarized, con-
tradictory perspectives. I do not assume that every issue is socially con-
structed or can be dialectically resolved. Because each theory or
paradigmatic perspective is based on a set of assumptions about the
social world, theoretical integration is difficult if not impossible. How-
ever, as we engage in a critical examination of each theoretical per-
spective, we may gain new ideas by avoiding its pitfalls. But current
public administration practice tends to rely on one learned frame—an
institutional, structural, functional, or political perspective—rather
than to use multiple frames or to critically synthesize frames. In a time
when many citizens see government as their protector against terror-
ism, questioning the role of government, emphasizing alternative
approaches, or demanding the participation of people in the policy-
making process is not important to voters. In the future, however, if
policy makers want to promote policy agendas, and public administra-
tors are eager to improve the administrative process, then they will
have to find ways of working with a broad spectrum of people who
have different ideas and theoretical perspectives.
Because each methodological perspective offers both advantages
and disadvantages, different approaches are necessary for advancing
theoretical and practical knowledge. At the same time, however, there
is the problem of excluding important elements of other areas of social
phenomena because a particular theory or frame encompasses only
those aspects that lie within its theoretical boundary. But as we engage
in social interaction and discourse about the strengths and weaknesses
of each perspective, we begin to see what is problematic and what is
possible. Furthermore, as one political scientist points out, “[A public
administration] that wants to produce valid knowledge needs many
knowledge regimes, and the different voices that women and minori-
ties are bringing” (Rudolph, 2002, p. 195). In other words, the field of
public administration needs to generate broad social knowledge based
on many voices, including the voices of the members of marginalized
groups.
Throughout this book, I focus on the importance of interpretive
and critical social theory approaches without stressing a functional,
structural, conservative communitarian, or rational approach. The
interpretive and critical perspectives on social construction are most
Introduction 15
relevant to understand the problems and processes of human and orga-

nizational activities. I try to reconcile the need for organizational order
and stability with the social construction of reality and the flexibility
that are common characteristics of social phenomena in contemporary
society. I would like to see the significance of humanistic and liberal
thought reflected in the study of public administration, not pushed
aside by a mainstream notion of pragmatism.
LEARNING FROM A CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
In the course of this exploration of change, other important themes

emerge. For example, the book explores the sociocultural and political
aspects of change and the influences that comparative, transforma-
tional, and global changes have had on the understanding of public
administration and contemporary public organization in various coun-
tries. I also relate my arguments to modern and functionalist concepts
in order to compare and contrast them with democratic and late (or
critical) modern perspectives. Because public administration in many
countries is engaged in reform and change projects, such as govern-
mental reorganization, reinventing government, performance measure-
ment, improvement of client services, and democratization, high-level
executives push their people to comply with management-driven goals
of change and reform. These goals often exist in remarkable contrast
with the concepts of participatory administration and democratic gov-
ernance. Therefore, in this book, I urge public administrators to reex-
amine the meaning of public administration and to reconsider the need
for reflecting on the values and experiences of people both within and
outside of large organizations. Today’s public administrators and main-
stream public administration scholars are visibly committed to institu-
tional and functional solutions to problems of policy, administration,
and human cooperation. Despite their intention to improve institu-
tional processes and services, however, most change efforts have not
had a sustainable impact.
Public administrators in the East and the West accept that any
radical changes in organizations must be supported by the power and
authority of executives and managers, whose influence dominates the
politics, economics, and processes of governing organizations. Those at
the top must also collaborate with the people who work for them, as
well as involve citizens in the policy process. Thus ongoing interaction

and discourse between the people at the top and the people below
them are vital. Those in management who are not willing to empower
people below them will continue to exercise their organizational power
to control the process. I believe, however, that any innovation originat-
ing from top management will be difficult to implement, unless the
members of organizations and citizens in the community appreciate
the meaning of the change and are committed to the process of change.
It is also true that any idea for change initiated by the people from
below is unlikely to bear fruit unless those in authority are receptive to
it. This implies that the issues of participation in and resistance to
development and change must be critically examined, particularly by
the people who will be affected by the change. Those projects that are
successfully implemented tend to be ones on which people collaborate,
that is to say, projects that are broadly understood and whose partici-
pants share a purpose, share goals, and share action strategies.
This book introduces students of public administration to exam-
ples from different countries to illustrate theoretical and practical
problems of designing and implementing public policy as well as
transforming organizations. I also emphasize the critical application
of theories and knowledge to different cultural contexts. Because
most texts and articles on administrative theory or organization the-
ory address the issues of public administration in the West, their con-
cepts and ideas should be critically examined before they are applied
to a cross-national context. I have two concerns here. First, when a
foreign student or scholar visits the United States or another West-
ern country for study or research, he or she is interested in learning
contemporary approaches to management and policy analysis. Upon
returning home, the student or scholar is eager to use what he or she
has learned by imparting this newly acquired knowledge to students
or applying it to governmental, business, or social problems. In most
cases, however, Western models cannot be readily applied to indige-
nous conditions, due to political, administrative, cultural, or histori-
cal differences. The most common tendency for non-Western acade-
mics and practitioners is to transform the techniques of
rational-comprehensive planning, budgeting and finance, perfor-
mance measurement, and new public management into their admin-
istrative setting. In most cases, the use of a Western model results in
complete failure and produces negative consequences. The applica-
Introduction 17
tion of any techniques or theories must be critically examined in the

context of a particular social reality (Rosenbloom, 2002).
My second concern is that when a Western professional goes to
another country to work, he or she tends to look at the problems of the
host country from his or her cultural point of view. If the Western pro-
fessional is to understand the complexity of politics and administrative
culture, then he or she needs to interpret the indigenous problems from
the local point of view, considering the hidden dimensions of socioe-
conomic and political operations. As we approach another culture, we
often attempt to explain and understand it through the application of
our established categories and mental frames, which are derived from
our past experiences. But because each society has developed a lan-
guage, categories, procedures, and roles through its own process of
social construction, ideas and frames developed in one country are not
necessarily acceptable to people in another cultural context. To under-
stand the reality of other administrative cultures and the experiences of
strangers, we must try to understand their reality from their own point
of view. If we impose our own frame on them, then we are likely to get
descriptions of reality that only fits into our established categories.
For example, the employee performance criteria used in many U.S.
government agencies might not work if they were applied to adminis-
tration in Japan or South Korea. Both of these Asian countries have
begun to adopt performance evaluation systems. But performance
measurements used by the U.S. federal government emphasize results
and face numerous problems, such as methods used, the criteria for
measurement, reliability, objectivity, and trust in people. This stands in
direct contrast to the administrative cultures of Japan and South Korea,
both of which value employees for their willingness to work with oth-
ers and their commitment to assigned tasks. This process is valued par-
ticularly in Japanese administration in order to accomplish organiza-
tional goals. If we public administrators consider results to be the
primary goal, then we will miss out on significant tacit knowledge that
is indispensable to an understanding of policy implementation in for-
eign cultures.
The bracketing of our own biases7 could help us understand the
experiences of people in other cultures. Complete bracketing of pre-
suppositions regarding other cultures and other people, as presented by
Edmund Husserl (1975), is a difficult task. Nonetheless, because many
aspects of the social world are not easily subject to causal explanation—
are not obvious—we need to engage in the task of seeing, describing,

explaining, and understanding experiences in the context of the world
in which others live ( Jun, 1986, pp. 71–73).
To understand the hidden aspects of administrative culture, I
attempt to bring out some similarities and differences in Eastern and
Western views on the self, human relationships, and social reality by
drawing on philosophical ideas and administrative traditions. For
example, Eastern thoughts, such as Buddhism, Confucianism, Hin-
duism, and Taoism, are devoted to the development of the self, author-
ity relationships, and our relationship to the nature. The prevalent view
of the self in the West tends to value individuals’ self-interest. Both
Eastern and Western thoughts, however, are concerned with ways of
dealing with conflicts, opposites, and contradiction. Although there is
a conceptual difference between the Lao Tze’s view of polarity and the
Hegelian dialectic, we may be able to link Eastern and Western ideas
in order to develop constructive possibilities. Western synthesis hap-
pens when two opposing things combine to make a synthesis. The
Eastern perspective sees the two sides as already connected. A common
concern between these two views is the importance of mutual arising
and going beyond duality. This discussion is further explored in chap-
ters 8 and 10.
THE ORIENTATION OF THIS BOOK
In this book, reconstructing the grounds of the various beliefs and

positions, I discuss supporting arguments and counterarguments asso-
ciated with different theoretical perspectives. I am interested in a crit-
ical evaluation of these views, as well as constructive ways of approach-
ing problems and issues. The underlying theme of this book is that an
understanding of public administration ideas requires a broad and crit-
ical attitude with regard to the theory and practice of mainstream pub-
lic administration. My approaches can be characterized as self-con-
sciously value laden and normative, rather than nominally value free
and descriptive. Such an orientation involves a contextual analysis of
public administration theories and ideas—an analysis that penetrates
to the underlying values and image of public administration that are
presupposed and reinforced. Such interpretive and critical approaches
go beyond the reified appearance of ideas and concepts, revealing their
Introduction 19
social, historical, and cultural contexts. In this way, it is possible to eval-

uate the relevance of administrative ideas to administrative settings and
complex reality, rather than relying on a blind empiricism or a rational
analysis of policy and administration.
My exposition in this book is intended to reveal idiosyncratic char-
acteristics of administrative cultures in different countries as well as to
provide my own interpretation of the problems of various change
efforts designed to improve public institutions. Furthermore, my sub-
jectively theoretical slant is toward a comparative, interpretive, and
critical analysis of public administration, particularly public adminis-
tration and policy in the East and the West. I apply phenomenologi-
cal, interpretive, and critical theory perspectives to the social construc-
tionist framework, but I do not provide an overview of the history or
various theoretical traditions of this framework. I discuss them only in
the context of comparing and contrasting them with my arguments.
The phenomenological and critical theory perspectives in particu-
lar have led my interest in the concept of social construction as an
alternative perspective that is dialectical and interactive in studying
complex issues of public administration. I discuss other administrative
theories, such as incrementalism, rational choice theory, and manage-
ment theories, for the purpose of comparing and contrasting theoreti-
cal positions on the explanation and understanding of social phenom-
ena. Ideas of postmodernism challenge our thought patterns;
unfortunately, they tend to confuse students of public administration
because of obscure language. In addition, I find that the lack of con-
structive suggestions and somewhat negative implications of postmod-
ern arguments are not always helpful to either students or practition-
ers. Nonetheless, ideas such as deconstruction, fragmentation,
difference, critical reflexivity, and decentering the self help us critically
examine the reified and centralized operations of public administration
as well as to understand the changing nature of multicultural society.
Perhaps my most important task is to convey abstract concepts and
philosophical ideas to students of public administration and organiza-
tion theory so that they see the possibility of applying interpretive and
critical theories in order to better understand public administration
and the changing responsibilities of public administrators. I want to
convey these subjectively and dialectically oriented perspectives to stu-
dents and academics who are unfamiliar with or who reject the impor-
tance of, interpretive and critical understanding, as well as to those who
are familiar with, or who are profoundly interested in learning about,

other ways of knowing.
This book may be of special interest to those who are beginning to
feel some tension and disillusionment about the popular approaches
used in mainstream public policy and administration, as recently man-
ifested in new public management, public choice, rational policy analy-
sis, reinventing government, performance management, and result-ori-
ented administration. It may be stimulating to those who are seeking a
broader understanding of the social, political, and cultural contexts of
public administration. It is most appropriate for courses in theory of
public administration, administrative theory, organization theory, or a
capstone class in public administration; it is also appropriate for other
public administration courses at the upper undergraduate and graduate
levels.
Thus the purpose of this book is to provide a conceptual guided
tour of public administration without deeply delving into the history
and the legal context of U.S. public administration. It focuses on the
dialectical processes and interactions between public administration
and the public, between the individual and public administration, and
between administration and the social world. I hope that its contents
are applicable to both Western and non-Western countries as students
and academics search for a broader conceptual frame that will help
them understand their responsibilities to the public, to society, and to
the world.
CHAPTER 2
The Changing Context

of Public Administration
The primary objective of this chapter is to briefly explore the success-

es and the failures of public administration in the twentieth century
and their lessons for the new century. The conditions of political,
socioeconomic, and cultural contexts have greatly contributed to the
growth of public institutions and the scope of public policies. My pur-
pose here is not to review historical developments in detail but rather
to show how past policies and administration have generated unantic-
ipated consequences and how they can contribute to our present
understanding of today’s problems, as well as provide useful lessons for
improving and innovating public administration. One important lesson
for coming decades is that the concept of ‘public administration’ should
be broadened by relating it more actively to public participation and
social relations to seek public input to policy making, implementation,
and problem solving.
UNANTICIPATED CONSEQUENCES
IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
The twentieth century was a time of enormous progress in science and

technology, industrialization, and the growth of nation-states. For
some developed countries, it may be characterized as a period of great
transition from the industrial era to the postindustrial era, or from the
modern period to the so-called postmodern period. The transition
from an agrarian economy to an industrial economy is, of course, still
a struggle for most non-Western countries. Since the 1990s, economic
globalization has further contributed to market rationality and compe-
tition, which is a basic characteristic of global free trade: it maximizes
the economic gains of each country but ignores the price paid in
human suffering.
21
Both industrial and postindustrial countries in the twentieth cen-

tury and today have emphasized rational, scientific, and technocratic
activities because these have led to discoveries, increased production,
bigger profits, and a higher standard of living for an everincreasing
portion of the world’s population. The emphasis on rationalism has
inevitably conditioned our perceptions of the world. Now the logic of
science and technology is the dominant force in our lives. This way of
thinking is so omnipresent that we fail to recognize that it permeates
everything we do: how we communicate; how we travel; the shape,
style, and goals of our organizations; our aspirations; our perceptual
processes; our worldviews; the television that we watch; and even our
human interactions. The very way that our minds work is affected by
these values. Our contemporary civilization is so much the product of
the technological revolution of the twentieth century that we barely
sense that any other perspectives or values exist—nor can we easily
imagine life without rationalistic-linear thinking or the physical prod-
ucts of the technological revolution. Moreover, as industrialized soci-
eties become more materialistically oriented, people become more
reluctant to ask broad philosophical questions, such as questions about
values, relationships, dialogue, distrust and trust, equity, and democra-
tic governance.
To keep up with industrialization and the political and economic
crises of the twentieth century, the field of public administration
focused much of its efforts on the development of management and
professional capability, applying an organizational approach that
emphasized efficiency and rationality. This organizational (or manage-
ment) approach, however sincere, represented either the status quo or
only incremental changes in policies designed by policy makers and top
administrators, which too often proved to be outmoded, unresponsive,
or ineffective in resolving political or societal dilemmas. The strong
management emphasis assigned more responsibility to the top echelon
of complex organizations, which ensured institutional domination over
the people below. Management adopted instrumental and rational
approaches to administrative reform and organizational changes in
order to improve efficiency and productivity ( Jun, 2002, xii–xvii).
There were many unanticipated consequences of development and
progress that were negative, such as inequity, injustice, environmental
disasters, wars, holocaust, and hunger. Major changes were brought
about not only through the active role of government—although there
The Changing Context of Public Administration 23
were many side effects of government intervention—but also through

the collaboration of the people in the construction of socially viable
alternatives. Many centralized projects, such as the New Deal pro-
grams during the 1930s and the War on Poverty programs in the 1960s
in the United States and many developmental projects in industrializ-
ing countries, are examples of how projects can be implemented under
the guidance of the national government, in cooperation with multiple
actors representing different levels of society. Although human actions
occurred in a context of social and intergovernmental relations, the
relationships within the frame of centralized planning were, by and
large, vertical and manipulative in the sense that policy makers and
bureaucrats pressured local people to participate in the implementation
of national policies and projects. Without broad participation, govern-
ment officials could not have accomplished projects. Numerous suc-
cesses and failures may be largely construed as the social construction
among higher level policy makers, professionals, administrators, pri-
vate organizations, and citizens. And yet the ideas emphasized by var-
ious scholars, such as people-centered development, citizen gover-
nance, public deliberation, participatory democracy, and the construc-
tion of social reality, were neither widely realized nor developed into
useful theoretical frames as we began the new century. Instead, admin-
istrators and managers of government agencies continued to play the
dominant role in governing society, controlling the processes of policy
making, designing alternatives, mobilizing people, and performance
measurement by relying excessively on instrumental and technical
solutions to problem solving and change. As Kenneth Gergen points
out, “When the world turns instrumental, no one can be trusted”
(1999, p. 18).
The Failure of Government Programs
A problem that was once solved may create new problems due to
changing circumstances. Russell Ackoff 's example of the problem of
private transportation illustrates this point: one may solve a problem of
getting to work by purchasing an automobile, but having a car presents
some new problems, such as obtaining insurance, maintenance, finding
parking places, and so on. Therefore, in order to avoid undesirable con-
sequences, he or she needs to anticipate critically future problems
(1978, pp. 189–93).
The most puzzling aspect of public problem solving is that because

of the diverse nature of the public, few complex problems remain
solved. Although some solutions accomplish anticipated consequences,
others tend to produce unanticipated negative consequences, many of
which are as severe as and as enigmatic as the original problem. Certain
unintended negative consequences of public policy formulation and
implementation are numerous throughout the world. In the early stages
of development in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, for example, national gov-
ernment played a key role in promoting rapid economic development.
But centralized planning continued for several decades, and local gov-
ernments were not able to develop a self-governing capability. National
policies are implemented through the cooperation of local jurisdictions:
civil servants and citizens at the provincial, county, city, town, and vil-
lage levels react to the orders of the national government. They are not
given the opportunity, autonomy, or freedom to develop local financial
capability or to concentrate on local needs or interests.
The paradoxes of centralized government present various tensions
between efficiency and public participation, honest government and
corruption, conflict and loyalty, national and local development, and a
free market and civil society. In the case of public bureaucracies in
Korea and Japan, the central government exercised control over policy
making, planning, and allocating financial resources for several decades
after World War II. Although Japan began the process of improving
local autonomy much earlier than Korea, because of the role of strong
national bureaucracies in both countries, local governments and
bureaucrats still struggle to govern autonomously. This phenomenon is
more conspicuous in Korea, because local governments lack the finan-
cial means necessary to govern themselves.
In the United States, for instance, the social welfare issue has been
a sticky policy dilemma since 1935. A seemingly useful social welfare
program such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)
generated many enduring administrative problems, such as overpay-
ment errors, escalating costs, fraud, an intergenerational cycle of welfare
dependency, and an increasing number of recipients, all of which are
subject to continuous (and ineffective) sets of solutions. Until 1996,
AFDC was the nation’s oldest and largest welfare program, guarantee-
ing cash benefits for poor families. Recipients also automatically quali-
fied for food stamps and health insurance. With the widespread impe-
tus for welfare reform in 1996, President Bill Clinton abolished AFDC,
changing the program to Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.

Most welfare benefit programs have now shifted to the states. The local
government receives a block grant and is responsible for devising wel-
fare programs and controlling welfare costs. More authority is granted
to state governments in order to encourage innovation in welfare pro-
grams, job training, and job search assistance. Local governments must
deny welfare benefits to noncitizens, and there is a two-year time limit
for recipients who are able-bodied and childless. Job training programs,
however, have so far had little success. At the time of this writing, there
are few jobs to be had, particularly for minimally skilled workers. For
example, in the year 2002, fifty-eight counties in California had more
job seekers than jobs. Even the most richly funded job-training pro-
grams have had only modest success in helping mothers work their way
off welfare; none has had any proven success with unwed teenage moth-
ers, the core of long-term recipients; and paradoxically, welfare reforms
have not saved money. For example, when welfare mothers are forced to
take full-time jobs, if there is no one to care for their children, the gov-
ernment subsidizes day care services for these women and their chil-
dren. The recent studies on the 1996 welfare reform, however, seem to
produce some positive effects on family structure and children, moving
welfare recipients to work, hard-to-serve populations, immigrants, and
racial and ethnic groups, but long-term consequences are still too early
to predict (Weil and Finegold, 2002).
Another disastrous example of social welfare in the United States
is public housing programs; these programs were based on rational
decisions and political expediency. During the first Franklin D.
Roosevelt administration (1933–1937), the federal government
assumed a major role in the development of public housing by provid-
ing jobs, clearing up slums, providing inexpensive housing for the poor,
and helping the construction industry. The U.S. housing policy since
1933 has been described as the accumulation of "mindless incremen-
talism” (Meehan, 1979). Many significant legislative changes have
been made. With the passage of the 1937 Housing Act, the federal
government undertook major responsibility for constructing numerous
housing projects, allocating resources for new projects, budgeting,
auditing, and monitoring operations. However, housing management
was left to local housing authorities. Housing authorities at local levels
tended to consist of conservative, middle-class people, including busi-
nesspeople, lawyers, and realtors (largely white men). Local authorities
had a voice in selecting housing location, architectural design, project

size, and facility staffing. They were also responsible for such daily
operations as maintenance, tenant selection, repairs, legal action
against tenants, staffing, and general administrative matters.
Housing programs were targeted at very low-income popula-
tions, and the maintenance of buildings was totally dependent on
rental income. Most projects were large high-rise apartments, poorly
designed and located, badly managed, and built for occupancy exclu-
sively by the poor. When rising costs led to higher rents, many poor
tenants became unable to meet their payments. Housing authorities,
however, could not evict and replace tenants, because the housing had
deteriorated beyond repair. These apartments, with their leaking
roofs, broken water pipes and windows, and piled-up garbage,
became a target for vandalism; often, they were finally abandoned.
Another cause for urban ruin was the inefficient administration of
the Federal Housing Authority (FHA). Administrators and staff person-
nel were inexperienced in handling housing programs. Corrupt officials
helped contractors, large speculators, and urban redevelopers with mort-
gage and real estate interests. In the spring of 1972, George Romney, then
U.S. secretary of Housing and Urban Development, finally stopped the
subsidized mortgage interest program for the urban poor, although the
poor were not the abusers. By late 1972, between 240,000 and 250,000
units were foreclosed upon. Detroit alone had about 25,000 units in
default. Bryan Boyer argues that when we consider the foreclosures,
defaults, interest subsidies, and tax breaks for the rich, “we are talking
about a $70 billion slum,” with the federal government being a slum land-
lord. By 1975, the federal housing program had, without a doubt, failed,
and many buildings were bulldozed (1973, pp. 6–8). So far, every study on
public housing indicates that many of the federal housing projects for the
past half-century have failed, not because of the nature of the programs
themselves, but because of administrative incompetence in solving fiscal
deficiencies, correcting administrative mistakes, anticipating implementa-
tion problems at the local level, and most of all, ignoring the problems of
poor tenants.
High-rise apartments built in the 1950s and 1960s are symbols of
America’s urban policy failures. However, units built in the 1940s, low-
rise town houses and garden apartments, are still decent living quarters
for many since the 1970s; these housing projects have been on a small
scale, having buildings with attractive landscaping and open space.
Unanticipated Consequences of Societal Successes

Perhaps the easiest way to understand unanticipated consequences is to
look at various accomplishments of our technological society. Certainly,
at societal and institutional levels, the impact of unintended conse-
quences due to technological advancement is diffused and difficult to
evaluate because a new consequence is often connected to other issues.
Table 1.1 is a modification of a list developed by Willis W. Harman. He
argues that unanticipated consequences that are negative are ultimately
unsolvable within our present worldview because their origin and accu-
mulation lie in the very success of that worldview (1974).
TABLE 1.1
Societal Successes and Their Unanticipated Consequences
Successes Unanticipated Consequences of Success
Advances in biotechnology Prolonged life span; regional over

population; and medicineproblems of the
aged; shortage of social security fund
Highly developed science Hazard of mass destruction through
nuclear or bio-logical weapons
technology
Machine replacement of manual and Exacerbated unemployment and
routine labor urbanization; more service-oriented jobs
Advances in telecommunication and Increased air, noise, and land pollution;
transportation complex society, which is more
vulnerable to breakdown
Internet and information technology Digital divide; information overload; lack
of privacy; gradual loss of individual
rights
Efficient production system Dehumanization of ordinary work;
inability to create challenging jobs for
people
Affluence High consumerism; increased
consumption of energy and goods,
leading to pollution and depletion of the
Earth’s resources; destruction of natural
environment; inequality
(continued on next page)
TABLE 1.1 (continued)
Successes Unanticipated Consequences of Success
Satisfaction of basic needs Worldwide revolutions of “rising

expectations”; rebellion against no
meaningful work; desire for freedom and
full participation in society; demand for
individual rights
Expanded wealth of developed nations Increased gap between “have” and
“have-not” nations; Frustration of the
“revolution of rising expectations”
Centralized rational planning Implementation problems locally;
expert dominance; lack of citizen input;
lack of trust
Globalization and economic growth Growth without job in highly
industrialized countries
Professionalization of management Excessive reliance on rational analysis;
lack of citizen participation; passivity of
citizens; Specialization and
compartmentalization; individual
competition
The unanticipated consequences listed in the right column relate

to societal successes in medical science, the physical sciences, industri-
al technology, improved production systems, economic development,
and management. The rapid economic development of industrializing
societies, such as Brazil, Mexico, Korea, and China, means that these
societies are experiencing many contradictions and inequalities that
lead to societal conflicts and unanticipated negative consequences.
Ironically, most of their current problems stem directly from rapid eco-
nomic growth. Thus the continued success of industrializing nations
depends largely on how well they can cope with problems that are
emerging from that very success. In the irresistible, fast-paced change
of the global economy, many advanced countries face at least two
unpleasant economic realities: economic growth does not guarantee a
decreasing rate of unemployment; and restructuring companies and
entire economies to make them more competitive commonly require
job cuts, with those laid off often unable to find equally good jobs uti-
lizing their present skills. Mounting concerns about complex econom-

ic and social problems require cooperation among government organi-
zations and all sectors of society in order to develop effective ways of
coping with crisis and innovating alternatives.
LESSONS FOR THE NEW CENTURY
A common source of unintended (or unanticipated) negative conse-

quences is related to what Robert Merton calls “latent system func-
tions” (Merton, 1957, pp. 60–84). Organization-as-system tends to
focus on objective consequences: manifest functions that aim at expect-
ed behaviors, task performance, and hierarchical coordination of
authority. However, an organization’s ability to accomplish organiza-
tional goals is related to its ability to cope with various latent elements:
subjective considerations, such as individual personalities, perceptions
of clients, and employee compliance. For example, managers and staff
at lower echelons of a bureaucracy do not always follow the policies and
procedures ordered by headquarters. Unanticipated consequences are
inevitable when employees do not behave in ways top executives and
policy makers expect them to behave.
Public institutions must develop that organizational capability not
only to solve problems but also to maintain and control the imple-
mentation of those solutions. Effective problem solving requires
administrators to study the nature of unanticipated consequences by
critically examining the original problems, theoretical assumptions,
values, and goals, rather than reinforcing implementation strategies
that produce anticipated results. According to Donald Schön and
Chris Argyris (1978), this process requires a different mode of organi-
zational learning, double-loop learning. This type of learning demands
that the problem definition, goals, assumptions, and norms be critical-
ly reexamined in light of errors that show up in the environment.
In order to identify new problems and develop new goals, adminis-
trators must learn how to understand the successes or failures of solu-
tions and how to develop new alternatives that have the desired socially
effective impact. Continually looking at problems afresh and being will-
ing to support creative change may help administrators to reformulate
the knottiest problem, thus allowing broader and more sustainable solu-
tions. This learning and changing process can be much more effective
when many stakeholders (multiple actors) are involved, depending upon

issues with which people are concerned. An issue such as sustainable
community development requires the broad participation of citizens
because their voices need to be reflected in the creation of a community
if it is to be viable. This is social construction that relies on social process-
es and interactions.
In the process of implementing a solution (i.e., public policy),
unanticipated consequences tend to crop up when one or more of the
following occurs:
• The interpretation or understanding of an anticipated problem is

inaccurate.
• The problem is conceptualized in overly simple and narrow terms.
This problem is often caused by political expediency or rational
analysis by experts.
• There is a mismatch between the problem and the solution.
• Conditions are inadequate for implementing a policy or decision
(e.g., lack of financial resources, lack of management support, or
lack of political support).
• The goals and objectives of the policy are inefficient.
• The organization is unable to foresee negative effects of the policy
or decision. There is an inability to control latent functions (i.e.,
conflict or deviant behavior).
• Forecasting procedures are less adequate than the state of the art
would allow for the problem.
• Professionals and managers play the major role in deciding the
goals of change or development.
• The most important factor that leads to unanticipated conse-
quences is lack of a public participation or cooperation.
What public administration needs in the twenty-first century is

the active involvement of citizens in promoting public values
(Gawthrop, 2002; King and Stivers, 1998; Box, 1998; Denhardt and
Denhardt, 2003; Kettl, 2002). If we continue to rely on the powers of
government and bureaucrats to impose changes on society and the
world, then we will not realize the human potential of creating an
appreciative system of governance in which participants take collective
action to meet the challenges of public issues, such as equality, social

equity, justice, inclusion, multiculturalism, participation, environmen-
tal sustainability, and the quality of life. Rather than continuing to
impose politically driven or management-driven projects on people, we
must design and redesign work organizations and policies for our-
selves. If we critically reflect on past experiences, then we can learn,
relearn, and recreate public administration.
REINTERPRETING THE MEANING

OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
During the past half-century in Western and newly industrializing

countries (NICs), the study of public administration has developed
into something of a large professional enterprise. This trend has been
most noticeable in the past few decades. In the process of rapid devel-
opment and modernization, public administration (particularly public
administration of large bureaucracies) has emerged out of the need for
more economy, efficiency, and productivity. The growing influence of
public administration also attests to the spread of professionalization
and management development in public service through the strength-
ening of educational and training programs, as well as through the
development of journals and professional associations. To understand
how public administration has developed throughout the years in a
particular country, we must look at the increasing role of public admin-
istration in the social, political, and economic contexts of that country.
For many years, public administration was concerned with the prob-
lems of society, economic development, and national defense. The
impetus for expanding the functions of public administration was
inevitably caused by these demands. As the role and power of large
institutions grew, forces external to bureaucracy, such as citizens, came
to be perceived as things, as objects that stood in the way of the design
and management of development projects. Citizens and civic organi-
zations were perceived as hindrances to governing society and devel-
oping a market economy. The public was understood to be an objective
phenomenon that exists over and above the subjective reality of citi-
zens’ experiences and perceptions. When administrators perceive the
social world in a reifying manner, it is difficult for them to understand
the reality of citizens and community or promote the democratization
of society. Furthermore, when administrators objectify reality without

including the public, particularly of nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs) and citizens who will be affected by administrative decisions,
they deny citizens the ability to participate in constructing social real-
ity; in this way, administrators underestimate the power of construct-
ing alternatives that are grounded in social practice.
If we are to understand the truest and deepest meaning of public
administration, then we must include the importance of the public in
any conceptualization of it. It may be argued that anything that public
administration does is for the betterment of the public. The instru-
mental and rational orientation of public administration, however, fre-
quently produces unanticipated negative consequences, largely due to a
poor understanding of complex social phenomena. A good under-
standing of these phenomena is essential if we are to gain a clear and
vivid picture of the interactions between public administration and the
public. Because the public is made up of networks of people, groups,
and organizations, the dynamics of the interactions among them are
unpredictable and constantly changing. When we examine the con-
ceptual orientation of public administration, we see that the dominant
approach to its study, as manifested in the educational curriculum, in
research methods used to collect information, in administrative opera-
tions, and in reform efforts, is both intellectual and pragmatic.
Mainstream public administration reflects this orientation in seeking
administrative knowledge and concepts grounded in the positivistic
and functionalist tradition of epistemology.1 However, a true under-
standing of social reality and human relationships requires more than
instrumental and rational ways of investigating human knowledge.
Public administration strongly emphasizes the administrative side of
public administration implementing and managing programs and
functions, thus neglecting social innovation and imagination. Various
case studies demonstrate that innovative community problem solving
and change occur as a result of collaborative efforts among public
administrators, citizens, business organizations, and civic organiza-
tions. Furthermore, the inclusion of people outside of public adminis-
tration can put public administrators on the right track in carrying out
their public obligations in an ethical and responsible way. To under-
stand the complexity of society, we need to reframe our approach to the
study of public administration. One of our tasks is to reexamine (and
reinterpret) the concept of public administration by considering at least
two important dimensions of public administration: (1) public admin-

istration is carried out in the context of the public, particularly in the
context of democracy and civil society; and (2) administrative activities
need to be conducted, and design choices need to be made through the
participation and interaction of multiple actors who will be affected by
policies or projects.
By administrative organizations I mean an organization of indi-
vidual positions and roles—a group of people whose activities are
designed to meet specific challenges or solve specific problems and
whose behavior and actions are influenced by rules and expectations
regarding each member, politics, symbols, and human relations. The
public sphere, which encompasses citizens, groups, voluntary associa-
tions, and many NGOs, is the arena for entertaining problems, ideas,
agreements and disagreements, and possibilities for change.
Administrative organizations are socially constructed to provide ser-
vices, maintain social order, and learn from the public. If public admin-
istrators are to emancipate themselves from strong administrative and
management ideas in order to realize public values, then practitioners
and academics alike must critically reflect on the institutionalized pro-
fessional and epistemological bias of the field.
The Vulnerability of Administration
Public administration emphasizes the importance of administration

over the publicness of public administration. The assumptions of effi-
ciency, instrumental rationality,2 professionalism, positivistic and
functionalist epistemology, and managerial leadership are the founda-
tion of mainstream public administration. These assumptions serve
the purpose of public administration in terms of managing the func-
tions of agencies, but they do not capture the full complexity of a phe-
nomenon that involves the public. The rationale behind mainstream
public administration’s focus on economy, efficiency, performance,
goal maintenance, and conflict management is that this focus helps
provide better services to the public. This rationale, however, underes-
timates or neglects to consider the important role that citizens, busi-
nesses, NGOs, and grassroots organizations can play in identifying
local problems and solving them. Citizens and organizations in civil
society are viewed as passive entities: they receive governmental ser-
vices and intervention.
The first and most obvious reason why public administration

should manage the public is the fact that the field is professional and
specialized. Because functional specialization is the bread and butter
of public administration, public administrators have an organization-
al and a social interest in drawing attention to the advantages of spe-
cialization in ensuring organizational survival, maintaining function-
al autonomy, providing technical skills, and collecting information
about public problems. This specialization is, unfortunately, at the
expense of public involvement. It is not that public administrators
have not tried to promote citizen participation and networking, but
their efforts have been largely reactive ones: they have merely
responded to external forces for political reasons. This phenomenon
is particularly conspicuous in non-Western countries. Public admin-
istrators in those countries have obscured the importance of the pub-
lic, thereby depoliticizing their activities and disengaging themselves
from the public—until a crisis occurs or the public makes loud
demands. In an undeveloped and chaotic society—Afghanistan and
Iraq are current examples—organized institutions are necessary in
order to provide basic governmental services and maintain social
order. But in an early stage of development, it is important to listen
to and learn from the public rather than unilaterally imposing rules
and regulations. To develop a good society, it is important to promote
effective and efficient administration as well as a viable civil society.
As these two countries struggle to form democratic governments
under the influence of the United States, the Iraqi Governing
Council member and the fragile Afghan government find their own
ways of bringing order and normal services to their citizens and com-
munities. Achieving legitimacy in the eyes of citizens is a slow
process of social construction.
The professional bias of public administration toward rational
analysis, efficiency, planning, and goal maintenance means that public
administration is largely administration; that is, it serves mostly to gov-
ern and manage the public. The ideas of participation, deliberation,
civic engagement, citizen empowerment, and democratic process are
secondary to public administration. In their everyday administrative
activities, practitioners only peripherally take these ideas into consider-
ation. Despite the argument that contemporary public management
recognizes the importance of the participatory process, in actuality,
management-driven projects gloss over not only the participation of
employees at the local level, but also the participation of those citizens
who will be affected by their activities.
The commitment of public administration to administering and
governing internal and external affairs focuses on the organizational
responsibility of managers and employees to efficiently perform their
assigned tasks and solve problems in a professional manner.
Administration governs from the top down: decision making, admin-
istrative reform, and problem solving are largely hierarchical, are not
participatory, and do not disturb the status quo. Thus governing is the
conventionalizing process of organizational change.3 Managers and
professionals in large bureaucracies do not think beyond their own
areas of specialization. In many countries, rigid bureaucracies operate
under the traditional assumptions of managing functions within their
jurisdiction. Thus administrative theories focus more on describing the
aspects of administration than the characteristics of the public and
their influence on public institutions. Accordingly, theoretical
approaches to governing and managing pay little attention to the
importance of horizontal relationships, participation, access to decision
making, dialogue, discourse, public deliberation, or civic engagement.
Administrative theory for mainstream public administration takes
these democratic elements into account only when they are seen as the
means to achieve organizational ends.
A Renaissance of the Public
The word public has a much broader meaning than the one assigned to
it by public administration practitioners and academics in governing
community. Public administrators often are insensitive to the needs of
the public and unaware of the possibilities for social innovation in the
public sphere. This phenomenon is more conspicuous in non-Western
countries. For example, because the politics in most non-Western coun-
tries do not take the needs of citizens into account, in recent years NGOs
in some Asian countries, such as Japan and Korea, have emerged as an
important force for societal change by critiquing government policies,
politicians, and bureaucrats. In Western countries, the conception of a
public entails the egalitarian quality in which “members of a public stand
on an equal footing and do not regard themselves as a privileged few. In
addressing each other, members of a public address each other as equals,
with no claim of intrinsic authority” (Richardson, 2002, p. 184). This
ideal assumes that in a multicultural and democratic society, the public

should be inclusive of realizing the rights and freedom of people with
diverse backgrounds.
If the recent revival of the literature of deliberative democracy, civic
engagement, and participatory management teaches us anything, it is
that the radical transformation of public administration is possible
through the social construction of new governance processes and citi-
zen participation in the public sphere. In order to expand the main-
stream meaning of public administration, public administrators have
begun to accept civic engagement on the part of citizens as well as the
enhancement of civil society. Although in the 1980s and 1990s, man-
agement-driven projects for new public management and reinventing
government gained considerable popularity among executives and
bureaucrats in many countries, we have also witnessed a great deal of
criticism from upper-level management and limitations put upon
reform projects. Numerous studies have shown a discernible shift away
from the conventionalizing approach to changing organizations to the
renaissance (or divergent) approach, with change occurring from the
bottom up and through horizontal interactions.
I am not arguing that in the near future, strong management or
professionalism will wither away. In fact, current trends suggest that
most large organizations will continue to operate under the assump-
tions of twentieth-century organizations. The current emphasis in the
U.S. federal government on performance measurement, performance
budgeting, and management use of human capital confirms the
increasing role of management. The opposite trend, however, is also
gaining popularity. This more participatory trend offers exciting possi-
bilities: many organizations are actively transforming structures and
processes in ways that construct meaningful community. This transfor-
mation is influenced by the critical role played by citizens, NGOs,
grassroots organizations, and associations that represent civil society.
Civil society is alive and vital, and it, not government and not business,
plays the major role in creating democratic community. What is the
evidence for my optimism? Following is a list of some significant
changes that have occurred in the public sphere:
• Critical citizens are recognizing that the democratic process, the

use of democratic means, is the best way to strengthen democratic
institutions.
• Effective and responsive government is realizing that citizens are

“the beginning point of public and that citizen influence and par-
ticipation are essential to effective public policies and programs”
(O’Connell, 1999).
• Policy deliberations are increasingly open to the public (Bohman,
1996; Richardson, 2002; Dryzek, 2000).
• Although the majority of citizens may not be inclined to partici-
pate in community problem solving, many good citizens do want
to engage in public deliberation. Participation in deliberation, cit-
izens are discovering, has not only an instrumental value of public
policy making but also an intrinsic value to the individuals
(Christiano, 1997; Guttman and Thompson, 2004).
• Local citizens are particularly interested in critical discourse con-
cerning issues of community planning, sustainable development,
and local democratic governance.
• Local forces for critiquing the assumptions of public management
are helping people to seek democratic alternatives.
• Many good citizens are concerned with global issues, such as eco-
nomic globalization, sustainable development, human rights, glob-
al warming, hunger, and pollution.
• Active networking without a strong center of authority is con-
tributing to networking participants, increased awareness of prob-
lems and the development of horizontal relationships.
• Empirical evidence on civil society indicates that a country with a
strong democracy is likely to have active civic republicanism.
• Technological innovations are not only informing people in remote
areas about world changes but also serving as vehicles through
which people can connect, sharing their ideas and experiences.
The preceding trends suggest profound implications for the future

of public administration and administrative theory, as well as the pos-
sibility of exploring alternatives in the public sphere. I discuss trends
just mentioned in different chapters in the book. Although these indi-
cators might be proven by collecting empirical evidence, the normative
implications for the changing responsibility of public administration
and even a new way of conceptualizing the study and purpose of pub-
lic administration are what is most important. Considering the rapid
transformation of domestic and global politics, along with democratic

changes, we can expect that the role of the strong administrative state
in many postmodern societies will decline. At the same time, we can
also anticipate that in less industrialized and developing countries, spe-
cial emphasis will be placed on building strong government, emphasiz-
ing administrative centralization and efficiency, and meeting basic
public services. Development experimentation in those countries
because of their socioeconomic and cultural conditions, however, will
be different from the experiences of industrialized areas in Asia that
saw periods of authoritarian and undemocratic governance, with the
growth of civil society.
DIALECTIC IN ADMINISTRATIVE ACTION
Although public administration and the public exist in different social

spaces, if public administration does not relate to the public, then it
may serve only the goals of bureaucracy and lose any opportunity for
correcting its internal limitations. Without efficient public administra-
tion, citizens are not likely to receive good services. As Frederick
Mosher (1968), Emmette Redford (1965), and Dwight Waldo (1948)
point out, without efficient administration, democracy cannot be func-
tional. Thus it is important to realize the problem of overstating the
significance of either public administration or the public, because an
overstatement of administrative efficiency and the strong administra-
tive state can result in as much reification in public administration as
can a stress on the public. However, a public administration that
assumes that the public can be served better when internal manage-
ment is strong misses out on the transformation that can emerge in the
public sphere when alternatives are constructed. This strong internal
management creates the strong government and strong administration
currently advocated by many Asian countries and the Scandinavian
countries; it also creates an imbalance among government, business,
and civil society. Public administration can no longer be understood
outside of the public, and the public cannot be served well outside of
efficient administration (Ventriss, 2002).
The assumed dualism between administration and the public, with
public administration focusing on the instrumental, functional, and
rational aspects of administration as efficient governing, has misled
public administration into ignoring the dialectical relationship

between the two as well as the possibility of the construction of social
alternatives in the public sphere. Furthermore, in large bureaucracies,
rationality grounded in instrumental thinking is never achieved,
because people do not always behave rationally or predictably. This is
one reason why performance measurement of programs and the use of
objective and quantifiable criteria can never reveal the true causes of a
project’s success or failure.
In the literature of public administration, numerous attempts are
made to discuss these dynamic changes by synthesizing macro and micro
issues into the change process. Such efforts are manifest in the terms that
the authors employ, such as employee participation, citizen involvement,
customer service, empowerment, and consultation. But these words are often
hollow: no corresponding action takes place. Thus the result is a reifica-
tion of the social phenomenon. The language intended to describe pub-
lic participation also tends to reify the phenomenon. We rely on language
to represent and characterize the various aspects of the social world. To
reinterpret the language used in social practice, we inevitably rely on dia-
logue and discourse to share the meaning of our experience.
Throughout this book, I emphasize the dialectical nature of public
administration by stressing the improvement and responsibility of
individuals in the administrative process, rather than the imposition of
structural changes on organizational members. Without dialectical
understanding, it would be difficult for administration to function, let
alone develop a viable democracy. Perhaps humanly meaningful under-
standing, synthesis, or collaboration can occur only when an individual
is able to act reflexively and critically. Marshall Dimock attempts to put
the study of public administration in a philosophical perspective, argu-
ing that public administration is more than a science and more than an
art: it is a philosophy. He states the following:
Philosophy is a body of belief and practice aimed at achieving better
performance. A philosophy of administration is a thought-through and
viable pattern of survival and influence for individuals and for institu-
tions. It is good policy and good technique. But most of all it is a real
integration, a blending of everything that is important. (l957, p. 1)
Dimock’s goal is to integrate the administration with the individ-

ual, that is, to integrate organizational goals and objectives with social
values and individual growth. To integrate many polarized elements, he
insists that “people at all levels be encouraged to develop a philosophy

of administration” (p. 6). Although Dimock’s observation is insightful,
his illustration of a philosophy of administration does not address the
importance of the individual’s responsibility to critically reflect upon
institutional goals, structure, functions, unintended consequences, and,
most of all, conflicting theoretical frames and epistemologies.
Furthermore, it is very unrealistic to think that we may be able to syn-
thesize every polarizing issue. Dimock’s intent, however, is to empha-
size the need for integration and the appreciation of mutuality among
opposing elements.
In several chapters in the book, I emphasize the need for critical
awareness of the limits of different conceptual issues and for con-
structing alternatives through social interactions. The assumption is
that our understanding and appreciation of the ideas and experiences
of others could lead to new ways to promote the public good and
improve the processes of public administration. For example, some
major dichotomies in studying public administration, such as theory
and practice, facts and values, objectivity and subjectivity, ends and
means, efficiency and effectiveness, and explanation and understand-
ing, require a critical analysis of these seemingly opposing dimensions.
Last, among the many responsibilities of public administrators as
they interact with the public is the civic obligation to facilitate the
growth of civic capacity so that citizens, NGOs, associations, and com-
munity-based organizations can be actively involved in public discourse.
Because potentialities in the public sphere can be further developed
through relationships, participation, discourse, and deliberation, public
administrators need to develop a civic consciousness and engage in col-
laborative action with the public so that citizens in turn develop a civic
consciousness and meet their civic obligations. Through the Internet and
direct contact with citizens and NGOs, public administration produces
knowledge that helps us to understand public problems better. At the
same time, citizens can assist policy makers and administrators to make
more effective decisions and to think effectively and compassionately by
engaging in public deliberation, seeking public reasons for collective
action. Democracy and a strong administrative state are often viewed as
mutually exclusive. The commitment to bridge these two processes of
power in society has important implications for the workings of public
administration. If the dialectical linkage is not realized, then the poten-
tial for utilizing people’s ideas and energy will remain unrealized.
CONCLUSION
Public administration has, correctly, emphasized the importance of

administration. But there is a point beyond which administration
becomes a caricature of itself, with an exaggerated emphasis on admin-
istering and governing the public. Because mainstream public admin-
istration in the twentieth century was obsessed with the managerial
and technical aspects of administrative operation, it did not pay much
attention to broader issues, such as values, complex realities, hidden
cultural and symbolic aspects of organizational life, social equity, the
public good, democratic governance, or other value-laden topics.
Current trends seem to indicate that the field of public administration
is becoming more oriented toward managerial and professional knowl-
edge development. For example, changing the name of the academic
degree program from public administration to public management
would be a commitment to increasing the scope of professionalization,
power, and responsibility of public administrators. To call the program
“public management” would be to emphasize the increasing role of
public administrators in improving efficiency, productivity, and perfor-
mance measurements of organizations. The down side of strong pro-
fessional management is that it tends to perceive citizens as passive,
thereby losing the opportunity to energize their potentials and self-
governing ability. Enhancing the responsibility of public administra-
tors is unquestionably important, but their new role in the coming
decades should be to work with the people as well, to construct social-
ly meaningful alternatives. To understand the unanticipated conse-
quences of administrative action, administrators must take on the role
of facilitator, involving citizens and learning from their interpretations
of problems and issues through dialogue and discourse.
The “publicness” of public administration challenges the discipline
to transcend its parochial focus on administration, going beyond its lim-
its and exploring possibilities in the public sphere ( Jun, 1986, pp. 27–28).
Taking into account the effects of the public on administrative activity
would broaden the notion of public administration beyond its governing
and managing emphasis, which has been its major emphasis since the
early twentieth century. We should reconstruct administrative theory to
situate the public explicitly in its context in the processes of democratic
governance. The public, culture, and the broader participation of organi-
zational members and citizens are the least explored subjects of research
in public administration. If public administration continues to focus on

administration and management, seeing the public as having only minor
importance, and if it retains a positivistic and functionalist orientation,
then it will not be possible to use public administration concepts to
understand the dynamics of the social interweaving and cultural con-
structions that people and organizations form in the public sphere.
Therefore, a renaissance of public administration should situate the field
in the context of the public and social relations without slighting its tra-
ditional commitment to the promotion of public services.
We are beginning a new era of democratic experience in which we
will encounter new social forces and relationships. Our attention to the
language, communication, discourse, culture, and local knowledge that
we encounter every day gives us a way of exploring possibilities and
relationships. Many times, public administration is criticized for being
inefficient, bureaucratic, and insensitive to the needs of the public,
underestimating the value of public participation. Public administra-
tion, however, is slowly changing in response to the wider forces in
society. Effective administration from civic-minded administrators can
enable citizens and civic organizations to become self-governing. Thus
it is time to bring the public into the study of public administration in
a rigorous way. The social construction frame, as stressed throughout
this book, is perhaps the most effective approach to use in seeking pub-
lic collaboration.
CHAPTER 3
The Social Constructionist Approach
In a public administration that places much emphasis on a positivis-

tic, empirical, and bureaucratic culture, only that which provides
practical results and serves management interests is taken seriously.
As practicality becomes an important measure, theoretical
approaches and ideas are judged in terms of their applicability to
immediate issues, such as organizational efficiency, productivity,
customer services, and measuring performance. As a result, those
who advocate structural, functional, empirical, and rational
approaches have adopted a positivistic epistemology in pursuing
knowledge, establishing a causal connection between the desired
ends and the means of achieving those ends. But theory or approach
requires more than objective and positivistic means to deliver ade-
quate results. When the demand for an immediate result and the
practical concerns of organization are put to one side, good ideas
may arise. Actors in a social situation may begin to open their
minds, exploring possibilities, rather than focusing their thought,
dialogue, and discourse on the intended outcome. This chapter
introduces the social constructionist approach, which can help us to
achieve a better understanding of ourselves and to design alterna-
tives on the basis of this understanding. When people engage in
social interaction and discourse, a practical solution may not emerge
immediately, but the actors involved in the process are likely to come
away with a better understanding of the problems and issues with
which they are confronted. I am not stating that the social construc-
tionist approach is not concerned with immediate results or practi-
cal solutions. In fact, as organizational members collectively discuss
the problems at hand, they are more likely to discover a practical
solution than a manager or a small group of experts is. In fact, a
decision based on the shared knowledge of many stakeholders has a
better chance for successful implementation.
43
THE LIMITATIONS OF THE

FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE
In recent years, there has been an inordinate amount of confusion and

tension among scholars in public administration with regard to the
basic presuppositions underlying different theoretical frames. Liberal
theorists, who are concerned with the inadequacies of the current the-
oretical and management orientations, seek alternative ways of under-
standing the complex dimensions of public administration.
Mainstream theorists, however, feel comfortable with the theoretical
and management orientation, which is largely built on the epistemo-
logical perspectives of functionalism, institutionalism, systems theory,
rational decision-making, public choice, pluralistic incrementalism,
and contingency-management theories. The functionalist and posi-
tivistic approach was popular throughout the twentieth century; this
was, perhaps, due to the powerful influence of bureaucratic institutions
and their demands on people.
In terms of the scope and methods adopted by public administra-
tion academics and practitioners, the institutional, rational, or func-
tionalist approach is the most dominant perspective. Positivistic and
management-oriented thinking are particularly conspicuous in public
administration research and writing. This orientation is inseparable
from the tradition of strengthening the role of the administrative state
within the constitutional frame, in that the responsibility of the state is
to implement rules and regulations for assuring administrative effi-
ciency, performance, and rationality in an intergovernmental context.
The positivistic and functionalist approach has been prevalent in
the philosophy of public administration ever since the publication of
Woodrow Wilson’s article entitled “The Study of Administration”
(1887). It proceeds from the assumption that administrative efficien-
cy and productivity can be achieved through the application of the sci-
entific method and a set of management principles, such as account-
ing and budget control, planning, systems analysis, the efficient allo-
cation of organizational resources, and recently, performance mea-
surement and result-oriented management. The functionalists put
their emphasis on the institutional, structural, and functional coordi-
nation among administrative units and also on the adaptation of the
organization to its environment. The decision-making process is car-
The Social Constructionist Approach 45
ried out within hierarchical relationships. The positivistic and func-

tionalist way of studying administration also assumes that because
people are by nature rational and self-interested, also human motiva-
tions and behaviors are predictable and can be empirically explained
by testing a set of hypotheses and variable relationships. It also
assumes that external forces determine social reality and that rational
explanations can be given. All we need to do is to uncover and mea-
sure the truth by determining the causal relationships that exist in
objective reality. Change is seen as a linear process moving from gen-
eral to specific or from theory to action and using a set of principles
to induce and guide human action.
Positivism and functionalism emphasize that the characteristics of
objective reality (e.g., objectified elements in an administrative culture)
are taken for granted and are developed throughout the organization’s
history, possibly long before an individual member becomes part of it.
The underlying assumption is that administrative culture is historical-
ly constituted for the individual. In the “culture-as-constituted” theory
(Sahlins, 1982, pp. 35–44), administration has the following character-
istics: hierarchical relationships; a collective consciousness of organiza-
tional members oriented toward goal accomplishment; symbolic
process in functional coordination; organizational language, rituals,
and norms of behavior; and a stable structure. Finally, the positivistic
and functionalist approach as the foundation for mainstream public
administration aims to explain and predict social phenomena, by gen-
erating explicit knowledge as opposed to tacit knowledge, which is
qualitative and hidden.
Although the functionalist perspective has numerous shortcom-
ings, it has become an important theoretical foundation of public
administration and should not be misunderstood. In fact, a large
body of administrative functions involving routine work is neverthe-
less maintained through the application of rules, procedures, and
hierarchical relationships; organizational accountability also depends
upon loyalty and obligation of organizational members particularly at
the lower echelon of bureaucracy. In order to explore other ways of
knowing, we need to understand the positive and negative aspects of
the functionalist perspective so that we realize that what may seem to
be obvious to us about managing public organizations can become
problematic.
THE INTERPRETIVE, CRITICAL THEORY,

AND POSTMODERN PERSPECTIVES
The social constructionist approach, as illustrated in this book, relies

heavily on interpretive and critical theory on the study of public admin-
istration and organization theory. The interpretive perspective is an alter-
native way of understanding complex phenomena based on the points of
view of organizational members, stakeholders, and citizens by focusing
on their experiences, values, dialogue, and discourse and by interpreting
their language and stories. Despite the strong intellectual influence of
interpretive inquiry across the social sciences, it is largely liberal theorists
who have a vested interest in exploring the subjective and intersubjective
nature of democratic administration who carry out interpretive research
in public administration. The critical theory perspective incorporates the
value-oriented and socially grounded aspects of social reality by critical-
ly examining the objective, value-neutral, and rational aspects of institu-
tions, power, and authority. At the same time, it is critical of the subjec-
tive tendency that is common in the interpretive inquiry. As a way of cri-
tiquing the tradition of public administration theory, the postmodernist
views are also introduced in this section. The fragmented contribution of
the postmodern perspective to social construction is that it begins with
the critical-reflexive task of examining the traditionally biased assump-
tions and norms of public administration.
The Need for Interpretation
The interpretive approach1 is not an explicit paradigm, a theoretical

position often taken by structural and functional-oriented theories;
that is to say, it does not include a set of constructs and assumptions
that aims to explain and predict social phenomena. The interpretive
perspective is, instead, a set of ideas and methods that helps us to
understand social practices at various levels of organizational analysis.
In the eyes of practitioners, the interpretive concepts do not provide
practical guidelines for solving the problem that they face in their
everyday work.
To understand the interpretive approach, we must realize the lim-
its of a positivistic and scientific way of explaining social reality.
Wilhelm Dilthey (1833–1911), a German philosopher who introduced
a new method of studying society and culture, argues that there is a
fundamental difference between, on the one hand, the natural sciences

and, on the other hand, the humanities and social sciences in terms of
the methodologies that their scholars use in investigating social phe-
nomena. Natural science scholars attempt to explain a phenomenon by
applying general laws; humanities and social science scholars try to
understand a phenomenon by means of an experience of a certain sort,
depending upon the object of study (Dilthey, 1961; 1977; 1996).
Dilthey brings hermeneutical theory into “a philosophy of historical
knowledge and the human sciences” in which the method of explain-
ing human activity is basically psychological or intuitive (Gunnell,
1987, p. 106). Although Dilthey emphasizes the significance of under-
standing, Hans-Georg Gadamer (1977) is concerned with understand-
ing meanings in terms of the values, purposes, assumptions, common
sense, and objects from historical contexts that condition them. The
essence of understanding is interpreting texts (1989, p. 252). Gadamer
also claims that a misunderstanding resulting from disagreement with
the text can be as important an influence as understanding an agree-
ment in human life. His hermeneutical inquiry stresses the linguistic
nature of our relationships with other people and the world, stating
that “language is a medium (eine Mitte) where I and world meet, or
rather, manifest their original belonging together” (1989, p. 474). From
this, we may infer that public administrators in an organization use
language as a medium in their interactions. Thus an important task for
public administrators is to understand the meaning of linguistic
expressions, reflecting on past and present contexts.
Edmund Husserl (1859–1938) criticizes the natural sciences (or
empirical science in the social sciences) as having a “naive objectivist” (or
realist) view of social reality (1973). He was particularly critical of “nat-
uralism” (empiricism/positivism) in establishing truth in philosophical
study. Husserl emphasizes the importance of understanding the “life-
world,” the world of ordinary, immediate experience, which is experi-
enced by means of perception. The life-world is seen as the living and
worldly horizon and is described by Husserl as the context within which
we experience changing things, expectations, emotions, ideas, and so on
(Husserl, 1973; Natanson, 1973). This worldly horizon, this life-world,
precedes all reflection and must be understood as that which gives mean-
ing to all other possible experiential horizons that take place within it.
Dilthey and Gadamer, as hermeneutical philosophers, and
Husserl, as a phenomenological philosopher, have greatly furthered the
development of the interpretive perspective. Other Western thinkers

who hold an interpretive perspective include Max Weber, Martin
Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Alfred Schutz,
Harold Garfinkel, and Paul Ricoeur. They argue a difference between
natural and human sciences by critiquing the presuppositions of scien-
tific inquiry and developing new ways of understanding history, cul-
ture, language, tradition, and human phenomena in general. What
makes the interpretive approach unique and particularly relevant to
public administration is its constructionist stance with regard to the
social world. This constructionist view emphasizes the dialectical pos-
sibilities in a nondeterministic (noncausal) way, and in such a way that
goals, projects, or solutions legitimize collective action based on the
sharing of ideas and experiences among participants (Schutz, 1967;
Berger and Luckmann, 1967; Winch, 1958; Douglas, 1970; Garfinkel,
1967; Habermas, 1984; Ricoeur, 1991; Collin, 1997; Polkinghorne,
1983; Yanow, 1996).
The interpretive approach offers a number of ideas (or assump-
tions) that can help in understanding social (administrative) phenom-
ena. First, the interpretive perspective, which is particularly grounded
in phenomenology, seeks to understand and explain the social world
primarily from the viewpoint of the actors in a social situation. It seeks
explanation within the realm of individual consciousness and subjec-
tivity, that is, within the frame of reference of the participants, not that
of an observer of the action. It sees the social world as an emergent
social process that is created by the individuals concerned. Human
beings are creators of social reality. People construct meaning in the
social world through social interactions. Through social interaction
and the sharing of meanings, a revised (negotiated) meaning of action
emerges.
Additionally, an understanding of social reality begins with an act
of interpretation that, if successful, produces understanding. As
Silverman points out, “The task of interpretation is to understand that
which is to be interpreted. To produce an interpretation is to come up
with an understanding of the interpreted” (1984, p. 21). An interpre-
tive approach focuses on “the human capacity for making and commu-
nicating meaning” (Yanow, 1996, p. 5). With regard to an examination
of administrative communication, for example, phenomenological (or
hermeneutical) interpretation concerns itself with understanding the
meaning of communicative experience between subjects through the
act of interpreting the content of the communication and generating a

meaning. Interpretation is a qualitative description in the sense that
meaning can be investigated and described according to the inter-
preter’s relationship to the text (or message). From this relationship,
meaning is produced ( Jun, 1997, p. 22).
Also, because an individual exists both for himself or herself and
for community with others, an understanding of the intersubjective
relationships that constitute all forms of organizations and communi-
ty is necessary, even though the person is often in conflict with others.
For example, in the workplace, an individual acts not only in his or her
self-interest but must also have an association with others because he
or she is not only an atomistic being, but also a social being.
Finally, interpretive theorists argue that functionalist explanations
of human action fail to see the theoretical presuppositions and limita-
tions of the positivistic and empirical epistemology. The failure lies in
functionalist assumptions about persons and actions. The functionalist
concept of a person assumes that a person is largely a passive and reac-
tive object, subjected to environmental influences, such as organiza-
tional, economic, political, and social factors. Interpretive theorists’
concept of the individual is that he or she is an active, purposive, and
creative subject (Harmon, 1984; Silverman, 1970). The interpretive
approach may be viewed as “practical” because it is always directed at
or applied to some intentional objects, such as language, story, theory,
thought, symbols, and various human activities. In order to increase
interpretive validity, the different methods of interpretation are applied
to specific situations (Hiley, et al., 1991, pp. 11–13). Interpretation,
however, also faces some serious issues, such as choices among equally
acceptable interpretations, misinterpretation, or misunderstanding by
interpreters.
In summary, the interpretive approach seeks to understand shared
(though often implicit) assumptions about why events happen as they
do and how people are to act in different situations. Merleau-Ponty
says, “To understand is ultimately always to construct, to constitute, to
bring about here and now the synthesis of the object. Our analysis of
one’s own body and of perception has revealed to us a relation to the
object, i.e., a significance deeper than this” (1981, pp. 428–29). To
interpretive theorists, understanding the social world from the subject’s
point of view is fundamental to all human activity and is the means by
which social life and collective action are realized.
The Need for Critical Reflection
Critical theory offers a theoretical perspective that helps us examine

not only political, economic, and institutional concerns but also the
humanistic, cultural, and social dimensions of complex social phenom-
ena. Critical theory has become the focus of the interdisciplinary dia-
logue among scholars of all the theoretical perspectives—functional-
ists, structuralists, and interpretive theorists—as well as informing a
broader range of social practices, such as management practice, mod-
ernization, development, environment and sustainability, globalization,
and civil society in the public sphere. It has become an important intel-
lectual force in critiquing the presuppositions of mainstream social the-
ory. The critical perspective is also evident in the arguments advocated
by poststructuralist and postmodern social theory (Kellner, 1990, p.
12). As Kellner implies, critical theory (including the original
Frankfurt school) and postmodern social theory bring a multidiscipli-
nary orientation to public administration theory, introducing perspec-
tives from philosophy, sociology, political theory, psychology, cultural
theory, political economy, and history. Critical theory makes a signifi-
cant contribution to the critique of public administration (Harmon,
1986; Abel and Sementelli, 2003; Forester, 1985; Zanetti, 1997) and
(not without controversy) critiques mainstream public administration
theory and methods. It could do even more to promote change by
offering new theoretical alternatives for transforming today’s institu-
tions as well as promoting democratic actions grounded in a collective
understanding between public administration employees and citizens.
Although critical theory is not fully developed, the ideas advocat-
ed by various theorists, such as Theodore Adorno and Max
Horkheimer (1979), Jürgen Habermas (1984), McCarthy (1981); and
Martin Jay (1973), are directly relevant to an understanding of the
problems of public administration. Public administration that is
grounded in the critical theory perspective supports efforts to effect
fundamental institutional change, advocating a critical synthesis of
institutional issues and human value issues, subject and object, empir-
ical-analytical science and hermeneutical (historical-interpretive) sci-
ence, a value-neutral stance and a value-committed stance, and the
active and passive aspects of human nature. Critical theory also rejects
a qualitative distinction between subject and objects or between
researcher and subjects.
Critical theory is value-critical in conducting administrative

research. For example, because the selection or design of a theoretical
framework and the analysis of facts are both influenced by the person-
al values of the researcher and ultimately objectify social reality, it is
necessary to interpret the limits of theory (or hypothesis) testing and
the empirical data derived from research objectively and to reexamine
the supposed value neutrality (as Weber points out) critically (Weber,
1947). To this end, the interpretive perspective and the critical per-
spective could make significant contributions to alternative approach-
es to the issues of public administration. Another important aspect of
critical theory is that it recognizes the strengths and limitations of mul-
tiple explanatory perspectives, critically integrating them into a broad-
er and more inclusive interpretive framework. In this respect, critical
theory offers an interpretive quality for public administration, rejecting
the inhumane institutional domination of people (Schroyer, 1973) and
the habitual behavior of administrators. Critical public administration
understands and interprets existing behavior and actions in terms of
how ethical the behavior is and how responsible the actions are.
Change occurs through a dialectical process in which old and new
interpretive schemes interact, resulting in a synthesis.
In summary, neither functionalist nor interpretive epistemologies
provide a comprehensive view of complex social reality. Although func-
tionalist theories focus on the influence of objective elements in admin-
istration, on the behavior and action of individuals, interpretive theories
stress the understanding of reality (objective phenomena) as essentially a
subjective process. Functionalist and interpretive theories may be viewed
as one-dimensional administrative theories, because neither provides an
adequate picture of the totality of administration (Alexander, 1982).
Thus there will be little advancement of theory development if public
administration is approached primarily through either the functionalist
or interpretive epistemology, or if the functionalist necessity of the
administrative state is justified mainly in terms of the instrumental val-
ues of maintaining administrative efficiency, order, and survival. This is
not to argue that theory for legitimizing organizational survival is unim-
portant. But because both functionalist and interpretive theory aims to
explain only part of complex administrative phenomena, each produces
empirical and conceptual problems (Laudan, 1977).
Critical theory perspective provides a framework for discovering
theoretical alternatives and exploring possibilities for action that are
more congruent with public problem solving and changing organiza-

tions. I would like to think that critical theory as a dialectical perspec-
tive is an alternative approach to going beyond the inadequacy of pre-
sent administrative theory by liberating ourselves from a one-dimen-
sional epistemology (or theory). Even when we are not able to achieve
a creative and critical synthesis, our reflection on opposites and con-
flicts among different perspectives could lead us to a heightened level
of theoretical understanding. The dialectical aspect of critical theory
such as developing intersubjectivity through communicative action
(Habermas, 1984), is a constructionist approach to understanding the
dynamic processes of public administration.
Dialectic is a process of searching for a critical synthesis among
contradictions, conflicts, and discontinuities in the social (administra-
tive) world. It is a way of thinking about alternative possibilities by
critically examining different epistemologies, social relationships,
methods, and techniques. It is a method of dialogue (Plato) and criti-
cism (Aristotle). As I discuss later in the book, ‘dialectic’ is a concept
that has a long philosophical tradition in both Eastern and Western
philosophy. Critical-dialectical analysis requires an explanation, inter-
pretation, and understanding of opposing elements and conflicts, tan-
gible and intangible aspects, and facts and values; it also requires a rela-
tionship between nature and human beings. The process of under-
standing administrative phenomena can be enriched by attempting to
resolve various opposing perspectives, such as functionalist epistemol-
ogy and interpretive epistemology, positivism and antipositivism,
objectivity and subjectivity, efficiency and participation, centralization
and decentralization, stability and change, passivity and activity. When
critical synthesis is not possible, we may still gain a better understand-
ing of our problems, differences, and social reality.
Postmodern Ideas
Throughout the history of public administration in modern times,

there has been an amazing continuity of one theoretical idea, namely,
rationalism. Extensive discussions of rationalism in institutional activ-
ities and in human action can be found in the literature of public
administration and organization theory. The fallacy of instrumental
rationality, rational discourse, and foundationlessness has been pointed
out by public administration theorists, such as O. C. McSwite (1997b),
David Farmer (1998), Charles Fox and Hugh Miller (1996), and
Michael Harmon (1995). The idea of postmodernism, I like to think,
provides a kind of critical reflection on administrative rationality. Of
course, there have always been antirationalists in other disciplines, par-
ticularly those who critique the tradition from a postmodern perspec-
tive. Postmodernists are critical of rationalism, positivism, metanarra-
tives, rational communication, and the centralizing tendency of admin-
istration. Antirationalists act as the countertradition. Although they
have not been successful in overcoming the theoretical pitfalls of irra-
tionalism, their skepticism and negative interpretation of the tradition
of public administration is an intellectually energizing force as scholars
are confronted with the task of “negating administrative-bureaucratic
power” (Farmer, 1998, p. 5). Postmodernists as antirationalists are also
not interested in reconstructing traditional ideas; instead they are con-
cerned with the issues of deconstruction, multiplicity, difference, frag-
mentation, power relationship, and critical reflexivity. Despite the lack
of a constructive effort, I am inclined to think that postmodern theo-
rists in public administration are not arguing for irrationality but for a
more adequate account of rationality by critiquing the foundational
problem of public administration (McSwite, 1996).
To understand the rather fragmented ideas of postmodernism, we
need to listen to the postmodernist critique of modernity (Hassard and
Parker, 1993; Marsh, Caputo, and Westphal, 1992; Rosenau, P. M.,
1992; Albrow, 1996; Jun and Rivera, 1997). The project of modernity,
formulated in the eighteenth century by Enlightenment philosophers
such as Kant, is associated with objective science, universal morality
and law, and autonomous art. Modernity is associated with the
Enlightenment project, in which the positivistic epistemology of the
scientific method is the basis for establishing causality in explaining
human behavior and in regulating social interactions. It is concerned
with the role that reason may play in building a humane society.
Postmodernists criticize modern priorities, such as career, office, indi-
vidual responsibility, bureaucracy, humanism, egalitarianism, evaluative
criteria, neutral procedures, impersonal rules, and rationality (Rosenau,
1992, pp. 4–6).
Although postmodernists have emerged as the countertradition to
rationalism, they concern themselves with the problem of interpreta-
tion, such as the deconstruction and interpretation of text. Largely
based on the work of Jacques Derrida (1973; 1981) and Jean-Francois
Lyotard (1984), deconstruction is a process of critical interpretation

that works with a text, using its own terms and contradictions to
uncover subtexts, thereby paradoxically elevating texts and lending
them dynamism while denying them any final meaning. The concept
of ‘textuality’ thus extends beyond literature: the world can be viewed
as a text, and social practices, as well as interlocutions, can be viewed
as narratives. Derrida also argues that whether we deal with literary
text or social narrative, “the hermeneutical effort to decide among all
the possible interpretations inevitably fails because of the essential
undecidability of textual meaning” (Hoy, 1985, p. 54). Deconstruction
as an element of postmodernism provides an alternative perspective on
the functionalist grand narratives present in modern administration
(Linstead, 1993). As applied to public administration, the participants
(i.e., administrators and citizens) may play the active role in the decon-
struction process.
Perhaps the most important contribution of postmodernist thought
is its characteristic insistence on the plurality and multiplicity, as well as
the diversity and difference, of human social experience. In phenome-
nology, this is described as recognition of the difference in the lived expe-
riences of the reflective subject and its object (or the other). Postmodern
theorists would argue that administration should be dispersed and frag-
mented, capable of accommodating conflict, multiplicity and difference,
and decentralization and autonomy. Postmodernists, such as Jean-
François Lyotard, Jacques Derrida, Jean Baudrillard, and Michel
Foucault are evidently not interested in resolving issues of dispersion and
fragmentation; on the contrary, they implicitly, if not explicitly, assume
that fragmentation and multiplicity promote creativity.
Although most postmodern arguments seem to support pragma-
tism and social constructivism (Bogason, 2002, p. 70), they fall short of
offering constructive alternatives for dealing with some fundamental
concerns of positivists and functionalists, such as social order, authori-
ty relationships, efficiency, productivity, policy design, organizational
change, and problem solving. Rather, the process of reflexive and crit-
ical questioning is the beginning of exploring possibilities of trans-
forming institutions. This, as Richard Peterson points out, for post-
modernists, “is a matter of self-conscious irony” (1996, p. 194) as they
challenge authority relationships, rationality, antiadministration, and
centralized modern projects. I expect that postmodern thought can be
reconstructed into a force that transforms traditional institutional prac-
tices into pragmatic and culturally based alternatives by reasserting the

critical role of individuals in organizations, the inclusive aspect of dis-
course analysis, the importance of plurality and difference, and the sig-
nificance of citizen participation in the process of making public insti-
tutions more democratic.
THEORIZING THE SOCIAL

CONSTRUCTIONIST APPROACH
Until this chapter, the social constructionist approach has been dis-
cussed implicitly, mostly through a discussion of opposite tendencies in
public administration during the twentieth century. Why social con-
struction? Public administration is in relationship with social reality,
that is, a reality that is constituted from human ideas and interactions
(Roy, 2001, p. 6). When people consider that realities are socially con-
structed, they accept that there is not one reality or one version of the
truth. Rather there are multiple realities and truths constructed and
experienced by people in their everyday interaction. By assuming that
there are many possible ways to understand the nature of reality and
diverse interpretations of any situation, management no longer domi-
nates the governing process, and the experiences, ideas, and divergent
views of other organizational members are valued. This is the case in
many effective organizations. For example, from a social construction-
ist perspective, a manager thinks that he or she has the best way of
solving a particular problem but that other members may have differ-
ent interpretations of the same problem. The social construction of
public administration concerns itself less with how policy makers and
managers make certain decisions and control people in agencies and
more with how people construct and attach certain meanings to their
experiences and how these meanings become objectified aspects of
public administration, such as rules and regulations, positions, roles,
institutions, organizational acronyms, symbols, categories, and special-
ized tasks. These objectified elements would not exist without people’s
understanding and enactment of them.
The social construction of public administration acknowledges
that the members of an organization create organizational realities
through interaction, dialogue, and discourse; they are continually
working on a sense of themselves and their surroundings in their
everyday interaction and can construct alternative solutions on the

basis of this understanding. Social and organizational realities are con-
structed, or created, by how we as humans define, understand, and
interpret the world in which we live. Thus, communication must exist
between and among the parties attempting to share their reality. We
humans use language and dialogue to build our relationships with
other people and to describe our relationships with our world. In this
way, we articulate and share our understanding of the world around us
and of other humans who occupy our world with us. I shall lay the
framework for such understanding by providing a set of concepts that
are more or less accepted by those who advocate the ideas of critical
construction and democratic possibilities. The basic concepts are
already introduced in various literatures in public administration and
other disciplines.
Many characteristics of the social constructionist approach are dis-
cussed in the literature of participatory democracy, deliberative democ-
racy, governance, and the sociology of knowledge (Pateman, 1970;
Guttman and Thompson, 1996; Bohman, 1996; Dryzek, 2000; Berger
and Luckmann, 1967; Gergen, 1999; Searle, 1995; Young, 2000;
Collin, 1997; Roy, 2001). Here, I briefly introduce a set of common
assumptions that are essential to the social constructionist frame, by
bringing out the somewhat fragmented viewpoints of those who sup-
port constructionism.2
The Value of Social Knowledge
Social construction asserts that social knowledge is socially distributed

everywhere in an organization, in a community, and in the world. This
everyday knowledge relates to how we live our lives and make mean-
ing in our world. It is often taken for granted because it is shared by
others as a common sense we integrate into our daily actions. We com-
municate with other humans through our sense of knowledge; we
make sense of the world around us and organize our lives within this
framework of knowledge. Because knowledge is a complex and
ambiguous entity, there is much controversy about that which we call
“real knowledge” (knowledge grounded in a social situation) and
knowledge that is other (knowledge of an objective thing). Each per-
son’s knowledge belongs to the realm of real and true knowledge, with-
in which he or she attempts to construct a reality in which to live and
relate to the world and to other people. According to Berger and

Luckmann, every individual lives in a world of social knowledge, but
only a few individuals concern themselves with “the theoretical inter-
pretation of the world.” They point out that “the sociology of knowl-
edge must first of all concern itself with what people ‘know’ as ‘reality’
in their everyday, non- or pre-theoretical lives” (1967, p. 15). Social
knowledge reflects social (and organizational) conditions that are in
turmoil and that are diverse and changing and is also concerned with
the relationship between human thought and the social context with
which it arises. Thus, social knowledge is the basis for the social con-
struction of reality.
Whereas traditional and scientific forms of knowledge are often
regarded as being crucial to the efficient functioning of bureaucratic
organization, an understanding of common sense or social knowledge
increases both the quality and the extent of administrative activity by
aiding an understanding of organizational and human problems. The
more we know, the more deeply we feel; and the more we know about
people and external problems, the better chance we have of under-
standing them and thereby making better decisions that reflect social,
political, and human conditions. If we are not able to solve the differ-
ences among participants, we are, at least, able to move toward a bet-
ter understanding of their conflicting positions. Increasing our under-
standing through sharing knowledge broadly seems to be the best way
to improve an organization, both its policies and members’ commit-
ment to those policies. As we attempt to understand the complex
nature of the administrative world, we are also better aware of the lim-
its of the organization in which we work and the limits of theoretical
analysis we apply. Berger and Luckmann point out in their analysis of
the sociology of knowledge that the theoretical articulation of admin-
istrative reality will continue to play an important function in public
administration, but it is not the most important activity: we are also
concerned with democracy, people, interdependence, and diversity.
Therefore, knowledge shared through social interaction increases the
range of our involvement, understanding, conflict resolution, and pos-
sible alternatives. Through the mutual construction of goals and strate-
gies, we can take action to shape our collective destiny, creating a future
that is different from the present.
Vertical governing of government agencies as well as central-local
government relationships in many countries certainly marginalize the
use of social knowledge that is embedded in an intricate network of

organizational and human relationships. Each human relationship in a
social situation involves different values, facts, experiences, energies, and
creative forces. Public administrators who are confronted with nonrou-
tine decisions must explore possibilities through the use of social knowl-
edge and an interaction process that is less hierarchical (or nonhierar-
chical) if they are to find a socially acceptable course of action in which
the greatest collaboration occurs at the level of implementation.
Social Order through Relationships
How do we manage to make sense of our world and one another in the
face of conflict, ambiguity, and crisis? One prevailing view is to allow
management authority to maintain or restore organizational order
through the enforcement of rules, regulations, and procedures, ensur-
ing the compliance of organizational members. All formal organiza-
tions require employees to follow certain procedures and forms, not
only to bring order, efficiency, and uniformity but also to protect the
organization, its employees, and its clientele. The organizational neces-
sity for maintaining order is close to the Hobbesian view of a social
contract. Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) maintains that when a contract
has been formed between the governed and the individual who gov-
erns, it must place absolute authority in the hands of the ruler (1946).
As applied to the context of public administration, after an individual
joins an organization, he or she must abide by the decision of the gov-
erning authority, that is, the management. Thus, Hobbes’s antisocial
view of the individual is concerned with social order and stability: there
is no room for democratic governance.
The social constructionist approach stands in contrast to Hobbes’s
view of the rational authority of government (i.e., the authority of man-
agement). It champions organizational members’ ability to self-govern,
that is, to sustain social (and organizational) order through interaction.
We cannot understand reality in a chaotic situation or reconstruct orga-
nizational order alone but find ways of dealing with disorder and ten-
sions as we engage in actions with other human beings. By interrelating
and responding to others, we create new ways, new possibilities, and
new solutions for dealing with the disorder and differences in our
world. As human beings, we have created and recreated by the world in
which we live through our joint efforts, through our thoughts and
knowledge, through our interactions with one another. Our sense of

social being and social order exits only as a product of our human activ-
ity. Our most important experiences take place within our social inter-
actions, our face-to-face encounters. How we relate to one another is
how we construct our social order and the future world in which we will
live. An administrator as a person (a being) in the social (or the admin-
istrative) world shares the world of other people, and this makes it pos-
sible for the administrator to turn to other people.
Social Learning and a Plurality of Values
The functionalist approach, which is largely rational and instrumental, in

contrast, takes a deterministic view of learning, assuming that organiza-
tional learning is the process of establishing causal relationships between
theoretical knowledge and desirable outcomes (e.g., the relationship
between the use of certain technology and an increase in productivity).
Social construction is a learning process in which organizational
members are engaged in a continued sharing of ideas and experiences
so that they may acquire a better understanding of the views of others.
In the social learning process, past and current events are reinterpreted
in light of participants’ diverse values and beliefs. As an individual crit-
ically reflects on and interprets others’ experiences and ideas, he or she
may develop a new understanding of the world of others as well as “cre-
ate alternative systems of values and beliefs to counterpoise his or her
own values and beliefs” (May, 1996, p. 20). The individual’s exposure to
the values of others is essential to organizational learning. According to
Donald Schön, public organizations must be viewed as instruments, or
agents, for “inquiring into public problems affecting society as a whole”
(1971, p. 176). An organization’s problem-solving effectiveness depends
on its ability “to engage in public learning.” To this end, the social con-
structionist approach to organizational learning provides the opportu-
nity for innovation and creativity through the active learning and par-
ticipation of members. It assumes the possibility of learning, under-
standing, conflict resolution, and problem solving by emphasizing crit-
ical reflection on both social and rational knowledge. Because social
learning is continuously evolving, the process is nonlinear, open-ended,
and dialectical. Social learning generally arises from sharing practical
experiences and available knowledge; the use of established theory is
less useful to an understanding of complex, nonroutine problems.
The effective functioning of the organization therefore depends

greatly on the learning ability of its members (Williams, 1982, p. 91).
Learning in democratically designed organizations involves a con-
sciously creative process as organizational members deliberately recon-
struct existing procedures, processes, and tasks to create new meaning
in their workplace. As members respond to external problems and neg-
ative feedback, they are interested in maintaining stability; more
important to them, however, is their opportunity to discover alternative
possibilities for correcting mistakes by reflecting critically on their
assumptions and norms. As members take increased responsibility for
transforming rigid bureaucracies into democratic and decentralized
organizational arrangements, their organizations can become settings
for innovative and creative human interaction.
Awareness of Diverse Cultures and Multiple Realities
From a social constructionist perspective, all administrative (social)

cultures are constructed from diverse aspects of the multiple realities of
different individuals and the organizational context. As we move from
one culture to another, we experience different relationships with oth-
ers, just as an individual travels around from the workplace to the com-
munity organization or from one country to another. As an individual
engages in each organizational setting with other members, he or she
is aware of different ideas that other members bring to the discussion.
Each person’s subjective interpretation of an organizational (social) sit-
uation might be different from others’ points of view. As an individual
encounters others through interaction and dialogue, that individual
might be able to transcend his or her original thoughts, coming to a
new understanding. Merleau-Ponty calls the process of this under-
standing an “analytical reflection” which begins “from our experience of
the world and goes back to the subject as to a condition of possibility
distinct from that experience, revealing the all-embracing synthesis”
through exercising of the subject’s cognitive powers (1962, pp. ix–x).
In a bureaucratic culture, the management seeks to assimilate and
downplay the different experiences and ideas of members for the pur-
pose of accomplishing established goals. In a multicultural organiza-
tional environment, comprising diversity, ethnic minorities, and mar-
ginal groups, a critical issue is not to assimilate all members into a
dominant hierarchical culture but to recognize the potential contribu-
tions of different individuals and groups and at the same time, to dis-
cover a commonality that respects difference ( Jun, 1996, p. 350). As we
interpret the organization from the view of Merleau-Ponty, the orga-
nizational world consists of clearly identifiable objects, such as struc-
ture, hierarchy, rules, procedures, and people. In this setting, each orga-
nizational member has a certain view of what the organization is like,
what these objective elements mean to him or her, and what kind of
relationships exist between them (Merleau-Ponty, 1962, p. 71).
The contemporary idea of multiculturalism stems largely from
postmodern thought, which tends to question rationalism and universal
truth (Melzer, Weinberger, and Zinman, 1998, pp. 1–12; Glazer, 1997).
Postmodern thought suggests we expose the dominant culture and the
ways in which it marginalizes and suppresses other groups and cultures.
Multiculturalists argue that actual representation and participation of
ethnic minorities and marginal groups are good for society as a whole
and for democratic governance because this offers a chance to learn
from perspectives, ideas, and experiences that would not otherwise be
available (Boxill, 1998). Although we do not have clear ideas as to how
to resolve issues of multiculturalism in liberal democracy and in admin-
istrative organizations, our active attention to diversity and multiple
realities could serve as “a means for preserving the fundamental goal of
constitutional democracy” and promoting participatory organizations
(Boxill, 1998; Cox, 1993) by preventing majority tyranny or hierarchi-
cal dominance by people at the top level of administration. Stanley
Deetz suggests that “balanced responsiveness” is one way of doing
this—for example, responsive decision making, which means “seeking
the moment with care and moral direction, rather than with instru-
mentality and decisional rules” where one responds to others, takes
responsibility for one’s action and complicity (1992, pp. 337–38).
Dialogue, Discourse, and Intersubjectivity
Because social construction is interactive and focuses on how people

come to produce a sense of commonly shared reality, interaction
involves all forms of communication, such as face-to-face dialogue,
interviews, commentaries, and formal expression of ideas in speech,
conversation, or writing. According to Martin Buber’s “principle of rec-
iprocity,” through a reciprocal relationship between I and thou, a rela-
tionship that is not necessarily symmetrical, people talk to each other,
both passively and actively (1961). Although Buber does not illustrate
the existence of diverse dialogue, such as in a multicultural context, his
dialogical approach implies that a person can work in the organiza-
tional world only through another organizational member. A possibil-
ity of change arises in dialogue between I and thou. Dialogical com-
munication is particularly essential to the process of social construction
as the participants engage responsively in expressing their ideas and lis-
tening to the views of others. Through dialogue people can see how an
alternative arises for them in the dialogue between them, and change
occurs as a result of new understanding. Thus the dialogical process is
essential for constructing intersubjective reality.
The social construction of intersubjective reality may be viewed
from two different perspectives. Edmund Husserl (1859–1938) is con-
cerned with the constitution of an individual’s intersubjective life as the
transcendental ego connects with the experience of other egos, with
alter egos, and with the other in general. His main concern is how the
experience of the other person helps an individual to find his or her
own transcendental experience, the transcendental subjectivity
(Husserl, 1962; Ströker, 1999). Husserl sees the intersubjective nature
of people’s experience but always grounds it in the subjective; his inter-
est lies in how the other enters into an individual’s consciousness.
Husserl’s view of the “life-world”3 is always an important part of the
consciousness of the subject. He, however, does not expand on how
people jointly develop a mutually shared reality, and overlooks the pos-
sibility of constructing intersubjectivity through dialogue and practical
discourse between the self and others.
Another assumption underlying intersubjectivity is that people
will be transformed as a result of sharing ideas and experiences.
Organizational situations present a possibility of constructing an
intersubjective reality in which the actors try to share their ideas and
experience by mutually tuning into one another’s consciousness
(Zaner, 1970). By reflecting upon one another’s biases and experi-
ences, the actors can produce a socially meaningful project. Alfred
Schutz (1889–1959), a student of Husserl, emphasizes intersubjectiv-
ity in the interactive and reciprocal process. According to Schutz
(1967), in face-to-face situations, the actors can produce socially
(mutually) shared phenomena, that is, an intersubjective reality in
which, through a face-to-face encounter, its members share a sense of
“we-relation.”
Because the foundation of the administrative organization is the

assumption of rational action in relation to ends and means, Jürgen
Habermas attempts, in his critical theory, to achieve rationality through
communicative action, going beyond Max Weber’s view that reason is
manifested in scientific rationality. Intersubjective relationships can be
developed through dialogue and discourse in social situations and in the
public sphere in general. Because the discourse ethics of Habermas
(1987; 1998) emphasize moral learning over technical-instrumental
learning, the social practice of these discourse ethics could help admin-
istrators to realize the negative effects that their actions have on others.
Although individuals’ reflexive actions are important to Habermas, the
postmodern argument is suspicious of the role of the subjects (individ-
uals) in postmodern discourse, rejecting reality construction based on
intersubjective communication. For example, Michel Foucault (1969
and 1981) argues that the individual subjects are constituted by the
power relationships that are inherent to all social relationships as well as
hierarchical power relationships. However, both Habermas’s view of
intersubjective discourse and Foucault’s analysis of relationships among
economic structures, social and administrative structures, and various
discourses help us to understand the changing relationships among gov-
ernment, business, and civil society, and between administration and the
public. In this book, I emphasize the responsibility of individual admin-
istrators as they work and interact with other human beings in the orga-
nization and the community.
Facilitating Process without Neglecting Product
The social constructionist approach is concerned with the processes of

creating meanings and knowledge as people share experiences and
develop strategies for human collaboration. Because social construction
always involves human relationships, the process becomes another
important means for connecting actions, purpose (or goals), and
intended (or desirable) outcomes. It is evolutionary and dialectical as
interactions between them generate new possibilities for action and
change. Process is also viewed as a deterministic path toward a realiza-
tion of intended goals. To David Edwards, the term process generally
implies “an individual or group activity that is moving through a suc-
cession of acts or stages toward some form of arrival or completion.”
He views a process as a “series of actions or events, with a pattern or
regularity and an effective automaticity, sometimes dynamic” (1973,

pp. 61–62). A process is a means that could lead to accomplishment of
a solution or completion of a product; a product is seen as a realization
of organizational goals or public program objectives.
A process may encompass a conspicuous, ongoing activity, such as
the process of public policy formulation and implementation; a slow,
hardly discernible action, such as the process of organizational learning
and adaptation; political action, such as the budgetary and policy-mak-
ing process; or collective bargaining and dispute resolution, such as the
negotiating process. Describing a process in terms of a product entails
linear and rational thinking moving toward a desired end. Thus the
intended product is the realization of the substance of the actor’s belief
and his or her predetermined course of action.
Process emphasized in social constructionism can also be conceived
as nonlinear and open-ended interaction among people who participate
in dialogue and are engaged in an exchange of different viewpoints con-
cerning problems and issues that are related to their organizational or
external concerns. Particularly in public problem solving, process may
be the most important product. This in no way detracts from normal
goal achievement. Indeed, goal achievement is also a vital human expe-
rience and an invaluable societal asset. Many goals, however, are
achieved in a routine way: delivering human services in a welfare
agency, meeting production quotas in a manufacturing organization,
routing mail in an office, and so on. In a nonroutine situation, the
process may not deliver the intended outcome. Although a process that
particularly emphasizes interaction, dialogue, and the clarification of
language used may produce no agreement on a difficult issue, partici-
pants may learn the opposing views of others and as a result transcend
their original positions. Nor can we expect that everything that is done
in a process will affect all aspects of a situation positively or always
accomplish the intended goals. In other words, a process does not
always lead to an efficient product (Wildavsky, 1979). The processes
that we use for organizational activities may be positive or negative,
transparent or secretive, inclusive or discriminatory, facilitative or
destructive, or anything in between. Working on the assumption that an
effective process leads to a desirable product, the social construction
process aims to promote broad interactions and collaborations among
multiple actors. In a participatory process, participants are responsible
for expressing their ideas, openly sharing their views with others.
Dialectic between the Individual, Organization, and Society
Public administration is influenced by external conditions; at the same

time, it influences society by the ways in which it solves present and
future problems. The reality of public administration is determined by
objectified societal elements, as well as by the subjective actions of pub-
lic administrators.4 Public administration exists in the context of the
social world (i.e., the public): it is not an isolated entity in society. A
social environment can change the direction of an administrator’s
thinking and plans, and public administrators interpret the social situa-
tion according to their own perception, knowledge, and experience. By
interacting with the environment and with citizens, public administra-
tors construct meanings of social situations. Thus public administration
is an ongoing dialectical process that exists between society, institutions,
administrative knowledge, and the individual. Society and public
administration are inseparable and influence each other. Just as individ-
uals play a major role in changing institutions and communities through
social processes, they themselves can be changed by those processes.
The relationship between the individual and the organization can
also be understood dialectically throughout changing and evolving
organizational realities, such as an organization’s budget crunch and its
effect on employees; employee turnover and its effect on organization-
al performance; management-employee relations; and action research
projects in changing organizations. Although management puts a
heavy emphasis on structure, goals, policies, technology, tasks, and
functions, individual employees are concerned with meeting personal
needs, such as relationships, empowerment, job satisfaction, and self-
development (Bolman and Deal, 1997; Argyris, 1964). For managers
to be effective, they must have the ability to work with other members
in resolving conflicts and changing work processes.
The relationships among the individual, the organization, and
society are laden with values, conflict, tensions, crises, uncertainty, and
fragmentation, and as these relationships change, they present the pos-
sibility of creating new social realities and different futures. For exam-
ple, overcoming a budget crunch could lead to reordering priorities and
exploring new ways of people working together with a changed con-
sciousness. Raising people’s consciousness about the deteriorating nat-
ural environment could help citizens to take action to achieve a sus-
tainable environment.
The theories of public administration in general have inadequate-

ly treated the individual-organization-society (and individual-organi-
zation) relationships, as these theories were developed to reflect the
needs of the organization in a period of rapid growth and industrial-
ization. The overriding concern of bureaucratic theory and even mod-
ern management approaches is with ensuring instrumental and techni-
cal rationality in order to maintain efficiency and productivity (Ramos,
1981). Rational choice theory in policy analysis is assumed to maxi-
mize (or satisfy) policy choices in a way that is economical and politi-
cal, considering existing resources and structures. An adequate under-
standing of a changing society (and a changing organization) requires
dialectical thinking, which is particularly emphasized in the interpre-
tive and critical theoretical perspectives. The dialectical perspective on
the evolving relationships among the individual, the organization, and
society not only appreciates the historical and cultural contexts that
influence the ideas and values of people but also critically examines tra-
dition in light of new social conditions and new human experiences.
GLOBALIZATION AS SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION
There are numerous signs that global politics and administration at all
levels are undergoing enormous changes. Economic, social, political-
structure, and administrative reforms are emerging, and old approach-
es are being transformed as technology and politics become more
dynamic. The state-centered structure of world affairs, in which
actions and interactions are dominated by the nation-state, is being
rivaled by new structures and processes through which various transna-
tional collectivities—from multinational corporations to small cities to
global networks incorporating a vast range of new kinds of actors—
engage in pursuits that are not confined within national boundaries.
Globalization influences different ways of connecting institutional
and social relationships. Economists and business analysts are keen to
explore the economic significance of the spread of transnational corpo-
rations as well as the rise of new global business strategies that promote
smaller enterprises and local industrial conglomerates. Political scientists
focus on the rise of supranational political bodies and their implications
for the autonomy and sovereignty of regional and national institutions
and world government (Luard, 1990; Rosenau and Czempiel, 1992).
Another possibility is to consider globalization as a process by

which the world becomes a single place, not in the sense of homoge-
nization, but in the sense that a common purpose emerges while the
diversity of and differences in cultures is sustained, such as the move-
ment toward the democratization of politics and society and the
exchange of arts and cultural activities. Roland Robertson states that to
a large extent all of international politics is cultural—that we are “in a
period of globe-wide cultural politics” (1992). He focuses on the realm
of culture in globalization, rather than the world-system perspective.
He illustrates a comprehensive analysis of global social change around
the idea of the relative autonomy of culture, stressing the significance
of the reality of “nationally constituted society” and the need “to see
where individuals and constructions of individuals, as well as
humankind, fit into the picture” of global change (1992, p. 5). It is also
evident that cultural change in global analysis is influenced by the
international tourism, rapid transportation, global telecommunica-
tions, and the electronic mass media.
As we critically examine globalization, it can be described not only
as the process of adaptation to international conditions but also as the
creation of possibilities through people’s interactions in sociocultural,
economic, political, and technological spheres. Thus, globalization is a
human construction of a social world in that it is an ongoing process
of constructing and reconstructing ways of sharing the meaning of
interdependence as well as developing alternatives to improve local as
well as global socioeconomic and political conditions. In this respect,
the globalization process is not a continuation of modernization, but
rather is open-ended transformations of people, communities, institu-
tions, and society, indeed, of the world. Albrow aptly points out that,
unlike the project of modernity, “globalization is fraught with indeter-
minacy and ambiguity” (Albrow, 1996, p. 94).
To a large extent, however, economic globalization has been an
extension of modernization and development. Modernity has to do
with development and innovation in terms of a linear projection toward
economic, social, and scientific progress. Globalization, however, is
more than economic globalization. The term global (or a global per-
spective) implies an Earth space (a global space) in which political, eco-
nomic, cultural, and social interactions take place in the international
public sphere. When we conceptualize approaches to globalization, we
emphasize the complexity of changing social and world phenomena
into manageable methods. In dealing with interactions among people,

we see two polarizing perspectives: globalization from above and glob-
alization from below. When globalization is governed by central policies
and rules, as is the case in newly industrializing countries, “grand narra-
tives” as depicted by postmodernists, are extensively used in order to
rationalize the goals of modernizing projects. Narratives and discourses
controlled by policy makers from above emphasize a deterministic view
of social change and the idea of rationality, as promoted by the mod-
ernists. The creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and
international trade agreements are outcomes of globalization from
above.
What is most important in the transformation, both globally and
locally, is the need for critical discourse at all levels of social interaction.
In the mid-1990s, we began to realize that orthodox discourses on
global capitalism, industrialism, and rationalism inhibit not only social
interaction and participatory problem solving but also the possibilities
of social innovation at the local level. The economic crisis in the late
1990s in Asian and Latin American countries attests to the fact that
the discourse on economic globalization has been largely controlled by
economically powerful nations, who have focused on international
trade issues. As the rich nations gain evergreater affluence, the poor
nations fall further behind, unable to compete in global markets and
facing more poverty and inequality. Those who criticize globalization
from above argue that domestic policies toward globalization have
been designed by policy makers and high-level experts who manipulate
information in order to present convincing arguments for economic
development. To this extent, economic globalization has been exposed
to a critical social theory and a rethinking of hierarchically negotiated
global trade policy and economic interactions.
The critical theory of Habermas (1984) can be used to analyze
globalization policy. His communicative action theory is a means of
developing a shared vision through a dialectical understanding and
mutual learning, accepting even grand narratives if people understand
the possible consequences. Habermas assumes that as long as a sym-
bolic vision of policy makers is authentically communicated and
shared, administrative action can be justified. Moreover, many post-
modernists, such as Lyotard (1984), emphasize the use of “local narra-
tives” over grand narratives, which are uncontrolled by modern institu-
tions. Richard Rorty, as a postmodern pragmatist, also rejects the
monolithic nature of grand narratives and advocates a pragmatic way

of understanding local culture, in particular, through dialogue among
local actors (1982). Although Habermas emphasizes a constructionist
view of intersubjective learning as well as the possibility of unifying the
subjects, the postmodernists as critical social theorists seem to stress “a
critical understanding of self as a way of democratizing human com-
munity” (Keyman, 1997, p. 4). Both the critical theory of Habermas
and the postmodernists’ critique of grand narratives, however, reject the
reduction of policy making, such as globalization policy, to instrumen-
tal and economic rationalism. From a normative point of view, critical
discourse and dialogue improve the content of policy as citizens, and
local policy actors become involved in the process of discovering the
common good, as well as understanding consequences in relation to
their own situations. In other words, without participatory discourse
and dialogue among broadly represented actors, economic rationalism
is not only incomplete but is also unable to formulate “public reasons”
for promoting “globality,” that is, human interaction and collective
action with global forces (Albrow, 1996, pp. 82–85).
The outcome of globalization is, of course, unknown. When goals
(or agendas) of globalization are stated, they are merely futuristic
visions. Domestic goals for modernization and economic development
may be formulated and implemented within a particular time frame,
but globally oriented activities require more flexibility and diversity, as
the actions of people from different cultural backgrounds are hard to
predict. In addition, global activities require much more collaboration
among multiple actors, who build a collective consciousness through
discourse and dialogue. Global activities face unforeseeable problems,
largely due to legalistic and cultural differences among nation-states
and local communities. Global strategies are only incremental steps,
and their outcome is unpredictable. On the way to the creation of a
possible future, nation-states, institutions, and people continue to
interpret and reinterpret old and new experiences, as well as create a
different experience by exploring a commonality of perceived interests.
In summary, globalization means the interdependence and inter-
connection of nation-states, cultures, human activities, people’s life
experiences, and economic and material exchanges. It is an intensifica-
tion of cultural, social, political, and economic interactions and inter-
dependence among nation-states, institutions, and people ( Jun and
Wright, 1996, pp. 1–8). Each entity and each individual involved in
globalization has a unique perspective on the process. Each explains a

part of fragmented global changes through a particular lens and pro-
vides insights not obtainable elsewhere. The intensification of eco-
nomic globalization continues to increase, and the asymmetries and
discontinuities of sociocultural, economic, and political development
are its common features. People globally are demanding more autono-
my and participation at the grass-roots level. For example, the negative
consequences of economic globalization have prompted the organized
opposition of NGOs and millions of people internationally to the so-
called Washington Consensus to build a homogenized, corporatized
economy. Street demonstrations against the meetings of the WTO in
Seattle, Washington, and Cancún have certainly slowed the momen-
tum of economic globalization.
As various undesirable consequences of globalization emerge, one
way of critically examining, understanding, and resolving paradoxical
issues is to strengthen dialogical interactions between rich and poor
nations, between central and local governments, and between policy
makers and citizens. If globalization (particularly economic globaliza-
tion) is to be meaningful to people, it must be part of a participatory,
constructive process that works to enhance sustainable development
and local democratic governance and that is grounded in critical dis-
course. The future of globalization, particularly economic globaliza-
tion, requires a dialectical process between action from above and voic-
es from below; that is, it must move toward social construction of crit-
ical and democratic possibilities through the processes of relating, shar-
ing, learning, and compromising.
REFLECTION
In this chapter, I have argued that by means of social interaction and

democratic participation, we can improve our understanding of prob-
lems, creating a new community and a new public administration.
Traditional public administration tends to confine our thought pat-
terns and relationships within a positivistic and hierarchical frame-
work, thereby hindering our opportunities for understanding social
reality, the use of social knowledge, and the democratic possibilities
that are grounded in cultural, social, and political contexts. At first
glance, a social constructionist approach might seem impractical, even
impossible, because the dominant influence of the functionalist and

positivistic orientation in managing public institutions prevents these
institutions from developing democratic alternatives. As people
become more critical of the ineffective governing of the administrative
state, however, they will invite in alternatives that promote critical
communication and debate. This new public administration will share
some aspects with the old public administration: the objectified ele-
ments of the institution that its members have constructed throughout
the years will not be totally discarded. The ideas of social construction
in public administration can serve as the conceptual foundation of par-
ticipatory public administration. The social constructionist approach is
a reasonable candidate to fill the need of critical modern and post-
modern public administration to engage in fully reflexive and critical
thinking, relating, living, and working.
I have emphasized the utilization of social knowledge in public
administration organizationally, nationally, and globally; this social
knowledge largely entails people’s values, experiences, beliefs, and
ideas. It also implies that there are divergent views and interpretations
of any situation that need to be taken into consideration. In addition,
social knowledge reflects the conditions of sociopolitical, economic,
and cultural milieux; an understanding of these conditions is essential
to the design of socially acceptable alternatives and decisions. Social
knowledge also assumes that inside an organization, innovation can
occur through leaders, managers, experts, and other organizational
members sharing knowledge; and outside the organization, social
innovation can emerge as people share their knowledge, interact and
communicate through a network of formal and informal arrangements,
engage in relationships and learning, and interact with business and
nonprofit organizations, associations, groups, and citizens.
Public administration is socially constructed and reconstructed
through interactions, dialogue, and discourse. By realizing our ability
to change, we can also deconstruct the reified aspects of institutions,
rules, functions, roles, and procedures as we exercise our critical reflex-
ivity, examining the established assumptions and norms of bureau-
cratic culture. If we fail to realize that reconstruction is our responsi-
bility and within our power, public institutions will decay further: the
result will be dysfunctional and dehumanizing practices in public
institutions. It is people who make inflexible and control-oriented
institutions the way that they are. Thus social construction (or social
deconstruction) of public administration is a reflexive activity of

administrators as they examine unquestioned beliefs and explore alter-
native ways of transforming ineffective and inauthentic institutional
practices as well as meeting global challenges. Globalization is precar-
ious as long as people at the top make important policies without lis-
tening to people from below. If administrators wish to pursue a mean-
ingful existence, one beyond that of maintaining often vacuous order
and being powerless individuals, then they need to participate in the
active construction of meaningful realities. Policy development,
whether it is national or global, is a social construction process in
which the interests and needs of policy makers, executives, and man-
agers who seek change, and citizens who are the targets of change,
have to be taken much more seriously if we are to understand the basic
problems and to achieve desirable results.
CHAPTER 4
Public Administration as Social Design
Traditionally, public administration has been considered to be either a

science or an art, and these metaphors have substantially affected theo-
ry and practice in this field. When it is seen as a science, public admin-
istration uses the scientific method and quantitative information; when
it is seen as an art, it focuses on functional coordination, leadership
skills, negotiation, conflict resolution, decision making, and problem
solving. I believe that both of these approaches often lead to unsatisfac-
tory solutions to vexing problems. Accordingly, in this chapter, I
attempt to apply the concept of social constructionism to the study of
public administration by comparing the social design approach with the
perspective of science approach and the art approach. The social design
perspective, as discussed here, offers a socially grounded (or context-ori-
ented) framework for understanding administrative phenomena and
more effective human action. My reasons for suggesting this new
approach are threefold: (1) to convey the hazards of overreliance on a
one-dimensional approach (public administration is either a science or
an art); (2) to emphasize the importance of the relationship that exists
between the conceptual approaches that we use and what we actually
think and do in our field; and (3) most important, to apply social con-
structionism to the field of public administration.
THE USE AND ABUSE OF METAPHOR
We often use metaphor to facilitate our understanding of administra-

tive phenomena. Like a paradigm, a metaphor provides a framework
for ordering, even constructing, social reality. At the same time, use of
metaphor can hamper our understanding of an administrative world;
this is because the particular metaphorical framework that we adopt
tends to reflect only selected aspects of a complex reality. As Martin
Landau points out, “[A] metaphor structures inquiry, establishes rele-
vance, and provides an interpretive system. Hence it must be used with
73
full awareness, and must be made fully explicit” (1972, p. 100).

Metaphor is a typified form of knowledge, the symbolic representation
of a given phenomenon. In this sense, metaphor keeps company with
language and art, each of which is used to describe characteristics of
the social world. These symbolic devices are helpful, but they are
imperfect epistemological tools in that they provide no more than what
Alfred North Whitehead terms “‘useful functions for comprehending
reality” (1927). This is to say that all conceptions of reality that are typ-
ified in symbolic form are essentially metaphorical. Thus, metaphor is
the heart of the procedures that we use to develop concepts and express
them objectively, but metaphor is not reality.
Indeed, in a minor sense, metaphor always creates falsehood. It is,
after all, misleading to attempt to explain one fact or experience by
using another: the second cannot be the same as the first, or there
would be no metaphor. Colin Turbayne speaks of the possible misuse
of metaphor: “There is a difference between using a metaphor and
being used by it, between using a model and mistaking the model for
the thing modeled” (1971, p. 22). Critical to the use and understand-
ing of metaphor is the awareness that metaphor is selectively structured
and risks making a false impression. According to George Lakoff and
Mark Johnson, we perceive and experience much of the world through
the use of metaphors: it is as much a part of our everyday functioning
as our sense of being in touch with any particular situation (1980).
Most metaphors downplay some elements of a concept while
emphasizing others. It is this selectivity, again, that leads to distortion
and falsehood. The machine metaphor and organism metaphor for
administrative organizations and their subsystems illustrate this limi-
tation of metaphor well. A manager can rely so heavily upon a specif-
ic metaphor, defining himself or herself so rigidly in terms of that par-
ticular metaphor that he or she excludes other visions and alternative
ways of perceiving.1 The abuse of a metaphorical framework can lock
an organization into a pattern of behavior that constricts its choices
and limits its responsiveness to opportunity and difficulty. It is my
belief that the field of public administration suffers significantly from
this problem.
Metaphors reinforce paradigms and theoretical constructs. Using
elements of administrative systems and structures as metaphors for
organization, for example, reinforces the paradigm of functionalism, by
which organizations are controlled, purposive, ordered, coordinated,
Public Administration as Social Design 75
and regulated. Such metaphors become significant statements about

the intended nature of organizational reality, and they condition our
thinking and behavior. They also have the capacity “to create ways of
seeing and shaping organizational life” (Morgan, 1997, p. 348). The
result may be that organizations are more functional and mechanistic
but that unique qualities and needs of humans are neglected. In this
example, a paradigmatic perception of organizational reality is heavily
reinforced by an overly narrow, far too simplistic metaphor. Metaphors
that reflect broad, multidimensional realities are difficult to develop
and harder to comprehend. In the long run, however, they are more
adequate, constructive, and reliable structures and can better help us to
understand reality and solve problems. The social design approach,
based on the social constructionist perspective, offers a framework for
understanding multiple realities and facilitating innovative ways of
dealing with issues, problems, and possibilities.
In this chapter, I develop the argument that two metaphors, often
used as conceptual modes of studying public administration—public
administration is a science, and public administration is an art—have
seriously distorted the image of public administration, including many
activities central to that field. The result has been a misdirection in
both theory building and practical public administration. This distor-
tion stems from a failure to treat the science and art metaphors prop-
erly, as parts of a larger, more encompassing metaphor: social design
that is based on relationships, action, dialogue, and discourse. To rely
on either the science or the art metaphor (or both) is tantamount to
offering selected parts rather than the whole as the central conceptual
metaphor for public administration. Ways in which the science and art
metaphors misrepresent public administration are discussed in this
chapter, and social design is introduced as a metaphor that is far more
inclusive of what actually happens and what needs to happen in public
administration now.
DESIGN: A BASIC CONCEPT
To reiterate, the metaphors that we employ in formulating our field are

of vital importance in establishing the parameters and processes of
public administration and its beliefs and actions. As a general
metaphor that suggests a broader set of meanings and activities for
public administration, I offer the concept and process of ‘design.’ In

suggesting a different metaphor, I am attempting to broaden and
enrich theory and practice in this essential part of the governance
process.
In this era, an important activity of public administrators is not
only to participate in active problem solving and change (or change
making) but also to engage in interpretation and critical understanding
of social and human problems as they are involved in the designing of
the policies, programs, structures, functions, and processes of public
programs.2 Public administrators’ involvement in change activities sig-
nificantly affects the nature of their work, their environment, and their
relationship with society. Most public administrators at the manageri-
al level are actively engaged in some aspect of design most of the time.
A contemporary public administrator may be viewed as a flexible,
innovative social designer who critically participates in policy develop-
ment with others while examining and adapting patterns of organiza-
tional life to make the process of conflict resolution and problem solv-
ing more effective.
Design is an elusive concept, one that relates to people in a broad
range of activities. Such persons are involved in purposeful and creative
actions directed toward the accomplishment of a project or goal. West
Churchman says that “design, properly viewed, is an enormous libera-
tion of the intellectual spirit, for it challenges this spirit to an unbound-
ed speculation about possibilities” (1971). Design, according to
Churchman, includes the following characteristics:
1. Design attempts to distinguish in thought between different sets

of behavior patterns.
2. It tries to estimate in thought how well such alternative set of
behavior patterns will serve a specified set of goals.
3. It aims to communicate its thought to other minds in such a man-
ner that they may convert thoughts into corresponding actions
which serve goals in the manner the design said they would. (p. 5)3
Churchman’s view is basically rationalistic in that his design activity is

aimed at realizing certain prescribed goals defined by a rational design-
er and the set of behaviors and actions that are needed to implement
them. Thus the task of a manager who follows the rational design
process is to convince others to see the value of his or her plan.
Design may also be regarded as that process of human interaction

through which relevant actors work, sharing ideas and experiences, to
define social reality more accurately. Erich Jantsch describes design as
“a process of continuous learning through a multitude of interacting
feedback relations linking ourselves and the world of our ideas to real-
ity” (1975, p.100). This viewpoint says that we must create and recre-
ate the social world through the process of communicating and shar-
ing ideas. In this context, goals and alternatives are socially construct-
ed and socially sustained; design is a continuous, ongoing accomplish-
ment that emerges from the process of social interaction. Conscious,
purposeful creative activities constitute the dynamics of public admin-
istration at its best.
Another important characteristic of design is a social process. The
concept of social designing discussed by Donald Schön and Martin
Rein can be summarized in the following:
1. The designer involves in the task of developing a “designing sys-
tem,” a coalition of actors, individual or institutional. For example,
a public manager takes the responsibility of coordinating programs
to help senior citizens, homeless people, transportation systems,
and crime prevention. Interactions among multiple actors may be
cooperative or hostile.
2. The social design process entails an external context, including a
wide range of public opinion through which the meanings of a
project, values, and complaints are debated and constructed.
3. Social designing is necessarily communicative. Multiple actors
must communicate with one another in the form of language, dia-
logue, discourse, and action.
4. Social design is inevitably political because the participants have
their own interests, knowledge, experiences, resources, and power.
(1994, pp. 167–68)
Finally, design is a deliberate process, a process that involves a crit-

ical consciousness on the part of the actors involved in creating alter-
natives to understanding and problem solving. In particular, the social
constructionist’s view of design is to energize the participants through
interaction and discussion, allowing disagreeable and agreeable, nega-
tive and positive aspects of design (or creating a project). The effec-
tiveness of design depends on how well it understands the situation,
compromises conflicts, and solves the problem; thus, it depends large-

ly on how well people with different interests and ideas work together.
Social design, as applied to the field of public administration, is a
framework of understanding conflicts and values and solving problems
through interactive processes, often including the external politics.
ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCE, ART, AND SOCIAL DESIGN
Because it is interactive, dialogical, and creative, social design implies

much more than order or control, although it may be used to achieve such
objectives. The design concept is most challenged and most useful, how-
ever, where there is a need for developing processes and goals that are
evolving continually and dynamically; where nothing is stable, orderly, or
in control; and where possibilities are the critical resource in the search for
solutions. In that context, intersubjective relationships, individual and
organizational learning, professional opinion, communication, explo-
ration, and imagination become paramount values and activities.
Those who practice rational design have trouble in such an envi-
ronment. Their notion that problems must be solved with scientific
knowledge and techniques, that answers must be analytical and sys-
tematic, and that only a select few can make useful contributions to
solutions blinds their capacity to perceive, develop, and use possibili-
ties. Since the “uncertainty is a threat” for them (Schön, 1983, p. 69),
the professionals involved in the analytical process have little problem
with reaching a consensus on defining the problem and selecting a goal
because of their shared professional interests and educational back-
grounds. The incremental designer (the politically skillful administra-
tor), whose art is finding the possible (that is, acceptable action in a
complex power field), is also blind to many possibilities in policy choic-
es because of his or her nontechnical perspective and because of ele-
ments in the political configuration of each problem situation.
Moreover, social designers are, by definition, open to an acceptance of
scientific knowledge, professional expertise, political persuasion, and
other information. They rely on knowledge, intuition, and participa-
tion in the process of administrative problem solving through broad
social interaction and dialogue with other actors.
Administrative science, being rational and technical, has isolated
many potential actors from the design and problem-solving processes. In
so doing, it has created legions of experts who believe that ordinary cit-
izens cannot tell what is good for them because, presumably, they lack
any sense of how complicated problems are solved. The social designer,
by contrast, views the administrative world as an open-ended context
that presents multiple opportunities for learning something new from
the environment and from other people’s ideas and experiences. The
social designer perceives the administrative world as becoming clearer as
administrators carry on meaningful dialogues with employees, clients,
and the public. Individual and organizational learning is paramount.
This approach holds that by promoting open communication, social
relationships, and participation, people begin to better understand the
political and economic aspects of problems, including the possibilities
and the limitations. If socially grounded change strategies are to be
implemented, then the public administrator must play the role of a facil-
itator. In this way, people’s interest in collective problem solving may be
nurtured and sustained. The social constructionist perspective (as out-
lined in table 4.1) deals with the process of making conscious choices
among various alternatives and selecting strategies that have meaning for
human action. It attempts to integrate organizational needs and individ-
ual values. Because it is purposeful activity, the social construction frame-
work generates its own dynamics, including the creation of alternative
institutional processes and the design of new decisions and programs. It
focuses on the “appreciative inquiry,” in which the members of an orga-
nization focus on positive narratives or stories of value, thus allowing
them to move forward and think futuristically by looking at how they
can increase positive experiences, which, by default, automatically allows
the previous problems to drift into obscurity (Gergen, 1999, pp. 176–78;
Schön, 1983, pp. 272–73). Organizations and communities could bene-
fit from appreciative inquiry by sharing positive (and even negative) sto-
ries and narratives regarding collaborative work with one another, there-
by creating bonds based on compassion, caring, and mutual relation-
ships. Discussing positive aspects with another person allows an oppor-
tunity to arise in which further dialogue could lead to learning exactly
how the positive experiences came to be and how they can be created
again. The methods of future search conference and action research
strongly emphasize collaboration and learning across boundaries and
among participants. The intent of such a method is not to hash out prob-
lems in order to alleviate disagreements but to create a forum that allows
a common vision of a viable future to materialize.
TABLE 4.1
Social Design Compared with Science and Art
Public Perceived Perceived Perceived

administration As Science As Art As Social Construction
Conceptual Rational design; Incremental design; Social design;

Orientation technical rationality; nonrationality; pluralism rationality through
political economy; and incrementalism; communicative action;
normative descriptive descriptive & normative
Method of Theory and empirical Theorizing situational Critical of facts & values;
Inquiry testing; value-neutral; context; value-committed; appreciative inquiry of
quantitative and positivic qualitative and human quantitative and
inquiry; explanation and science inquiry; describing qualitative analysis;
prediction and understanding interpretation and understanding
Conception of Objective reality as seen Subjective reality and a Intersubjective reality
Reality by a scientific researcher narrow view of and authentic reciprocity
and a functionalist manager intersubjective reality
Activity Scientific & empirical Advocacy; leadership Dialogue & discourse;
research; application of skills; consensus building; sharing and learning;
theory; measurement; bargaining and participation and deliberration;
standardization compromising action research; future
search conference
Process Rational/mechanistic; Mythological/adaptive; Evolutionary/inventive;
deterministic process disjointed process dialectical process
Because social design derived from social construction stresses pos-

sibility, it attempts to integrate facts and values and to consider both
descriptive (what is) and normative (what ought to be) dimensions as
appropriate to administrative inquiry. Martin Rein argues that a value-
critical approach is needed to integrate facts and values and that such an
approach helps us to understand purposes, societal goals, policy-relevant
issues, and social processes because it treats “values not merely as accept-
ed aims of policy, but as a subject for debate and analysis” (Rein, 1976
and 1983). A critical assessment of facts and values is also an important
epistemological position taken by Jürgen Habermas (1984; 1998).
In assuming the existence of objectivity, administrative science
adopts the rational approach to the design process. Administrators
who perceive public administration as science attempt to define prob-
lems logically, based on factual information; they assume that reality is
something that already exists in the external world and that therefore
their basic task is to uncover the truth as objectively as they can. For
example, in non-Western countries (and even Western countries)
developing new community projects such as building parks, bridges,
and dams, government planners and architects may determine their
community’s needs and design a blueprint according to what they
think is best for the people in the community, without inviting the
views of citizens. Research activity in rational design is, by definition,
logical, quantitative, and controlled. The premise is that a phenomenon
that can be described factually can be measured. According to this per-
spective, administrative—and human—behavior is of this nature:
behavior can be predicted, and therefore it can be quantitatively
ordered, tested, and explained.
Administrators who consider public administration as art assume
that each actor perceives and interprets a problem according to his or
her own interests. Thus, interpretation of social reality depends on who
perceives, at what time, and in what context. This subjective view does
not mean that objective elements of a situation are unimportant but
rather that an individual’s action reflects his or her vested interests,
knowledge, and personality as in the legislative politics. Actors, how-
ever, take into consideration the views of others in formulating or
reconstructing their original ideas. Consensual decision making by
actors in negotiating a particular issue may appear to be an intersub-
jective phenomenon. Their agreement, however, tends to be influenced
by a few influential actors; often there is little sense of shared interest
among interested parties. Thus, the construction of intersubjective

reality is narrowly reached.
Both subjective and objective views of organizational reality are
important to consider when viewing social learning, collective problem
solving, and change. The question posed by the social constructionist
view is, how can we come to a common understanding of reality, that
is, to a shared view of the problem? Realizing the nature of multiple
realities of different actors and groups, social reality is constructed
according to the intersubjective experiences of the actors in a shared
world. The shared consciousness of actors can eventually provide com-
mon ground for identifying and defining the nature of a particular
problem. By sharing their thoughts and experiences, participants begin
to give structure and meaning to issues that were previously incompre-
hensible. This process forms the basis for learning, exploring future
alternatives, and evaluating action strategies.
To distinguish further these perspectives on administration, we may
compare their approaches to how social relationships are understood. For
this, Erich Jantsch’s illustration is appropriate. He explains the processes
used in three types of systems—mechanistic, adaptive, and inventive—
in their self-organizing behavior and their patterns of interaction with
their environments (1975, chapter 5). Mechanistic systems, having rigid
organizational structures, resist internal change; adaptive systems adjust
to environmental changes with flexibility in their organizational forms;
inventive systems “change their structure through internal generation of
information in accordance with their intentions to change the environ-
ment” (p. 66). Their structures are more complex and diversified.
In explaining the design process at the human-system level,
Jantsch introduces three approaches: rational, mythological, and evolu-
tionary. These are based on different assumptions about the relation-
ship between subject and object, between observer and observed:
1. The rational approach assumes separation between the observer

and the observed, and focuses on an impersonal “It” which is sup-
posed to be assessed objectively and without involvement by an
outside observer; the basic organizing principle here is logic, the
results are expressed in quantitative terms, and the dynamic aspects
are perceived as change.
2. The mythological approach establishes a feedback link between the
observer and the observed, and focuses on the relationship between
a personal “I” and a personal “Thou.” Its basic organizing principle

is feeling, the results are obtained in qualitative terms, and the
dynamic aspects are perceived as process, or order of change.
3. The evolutionary approach establishes union between the observ-
er and the observed and focuses on the “We,” on the identity of the
forces acting in the observer and the observed world; the organiz-
ing principle is “tuning in” by virtue of this identity, and the results
are expressed in terms of sharing in a universal order of process.
(namely, evolution, p. 84)
The scientific and functionalist view of public administration does

not focus on the dynamic processes of human interactions and partic-
ipatory problem solving. Instead, it explains quality in terms of quan-
tity by measuring and analyzing organizational productivity and effi-
ciency. Administrative art, on the other hand, may be viewed as an
adaptive process, assuming the subjective relationship of the adminis-
trator to the external world. Our perception of social design, then, is as
a synergistic (and integrative) process that contributes to the construc-
tion of shared realities (or intersubjectivities) and the establishment of
“we” relationships between subjects and objects; it is a process that
gains meaning only when there is mutual participation. Quality is a
product of synthetic or holistic experiences in which the administrator
engages in sharing, negotiation, and coordination of administrative
activities. Social design is evolutionary in the sense that it includes
appreciative (or “self-balancing”) activities in relation to a situational
context. It is developmental in the sense that design focuses on pur-
pose, meaning, and future direction. It is inventive in that it learns and
creates new ideas and explores relationship potentials.
In summary, the processes of administration as social design relate
to consciousness, intention, participatory planning, deliberation of dif-
ferent views, and purposiveness; it also relates to formulating struc-
tures, forms, processes, policies, and goals. On both the public and the
governmental sides of public administration, the social design perspec-
tive involves all of us directly in the processes of invention, evolution,
and self-governance. As a metaphor for public administration, social
design best describes what we are actually trying to do now to make
public administration appropriate and workable for the needs of today
and tomorrow in relationship to the changing contexts of the public
sphere and the world.
THE MODES OF ADMINISTRATIVE

AND POLICY DESIGN
A number of different approaches to administrative and policy design

are possible. For purposes of comparison, I introduce here four modes
of design: crisis, rational, incremental, and social. Although all design
activities involve a degree of interaction, the social design process is
much more open and inclusive than others, involving many actors.
Different modes of design activity are categorized in table 4.2 in rela-
tionship to two main dimensions: (1) a value appreciation of relevant
actors; and (2) an orientation toward conflict resolution, problem solv-
ing, and change. The first dimension concerns an administrator’s real-
ization of the value of other actors in terms of the administrator’s
effort to listen to other voices, share in others’ experiences, and gain
new knowledge. An administrator who appreciates other voices inte-
grates these voices into the new meaning of the situation, problem
definition, and formulation of decisions, as well as strategies for
implementing those decisions. The second dimension describes the
administrator’s orientation toward conflict resolution, problem solv-
ing, and change; the administrator’s actions can range from proactive
to reactive. Of the four general design approaches discussed here, two
of them—rational and incremental—are now serving, under the sci-
ence and art labels, as conceptual metaphors in the administrative
arena. The strengths and limitations of each category are considered
in the following discussion.
TABLE 4.2
Four Modes of Design
Appreciation of other voices

(listening, questioning,
understanding, sharing & learning)
High Low
Conflict resolution, Proactive Social design Rational design

problem solving,
and change Reactive Incremental design Crisis design
Crisis Design
A low appreciation of the values of others and a reactive orientation to

understanding, conflict resolution, problem solving, and change strate-
gies have become more commonplace in public and private organiza-
tions since the mid-1970s. Many public bureaucracies are now experi-
encing management crises due to scarce resources and turbulent exter-
nal conditions. Hardships in managing their organizations stem from
rising social demands, budget deficits, tax cuts, confusing policy direc-
tion, declining productivity, citizen anger, and a depressed economy,
among other matters. Many local governments, school districts, col-
leges, and universities offer case studies of crisis management: enroll-
ment declined since the mid-1970s; education budgets have been cut
in recent years; and state and local governments have seen their bud-
gets slashed for fiscal year 2003 to 2004, owing to low economic
growth and declining revenues.
Two California crises illustrate the reactive responses of govern-
ment agencies. The first is the California tax revolt. In June 1978, a
conservative real estate group gathered 1 million citizen signatures to
qualify as their tax-cut initiative for the state ballot. This initiative,
Proposition 13 on the ballot, had a simple message: property taxes
must come down and government must be reduced.4 California voters
went to the polls on June 6, 1978, and Proposition 13 passed by a land-
slide (65 percent to 35 percent). The vote reflected not only the atti-
tude of California voters regarding property tax relief, but also their
distrust of how the government as a whole was operating. The voters
clearly believed that government was inefficient in its use of taxes. The
result of the tax revolt has been crisis management and unintended
consequences in the local municipalities. Local government agencies
have reached a critical point and become incremental in their everyday
problem solving. This is largely a result of uncertain revenue sources,
an increasing demand for services, and a dependence on state govern-
ment for maintenance of such functions as schools, transportation, and
social services.
Reflecting on the twenty-five years since the passage of
Proposition 13, the need for improved efficiency and productivity has
allowed managers and professionals to exercise more power. This, cou-
pled with the centralization of relationships between state and local
governments, has limited the participation of employees in making

organizational decisions. University administrations have also
become much more bureaucratic (and vertical governing) in allocat-
ing resources. At the same time, however, many cities unlike state
university systems have become more innovative and proactive in
seeking alternative problem-solving methods and citizen coopera-
tion. Unintended consequences have occurred, such as an inequity in
tax rates between homeowners who receive the benefit of Proposition
13 and new homeowners, who pay higher property taxes. Although
the problem that created the impetus for Proposition 13 was a legit-
imate concern of homeowners, the solution created an even greater
problem.
Another major crisis was the budget deficit for fiscal year
2003–2004 among U.S. state governments. This crisis was due large-
ly to a cut in taxes, an increase in spending, and a decline in rev-
enues, stemming from an economic and stock market downturn.
Forty-seven state governments faced budget shortfalls. Struggling
through their worst financial crisis in a half-century, the cutoffs var-
ied from state to state. Some common measures included freeing
prisoners, closing libraries, increasing college tuition, eliminating
subsidized health coverage for hundreds of thousands of low-income
residents, and even halting the prosecution of abusive spouses or
minor crimes, such as shoplifting. The Los Angeles Times reports that
at least a dozen states faced deficits equal to 15 percent or more of
their annual budgets. In a few states (California, Nevada, Oregon,
Texas, and Wisconsin), the deficit was an estimated 25 percent of
the budget (December 29, 2002). In California, Governor Gray
Davis and the legislators had to deal with a $38 billion deficit, large-
ly caused by the huge loss of taxes on capital gains and stock options
that the state enjoyed when the economy was booming in the late
1990s. In order to cope with the crisis, Governor Davis has elimi-
nated more than 12,000 state jobs, canceled many contracts, stopped
purchasing equipment, eliminated nonessential travel, and reduced
health care and other essential public services for low-income resi-
dents. The budget crisis in California gave the conservative
Republican politicians the opportunity to recall Governor Davis by
gathering 1 million signatures, enough to qualify for a special elec-
tion. The recall election was held on October 7, 2003, and 55 per-
cent of the 15.4 million registered voters chose to remove him. The
voters also chose as his replacement a movie star, Arnold

Schwarzenegger, by a convincing margin (47.8 percent of the vote to
support him compared to just 32 percent of the vote for the second
place candidate).
In the face of turbulent environmental changes of increasing mag-
nitude and complexity, many administrators have become reactive and
conservative rather than proactive and innovative. Their approach to a
budget deficit focuses on the survival of organizations and community,
involving a small group of policy makers, experts, and high-level
administrators. Their goal is to maintain the system and their jobs
from one fiscal year to the next. The crisis design process underesti-
mates the long-term implications of crisis solutions: attention is rivet-
ed on short-term needs.
Crisis design does not facilitate employee or citizen participation;
neither does it facilitate organizational learning. Crisis administrators
emphasize the importance of formalism, rules, regulations, and stan-
dard operating procedures. And they tend to make their decisions
through the exercise of formal authority and power. Decisions affect-
ing many people are often made by a few managers; they are made
because a crisis situation demands an immediate response. Problems
are dealt with on a short-term basis with an insufficient understanding
of underlying causes and long-term potentials. For example, oversim-
plifying the budget crisis—an incremental solution for political gain—
cannot help the California state government tackle the root causes of
its malaise.
Although high-level officials are supposed to be responsible in
time of crisis, the overly inhibitive bureaucracy at the federal and state
levels often prevents an appropriate response to the disaster situation
at the local level. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the
America’s Gulf coast and caused several breaches in the levees protect-
ing New Orleans, a city with a population of around 500,000. The sub-
sequent flooding of most of New Orleans, a large part of which lies
below sea level, resulted in catastrophic flood damage, many deaths,
and a massive evacuation effort.
As many as 60,000 gathered at the Louisiana Superdome and
about 20,000 people at the New Orleans Convention Center were
without food, water, or health care. Even though pleading desperately
for help on CNN, FOX, and other broadcast outlets, Michael Brown,
the head of the Federal Emergency Management (FEMA), claimed to
have no knowledge of the use of the Convention Center as a shelter

until the afternoon of September 1. Homeland Security Secretary,
Michael Chenoff, who was getting much of his information from Mr.
Brown, was not aware of what was occurring in New Orleans. For two
days, still, the evacuees’ pleas were ignored. Vice President Dick
Cheney remained on vacation in Wyoming and Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld was passive as he was preoccupied with Iraq.
President George Bush returning from vacation in Texas later admit-
ted that the federal government’s response to the crisis was totally
unsatisfactory. What happened in the Gulf coast and particularly in
New Orleans has revealed some shocking truths not only about the
inefficient bureaucracy but also about the racial divide and the lack of
preparedness. The bureaucratic chain of command at the federal, state,
and local governments were unreliable and unprepared to deal with cri-
sis. The federal government blamed local government and local gov-
ernment blamed the federal bureaucrats. Networks of communication
were slow, and no one seemed to take responsibility. The people at the
lower level of bureaucracy were waiting for orders from above before
taking any action to help the people who were desperate to survive.
While the government agencies failed to deliver relief to its people,
however, business organizations, nongovernmental organizations such
as the American Red Cross, and thousands of volunteers have acted
swiftly and helped the evacuees.
Continued crisis design also leads to a sharp deterioration in the
quality of working life and a decrease in service to citizens.
Organizational members are likely to experience decreased job satis-
faction, alienation, anxiety, powerlessness, and hostility, along with
reduced efficiency, productivity, morale, and collaboration among
members. Services to citizens and the community tend to be delayed.
Because the implications of survival strategies are not properly ana-
lyzed and debated, problems solved at one time may resurface later in
new and possibly more awesome forms.
Rational Design
At the beginning of the twentieth century, an increasing concern with

administrative efficiency led to rejection of the highly politicized pub-
lic administration of previous centuries and experimentation with more
rational design in administrative organizations. The rational orienta-
tion assumes the administrative ability to control all relevant aspects of

the organizational environment, to render process and behavior objec-
tive and predictable. In this scenario, experts use professional knowl-
edge to design knowledge-based processes to achieve prescribed goals.
The experts’ orientation with regard to conflict resolution, problem
solving, and change is proactive to the extent that their design activity
is related to future problem solving. The experts rely largely on their
technical knowledge.
The emergence of management science since the early 1960s, the
logic and processes of which have attracted—or entrapped—many
public administrators, is a natural projection of rational design.
Scholars and practitioners of management science are committed to
searching for knowledge that will facilitate refinement of administra-
tive systems and guidance of human behavior. They perceive public
administration as an arena wherein scientific methods should be
applied to determine procedures, solve problems, measure efficiency
and productivity, and do much else that must be done. A major objec-
tive of management science is to explain administrative phenomena
objectively and impartially and to control irrationalities of politics and
human behavior as these manifest themselves in organizational action.
Management science uses rigorous procedures and techniques to
generate knowledge that facilitates planning and decision making;
objective indicators are used as bases for conflict resolution, problem
solving, and change. The rational-scientific perspective in administra-
tion is different from incremental or social design in that rational
administrators use sets of questions to guide their observations, and
they use sets of categories to organize what they observe. Presumably,
their observations are not influenced by their values, but scientifically
oriented administrators often judge the importance of questions and
findings in terms of their own beliefs and training, just as others do.
The effect is a reinforcement of their own premises or mind-sets in
their areas of investigation, findings, and applications (Taylor, 1947;
Simon, 1957 and 1977; Quade, 1975; Allison, 1971; Stokey and
Zeckhauser, 1978).
An example of rational design is the role of the expert in policy analy-
sis, because the expert applies appropriate technical knowledge and skills
to “enlightened decision making.” The expert’s approach to policy change
normally favors long-term goal establishment to meet anticipated prob-
lems. The choice of goals is likely to reflect professional perspectives and
values: the attitudes and experiences of citizens are given little weight.
Rational designers tend to identify the value preferences of society
according to their own frames of reference. Their approach to conflict res-
olution is calculative and often follows the logical rules of game theory.
Problem-solving and change strategies often include such scientific-
rational techniques as systems analysis, cost-benefit measurement, and
various budgeting techniques. In recent years, the use of rational proce-
dures in public policy studies has been pervasive in both theoretical and
practical attempts to make policy choices and evaluations. Rational design
is widely used in defense policy making and management, such as devel-
oping new weapon systems, using systems analysis and PPBS (Planning,
Programming, Budgeting System) during the Vietnam War, and recent-
ly the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.
In rational decision making, an analyst or a decision maker follows
steps to “maximize” the use of rational principles.5 Thus an emphasis
on rational choice postulates an “economic person” who, in the course
of being “economic,” is also “rational.” Decision makers are assumed to
have knowledge of relevant aspects of the environment, knowledge
that, if not absolutely complete, is at least impressively clear and explic-
itly structured. They are also assumed to have a well-organized and
consistent set of preferences (including policies and goals) and to have
skills in rational calculation that enable them to measure the effects of
alternative available courses of action. If their measures and judgments
are accurate enough, then they will be able to reach the highest attain-
able goals.
In making rational choices in the rational design process, rational-
economic criteria are the primary guides for calculation, prediction,
selection, and achievement of a preferred choice. These criteria should
summarize all relevant knowledge in the environment. Herbert Simon
recognizes that this is literally impossible because of environmental
complexity. In later revisions of his Administrative Behavior (1957), he
refers to a “satisficing” approach rather than a “maximizing” one.
Obviously, he is aware of limitations that decision makers face in being
purely rational in the process of problem solving. Rationality is neces-
sarily limited by each individual’s capacity to grasp all relevant data and
explore the most promising alternatives. However, his interpretation of
satisficing is still considered a rational model of administrative decision
making. Simon’s works have had great effect on the field of public pol-
icy analysis.
The assumptions and biases of analysts also enter into the process
of defining problems that involve conflicting values. Analysts may con-
sider values and perceptions of citizens, but their own interpretations of
what is important exercise more influence on the process of determin-
ing alternatives. Citizens’ values and perceptions are not likely to be as
uniform as rational analysts would like. Weighing qualitative factors,
such as citizens’ values, needs, opinions, and emotions calls for sensitiv-
ity in assessing their importance to rational choice. Facts and values are
interrelated. To examine one without being conscious of the other is to
deny a critical element in the design of policies that will affect citizens.
To conclude, rational design is basically normative in that it
describes how decisions should be made according to a professional
viewpoint, rather than describing what actually takes place—political-
ly, economically, and socially—in the real world. As a result, conflict
about goals and alternatives is inevitable and continuous. As a
metaphor for part of the design process, administration as science
offers much, but also leaves out much that is needed for fully effective
public administration. As in the case of administration as art, the sci-
ence metaphor puts blinders on both students and practitioners, limit-
ing their vision and their use of much that is vitally needed in this field.
Incremental Design
Incremental design, a manifestation of administration as art, has to do

with skill, creativity, performance, experience, imagination, aesthetics,
and other matters of this nature. It includes, too, a historic reliance on
such political skills as negotiation, bargaining, trade-offs, and co-opta-
tion. Although administrators of this persuasion give some credence to
elements of twentieth-century positivism, including science, technolo-
gy, and expert opinions, this is secondary to the artistic dimensions.
These administrators perceive the faculty of mustering and controlling
relevant resources to execute that which has been planned (and the
planning stage itself ) as more of an art than a science, so is doing a task
that requires knowledge, craft, or skill. Administrative artistry can be
seen as achieving their objectives symphonically, listening to sounds,
sensing the feel of the situation, putting complex elements together in
harmony, and playing the total product as a unity.
Although it may be argued that rational designers fail to weigh
properly the values and power of political actors, incremental designers
do reconcile the diversity of values and power fields surrounding poli-

cy issues to develop a satisficing decision; but they, in turn, fail to weigh
fully the available facts and technology pertaining to decisions. The
pluralistic nature of the U.S. government results from the variety of
beliefs and interests in this country. In such a context, the role of pub-
lic administrators and other policy makers is perceived to include
extensive interactions with groups and individuals, working toward
consensus through bargaining and negotiation.
Among those who perceive public administration as art, there are
many who are simply not interested in the theoretical or scientific task
of discovering knowledge through experimentation and observation
and who have little patience for the scientific method or even admin-
istrative theory. They are usually persons who are action oriented and
skillful in their managerial roles. Incremental designers on the artistic
side, however, are critical of rational applications, feeling that in much
of what they do they must depend on nonrational qualities in them-
selves: intuition, interpersonal skills, charisma, imagination and cre-
ativity, timing, negotiation, and other forms of political behavior. Thus,
a rational designer as an administrative rationalist is more concerned
with discovery of facts, laws, and principles; administration as art
addresses differences among individuals, the context of administrative
situations, special interests, power, and perceptual variations among
actors in the decision arena. In this process, artistry arises from the very
challenges created by activities in which the artist-administrator is
engaged while working to solve conflicts and problems. The process
involves effective leadership, political skills, and the artistic design; the
organizational processes include those of coordination, compromise,
exchange, and paying attention to a range of organizational needs and
strategies for survival.
In coping with changes, incremental designers believe that it is
unwise to change too rapidly, because the effects of swift change may
prove to be largely unintended. Thus short-term changes and problem
solving are perceived as desirable, but long-term changes are consid-
ered to be fruitless and even hazardous (Lindblom, 1968, p. 109; 1965).
In such a context, expert roles are minimized. The important part of
incremental (or pluralistic) design is not so much who makes the deci-
sions but that participants are engaged in continually persuading other
actors, so that “mutual adjustments” evolve and that people realize the
diversity of perspectives regarding issues and develop workable accom-
modations within this diversity. This is the “art of the possible” at work
in administrative behavior. Incremental design is most common in the
policy-making process, which involves a diversity of beliefs, values,
attitudes, and politics. In the political process, a problem is not readily
identifiable. Instead, policy makers must seek a consensus, formulating
the problem through bargaining and negotiation. Political consensus
occurs through values identification rather than through a rational
approach.6
Many policies in the United States are considered to be outcomes
of incremental decisions. Such outcomes are not unusual but are, in
fact, the normal results of pluralism and democracy. Pluralism lends
itself to incremental decision making; thus incrementalism has become
part of the policy system. In China, where the government is largely
autocratic and bureaucratic, policies are often comprehensive and pro-
mote drastic change by extreme means. For example, although the
population policy has undergone some changes recently, the old policy
that mandates one-child families in urban areas in order to control the
population growth has resulted in many forced abortions and cases of
female infants being murdered by their parents. Such a categorical pol-
icy could hardly develop in a pluralistic political system.
As a strategy for conflict resolution, problem solving, and change,
incremental design is reactive, focusing as it does on change by degree
within a context of agreement. The format offers satisficing rather than
maximizing decisions, often drawing support from articulate interests
that are only marginally affiliated with the issue at hand but participate
in bargaining to pay off old debts or gain future favors. This implies
that incremental design rests precariously on ad hoc support structures,
further jeopardizing continuity of policy, expert opinion, experimenta-
tion, and other values. The incremental decision process, a strategy of
focusing on only small changes, has certain advantages. Lindblom pro-
poses that in all policy making, “whatever policies are decided on will
ordinarily suit some group’s ends or goals. But it will also be true that
they will not suit another’s goals and can always therefore be con-
demned as irrational” (1968, p. 109). What is an incrementalist
response to this situation? In any policy examination, the inadequacies
of the previous decision must be examined. Making small changes in
policy and hence occasional small dislocations in implementation
makes the process of remediation that much simpler. One of the main
features of the incremental approach is that it makes changes not by
TABLE 4.3
Comparing Aspects of Design
Crisis Rational Incremental Social

Design Design Design Design
Actors/designer Policymakers/ Experts/ Influential Multiple

managers analysts actors actors
Citizen Exclusion Exclusion Limited Inclusion
involvement closedness closedness inclusion openness
Goals Immediate Long-terms Short-term Short-term/
goals perspective perspective Long-term
Bases of power Formal Technical Political Sharing
authority knowledge consensus responsibility
giant leaps, but by small adaptations. The process of change, then, does
not take place occasionally, but continually.
The incremental design format offers a means for achieving a
modicum of agreement among actors in policy sets. It does not, how-
ever, feature innovation or creative policy building, nor does it reflect
broader public interests. The current critique of pluralism includes the
argument that meeting the needs of articulate interests does not nec-
essarily resolve the more general problems that confront society or pro-
mote the public good. Meeting the needs of the more powerful voices
in an agency’s power field risks stinting on appropriate services to other
clientele of the agency as well as to the public at large.
The incremental design approach clearly offers a means for making
changes and solving problems in the very complex environments of con-
temporary public administration. What this approach lacks, however, is
sufficient attention to alternatives implied by analysis, expert opinion,
experience, and scientific exploration, and it lacks sufficient sensitivity to
the less powerful and less articulate voices in the power field. As a
metaphor for public administration, incremental design as administrative
art invites receptive attention to one category of relevant matters while
rejecting consideration of many other possibilities that could improve the
plan, decision, or program. As with the science metaphor, perceiving pub-
lic administration as art puts blinders on both students and practitioners
as they study and work in public policy formulation and implementation.
Many critics of incremental policy making view that it is inher-

ently conservative and reactive. Indeed, it does presume to conserve
and use wisdom that is inherent in the political process. Lindblom
concedes that it is possible to use rational design to make changes as
large and significant as the actors’ knowledge will permit. Given the
limited knowledge of policy analysts, however, he suggests that it is
normally a more reasonable strategy to make changes in small, and
therefore more manageable, increments. If more rapid change is
desired, he notes, the time between serial decisions may be reduced.
Thus swift policy innovation and adaptation may be achieved by using
an incremental design.
Social Design
A critical synthesis of the rational and incremental design frames (sci-

ence and art) offers a conceptual lens that leavens interactive processes
with political and social skills. Some argue simply that public adminis-
tration should be seen as science but more than science, more than
art—a constructive synthesis—with skillful administrators drawing
from either or both perspectives to understand the complex dimensions
and move their facilitative and deliberative process forward, anticipat-
ing contestation among the stakeholders and any actors who might be
affected by the outcome of a decision. The design category on the far
right of table 4.3—social design—offers a broader range of relevant
meanings and activities than do the other two concepts, either alone or
in tandem. I suggest social design as a conceptual metaphor for this
field because it goes beyond the range of the other approaches to
include philosophical and social considerations that better represent
the real world of public administration.
Social design combines a high appreciation of the values of rele-
vant actors by focusing on interpretation, understanding, sharing, and
learning in organizational and social relationships (and action situa-
tions) and by taking a proactive stance regarding conflict resolution,
learning, problem solving, and change. Meetings and forums facilitat-
ed by public administrators with a social design orientation invite the
expression of the values held by incremental and rational design actors;
this may result in agreement, or it may result in disagreement in the
form of contestation. Social design adds multiple values, thus offering
a much more comprehensive metaphor. My argument, again, is that
the metaphors we employ to conceptualize public administration

establish parameters, processes, beliefs, and behaviors for our field. A
metaphor with large meanings and implications offers a way to broad-
en and enrich theory and practice in governmental administration.
Crisis, rational, and incremental designs have shortcomings that make
them inappropriate to use when creatively considering broadly shared
choice and policy alternatives. None of these designs attracts a broad
mix of citizen groups, expertise, individual citizens, and group interests
in the development of public policy and, in particular, community
problem solving. And none of these designs reflects the totality of what
we should be teaching and doing in the field of public administration
today. Because these designs are at the low end of the value apprecia-
tion dimension and the conflict resolution dimension (table 4.3), solu-
tions to problems that they proffer often cannot stimulate effective col-
lective action to implement the objectives. To the degree that crisis and
rational designs do not reflect the values of organizational members
and clients, and to the degree that crisis and incremental designs are
unable to relate properly to technical-rational possibilities for coping
with future problems, these design processes are inadequate for under-
standing and responding to complex social realities. Both value-based
incremental politics and technical-knowledge-based rational choice
need to be critically evaluated by the administrator and the stakehold-
ers involved in the situation; here, the use of critical theory and public
deliberation is an important conceptual base for social design.
The development of a process that facilitates interaction and partici-
pation is the essence of social design. A process is created as viable alter-
natives are formulated through social interaction and networking among
administrators, experts, politicians, social groups, clients, and citizens
associated with specific issues and problems. The process of social design
assumes that design participants work to create solutions that are relevant
to the problem and the means for implementing these solutions. Purposes
and goals are socially constructed, developing out of human interaction,
dialogue, and mutual learning. Political consensus is not the ultimate goal
of social design. The focus, instead, is on understanding different ideas,
experiences, and technical and social knowledge and on developing
shared responsibility through decentralization. Expert knowledge is val-
ued and put to use, but it, along with the experiential knowledge and intu-
itive feelings of other participants, is subjected to scrutiny and discussion.
The social design process particularly stresses citizen participation.
Implications
The state of public administration today in both Western and non-

Western countries may be best described in terms of crisis and trans-
formation rather than stability and order. We are racked by continual
organizational crises and chaos, most of which stem from an organiza-
tional incapacity to solve problems politically, financially, and humane-
ly. Accordingly, crisis design is likely to continue for some time unless
public organizations at all levels develop remedies that are creative,
participatory, effective, and efficient. An environment of crisis
inevitably affects the quality of an organization’s internal management.
More than ever, important decisions are unilaterally made by top-level
managers. Employees are not involved in the decision-making process,
even though these decisions will affect their working (and often their
private) lives. This means that employees have less of a sense of psy-
chological ownership of what they do and therefore are less committed
to the implementation of organizational goals and tasks.
Although a crisis may be unavoidable because of the unintended
consequences of past policies and actions, a crisis is also an invitation
to new action. The challenge that a crisis provokes can bring new cop-
ing mechanisms to bear on a situation, ones that serve to strengthen an
individual’s adaptive capacity, thereby perhaps raising his or her level of
mental health. In the same way, an organization can also learn new
ways of coping in order to deal with a crisis, such as designing alterna-
tive ways of generating revenues and providing services to the public.
Like individuals, different organizations react to a crisis in different
ways. Every organization strives to maintain a sense of balance or ade-
quacy, perhaps through a variety of reactive problem-solving and con-
flict resolution strategies or perhaps by developing innovative solutions
after a critical and reflexive analysis of the crisis.
What is still lacking in incrementalism, however, is broader partici-
pation; characteristically participation is accomplished through the exist-
ing pluralistic framework, which is not, as we have noted, representative
of the real needs of society. Indeed, one of the more substantial indict-
ments of pluralism is its easy assumption that if the policy system meets
the needs of each interest represented in it, then it will have met the
needs of society as a whole. In most postindustrial countries, many pub-
lic interest organizations and media play a significant role in voicing the
problems and needs of ordinary citizens. In industrializing and non-
Western countries, however, it is only recently that nongovernmental

organizations (NGOs) or nonprofit organizations (NPOs) have begun
to exert some influence over the policy-making process.
Although rational policy analysts face inherent problems in their task
of developing policy alternatives, the value of their professional knowl-
edge should not be underestimated. To deny the legitimacy of the use of
the rational approach in bureaucracy would be to reject the opportunity
for professionals to apply technical knowledge and experience. Public
bureaucracies are, more than ever, being forced to anticipate and learn to
plan for the future. The unintended problems that plague policy imple-
mentation devolve not only from rational policy designs but also from
incrementally developed designs. Designing important policies without
professional assistance is, in a technological and postmodern society, haz-
ardous. If policies are to be effective, the policy process should not con-
fine itself to either the rational design or the incremental design approach.
It should instead show the interdependence of the two perspectives. This
may involve long public deliberation and contestation. For example, pub-
lic administrators at the local level (counties, and cities) are forced to be
reactive because of declining revenues and budget cuts in federally fund-
ed and state-funded programs. At the same time, they must be proactive
in terms of planning ahead in order to reprioritize their goals, explore
alternatives for generating new revenue sources, and maintain an ade-
quate level of public services. Given this, social policy design emerges as
a third perspective in dealing with conflicts, problems, and change.
Social design is a normative, descriptive, and critical strategy. It is nor-
mative because it prescribes the consideration of both rational-analytical
strategy and incremental-political strategy. Policy should be based on the
shared values of participants in a problem situation in which the knowl-
edge of experts and administrators is related to that of outside groups and
clients who will be affected by a particular policy decision. In this process,
the debate includes not only economic and political considerations but also
the feasibility of the policy obtaining social acceptance (the cooperation of
organizations and clients during the implementation process).
Finally, social design is a critical approach, emphasizing the con-
sciousness of the administrators, who are responsible for developing
processes and interaction, for facilitating dialogue among participants,
and for learning from unintended consequences. They must take a
sharply critical stance in evaluating alternatives recommended by
experts or demanded by interest groups and citizens.
CONCLUSION
Each of the three perspectives on public administration discussed in

this chapter—administration as science, as art, and as social design—
leads to a distinctly different pattern of administrative thought and
action. Although these perspectives overlap to some degree, as dimen-
sions of a larger design concept, they differ markedly in premise and in
product. Public administrators committed to the science or to the art
metaphor may expect to think and act in ways that fall short of what is
needed—and what is possible—in many areas of concern in public pol-
icy making and administration. To continue to teach and train students
of public administration in those terms is to narrow their perspectives
and to stunt their professional growth, thereby limiting their potential
contribution to public administration.
The image of public administration implied by the social design
metaphor suggests what is actually happening in many organizations
and communities at this time; it also suggests what many scholars and
practitioners believe should be happening in the field. It is time for us
to choose our metaphors accordingly. The major advantage of the
social design approach is that it focuses attention on participation, rela-
tionship, dialogue, contestation, and the everyday lived experience of
multiple actors with different backgrounds, while remaining open to
developing critical strategies to the actors in their analysis and critique.
One of the keys to the social design approach is to create forums
for all stakeholders and critical citizens to become involved. Several
considerations need to be taken into account, such as how to generate
and sustain interest so that administrators have a representative dia-
logue of the community at large. Is the dialogue taken seriously, or is it
simply a formality? How do we educate public administrators about
the importance of obtaining a genuine interest in understanding dif-
ferent ideas and experience? What if citizens do not respond to the
opportunities provided? How can we avoid the problem of misinter-
pretation and misunderstanding of ideas and experiences of others?
These are important matters that need to be considered when applying
the social design approach, bringing it from its concept to practice and
from social practice to theorizing.
CHAPTER 5
Social Design in Practice
Developments in public administration that broaden approaches to

problem solving, take greater account of relevant variables in policy
making, and challenge public administrators and citizens in positive
ways offer many possibilities for strengthening both theory and prac-
tice in this field. Social design strategies have been widely practiced by
administrators at the local level in their efforts to develop innovative
and community-based projects and actions.
This chapter illustrates some of the values of and implications for
the use of the social design concept as a guideline and as a metaphor
for public administration by applying it to a few social policy issues.
The social design approach is generally practiced in the following way:
1. The process begins with consideration of the diversity of values of

the participants as well as the people who will be affected by the
outcome of deliberation or problem solving. The ideas of different
actors must be discussed, argued, and evaluated.
2. Participation must go beyond interest-group politics. Powerful
groups are generally concerned with their own interests rather than
the interest of the public.
3. The responsibility of administrators or policy makers is to design
processes and facilitate interaction whereby multiple actors function
together effectively. It is quite possible that the existing structure does
not promote the participation of less-powerful groups or citizens.
4. Alternatives must be critically examined in terms of their political,
economic, and social feasibility.
5. Policy design or decisions for the future require both analytical and
social knowledge, but application of each must be critically exam-
ined through dialogue and discourse.
6. The voices of minority groups must be integrated into community
problem solving.
101
The social design framework may be used as a cooperative

approach to community problem solving. This democratic framework
brings participating actors together, often voluntarily. These actors
include a city administrator with managerial resources and authority,
professionals with specialized skills and knowledge, and citizens with
special concerns and ideas about problems in their community. In this
context, formal authority and power are not the basis for developing
problem-solving relationships among participants. The public admin-
istrator’s responsibility is to facilitate various interactions and support
the problem-solving effort.
COPRODUCTION AND COMMUNITY POLICING
Perhaps one of the most interesting developments in the area of com-

munity problem solving is a movement toward “coproduction” between
public administrators and citizens. Traditionally, public managers have
been either crisis oriented, incrementally oriented, or rationally ori-
ented in performing their everyday activities and have viewed citizen
participation as an obstacle to the “craft” of management and the “art”
of government (Gawthrop, 1984, p. 105). They have seen their pro-
gram objectives as the efficient operation and delivery of a public ser-
vice. This narrow view of administrative responsibility has given way to
the broader notion of coproduction, which is based on the “recognition
that public services are the joint product of the activities of both citi-
zens and government officials” (Sharp, 1980, p.110). Coproduction
may be defined as “those actions by which citizens are intended to aug-
ment or contribute to the actions of public agencies and involve con-
joint behavior” (Warren et al., 1982, p. 43). It is citizens’ efforts that
actually bring about the desired societal changes; the public adminis-
trator only assists or advises citizens in these productive efforts.
Because citizens can act as critical evaluators of public services and can
also create “service conditions,” they should be viewed as “coproducers
in the sense that their behaviors change the environment (social and
physical) in which service delivery takes place” (Sharp, 1980, p. 112).
Thus public policy and administration in recent years have brought an
interest in participatory democracy to the fore, with a refocusing on
citizen participation (and voluntarism); citizen participation has
become an energizing force in the governance process (Box, 1998).
Social Design in Practice 103
An interesting application of social design in community problem

solving is the development of community-based policing in many city
neighborhoods (Thurman, Zhao, and Giacomazzi, 2001; Peak and
Glensor, 1996; Goldstein, 1990). This value-driven approach to pro-
viding police services functions at the neighborhood level, and its suc-
cess is tied to changes in police organizational culture. The programs
offer unique interactions between the police department and neigh-
borhood organizations seeking to manage the future of their commu-
nity through a “coproductive” effort. Neighborhood activities are con-
sciously designed to improve individual safety and involve citizens and
public agencies in interaction.
For many years, most especially from the 1940s to the 1970s,
police administrators focused on developing different techniques to
increase the control and efficiency of their agencies (Goldstein, 1990,
p. 7). Somewhere along the way, police administrators lost sight of the
people and the communities whom they served. The civil rights
demonstrations, racial conflicts, riots, and political protests of the
1960s and 1970s made for strained relationships between citizens and
the police. Moreover, beginning in the early 1980s, the public’s grow-
ing concern about crime only increased this alienation. From 1967 to
1973, five national studies were conducted to assess police practices
and fundamental social problems (Goldstein, 1990, p. 9). These stud-
ies indicated that the way to improve policing was to continue to
emphasize professionalization, focusing on efficiency, control, the use
of scientific techniques, and the social work role of the police officer.
As crime, civil unrest, neighborhood decay, community disorder,
and citizens’ dissatisfaction with policing began to rise, however, this
professional orientation came under fire. In 1979, Herman Goldstein
developed problem-oriented policing (POP), which addressed how a
police agency as a whole could analyze a given citywide problem and
its response to it (1979). Goldstein asserted the following: “[P]roblem
resolution constituted the true, substantive work of policing and advo-
cated that police identify and address root causes of problems that led
to repeat calls for service. POP required a move from a reactive, inci-
dent-driven stance to one that actively addressed the problems that
continually drained police resources” (1979, pp. 241). Goldstein con-
siders POP to be “a better balance between the reactive and proactive
aspects of policing.” He says that POP makes “more effective use of the
community and rank-and-file officers in getting the police job done”
(1990, pp. 3, 32). Beginning in the early 1980s, many police chiefs and
administrators began to base their agency’s goals on a philosophy
known as community oriented policing (COP). This proactive
approach focuses on developing problem-solving strategies and decen-
tralizing police authority. The emphasis of COP is to improve the rela-
tionship between the police and the public, in which the police work
with the people in the community that they serve.1 Community polic-
ing is now practiced in many countries, particularly in the United
States. Many different forms of community policing have been devel-
oped by police agencies in the United States and abroad. The programs
take into account “the community needs, politics, and resources avail-
able” (Peak and Glensor, 1996, p. 71).
By 2000, more than 50 percent of cities in the United States, with
a population greater than fifty thousand have established community-
oriented policing programs. The effectiveness of the programs varies
from city to city. On the whole, police chiefs think that community
policing is important in that it helps citizens to feel connected to the
police. Citizens work with the police on issues facing the community,
including crime prevention, the detection and arrest of offenders, the
preservation of the peace, law enforcement, the protection of life and
property, community safety, and reducing the fear of crime. When
police departments develop their mission statements, they include
these elements, emphasizing their partnership with the community in
resolving these issues.
One popular program is Neighborhood Watch. This program
focuses on establishing a positive working relationship between police
and the community through mechanisms both formal (advisory board
meetings and monthly community meetings) and informal (storefront
headquarters, an emphasis on service to the community, and a nonag-
gressive patrol stance). With technical assistance and leadership from
the police department, a group of citizens can start their own Neigh-
borhood Watch. The objectives of most programs are (1) to protect
their local neighborhood through cooperation and participation and
(2) to be observant of any suspicious acts in the neighborhood and
report them to the police. The efforts of a small band of neighbors can
be very successful in reducing crime in a neighborhood.
For example, through the proactive efforts of police departments
and citizens’ crime prevention committees in many cities in the San
Francisco–San Jose–Oakland Bay Area, today there are hundreds of
Home Alert and Neighborhood Watch groups. These programs, which

are implemented by police departments and built on citizen involve-
ment, work to identify crime problems and develop preventive strate-
gies. Although the crime rate in large metropolitan cities such as San
Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland is still relatively high compared with
smaller cities in the Bay Area, the police departments firmly believe
that citizen involvement in crime prevention programs has been a
major factor in combating and reducing various types of crime. Com-
munity-oriented policing alone cannot solve the problem of crime, but
it is one facet of a multifaceted approach to law enforcement. The need
for cooperation between police officers and citizens is documented by
studies of many U.S. cities.
Social design is the foundation of community-oriented policing. It
takes a broad approach to law enforcement and decentralizes the hier-
archy that once held police organizations so tightly together and so
distant from citizens. Police officers learn through their community
interactions that citizens have valuable knowledge because they live in
the areas where crimes are being committed. When law enforcement
administrators and police officers acknowledge that they are not the
sole experts and that citizens have expertise also, they find better ways
of serving the community. Whether community policing actually
reduces the rate of crime is still open to debate. However, in order to
make the collaborative process between citizens and the police work-
able, police officers need to be less concerned with their power, tough
professional image, and secrets and move toward the “service style of
policing,” which emphasizes providing services to residents, meeting
citizens’ needs, and conforming to the public’s idea of how the police
should operate (Wilson, 1968).
BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE IN SILICON VALLEY
The digital divide is a global phenomenon that reflects many aspects of

digital technology and the economy. Today, society and organizations
increasingly rely on computers and the Internet to obtain, transfer, and
communicate information. This new technology has made significant
inroads into everyday life: many rely on it for shopping, banking,
obtaining information, conducting research, and even enrolling in edu-
cational programs. Society and the organizations within society would
find it difficult to function without telecommunication tools. Citizens

of industrialized countries have more access to information technology,
and most homes in these countries are wired. The digital divide
between poor and rich countries continues to widen. Pippa Norris
illustrates three distinct divides: “The global divide refers to the diver-
gence of Internet access between industrialized and developing soci-
eties. The social divide concerns the gap between information rich and
poor in each nation. And finally, within the online community, the
democratic divide signifies the difference between those who do, and do
not, use the panoply of digital resources to engage, mobilize, and par-
ticipate in public life” (2001, p. 3).
A digital divide in Silicon Valley largely stems from socioeconomic
differences among the races and geographical areas within that region.
Silicon Valley, located in the southern part of the San Francisco-Oak-
land Bay Area, is faced with serious problems stemming from rapid
growth in the past ten years. The area is internationally known as the
center of technological development. Its success and growth have also
generated a number of unintended consequences, such as a severe
housing shortage, traffic congestion, environmental degradation, a
soaring cost of living, and widening socioeconomic disparities. Per-
plexing issues for the region center around whether the bourgeoning
regional economy is sustainable, what the regional economy’s impact is
on the quality of life, and how locals can obtain technological skills to
be successful. Another serious issue is the widening academic achieve-
ment gap in schools, which prevents many students—especially Lati-
nos, African Americans, and students from low-income households—
from acquiring high-demand, high-paying, and high-tech jobs. In
addition, Silicon Valley has a technology access gap: this means that
many Silicon Valley residents do not know how to work with technol-
ogy applications such as the Internet and have not acquired other skills
essential for a career in the new economy. Thousands of Silicon Valley
residents feel the effects of this digital divide in, ironically enough, the
world’s technological center. Minorities, low-income persons, the less
educated, and children of single-parent households are among the
groups that lack access to information resources.
Joint Venture is a Silicon Valley network led by a board of twenty-
five to thirty business, government, education, and community leaders.
The board, which consists of a wide range of people, such as business
personnel, politicians, educators, city and county officials, and repre-
sentatives of nonprofit organizations meets five times each year. It is a

nonprofit organization funded by large and small businesses; local,
state, and federal government; professional associations; labor organi-
zations; foundations; and individuals. Today Joint Venture includes a
“core” and eleven action-oriented initiatives. The core supports devel-
opment of the initiatives, benchmarks their progress, facilitates inter-
nal and external communication, tracks changes in the economy of and
quality of life in Silicon Valley, and serves as a forum for addressing
new regional issues.
With support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and
the James Irvine Foundation, both of them nongovernmental organi-
zations, Joint Venture established the Silicon Valley Civic Action Net-
work (SV CAN), involving thousands of residents and workers. On
April 8, 2000, SV CAN hosted a community forum on two important
issues—bridging the digital divide and promoting livable communi-
ties—at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose. The community
forum broadened Joint Venture’s focus on community outreach and
civic engagement.
About two hundred people attended the forum and expressed
diverse views on the digital divide. This enabled a large group of peo-
ple to collectively assist Joint Venture in planning goals regarding this
issue of concern to the community. Each participant joined a small-
group discussion and spent three hours preparing ideas and materials
for plenary discussion before the lunch break. The group reports were
submitted to the planning committee. During lunch, people divided
into different groups, continuing to discuss community issues and ways
of improving them. After lunch, at a plenary session where all of the
participants were together in one room, a summary was presented that
categorized participants’ concerns and suggestions for reducing the
digital divide. Some of the major ideas developed in the forum
included mentor programs, training workshops for children, use of
technology in classrooms, training well-qualified teachers, promoting
citizen awareness of the digital divide, and recruiting volunteers who
can provide technical assistance to children and schools.
This one-day forum was a future search (a search conference) and
included concerned citizens in the process of organizational and com-
munity planning.2 The meeting stressed the importance of exploring
ideas, talking over issues, sharing experiences, learning common con-
cerns, and taking responsibility for what happened. Attendees seemed
to be educated people who understood community issues. Participants

were a cross-section of different ethnic groups; about 50 percent were
Latino. Most future search conferences run for two and one-half days
so that participants can develop a vision of the future. Although this
particular forum was only one day, it created a valuable arena for dia-
logue in the civic space. At the plenary session, supporting comments
were made by the mayor of San Jose, a California state senator, and the
executive director of Joint Venture. They particularly emphasized the
shared responsibility of state and city governments, businesses, and
nongovernmental organizations. Discussion focused on collaboration,
networking relationships, and community support. Since this event,
the planning staff of Joint Venture has initiated some concrete change
activity and structured a follow-up process for sharing achievements
and learning. Because of the noncontroversial nature of the digital
divide issue, there was no apparent disagreement during the meetings.
Implicit in attending community meetings was participants’ willing-
ness to understand the issue and seek ways of resolving the gap by
developing programs to help those without access to the Internet.
HELPING HOMELESSNESS
Homeless has become a significant social problem only within the last
twenty years. More than a decade of research and program and policy
development have identified the causes and effects of homelessness.
People who are involved in homeless research and services now have
proven approaches that can prevent homelessness before it starts and
end homelessness where it now exists. Philip Mangano, executive
director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness based in
Washington, has boldly asserted that this is a “complex but solvable
problem.” The consensus on solving the problem is based on current
approaches, funding, innovation, and leadership that require the coor-
dination of all possible solutions. People should work toward the “com-
munity impact agenda”—where all programs fit into a comprehensive
continuum of services provided consistently and designed for the long
term (San Francisco Chronicle, December 24, 2003). The most impor-
tant lesson learned from the past is that ending homelessness requires
the partnership of many sectors. No one entity acting alone can make
an impact on such a complex social issue. Government, the business
community, and the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors must work

together, not at odds, to implement the approaches that will eliminate
homelessness. For example, the Housing for Emancipated Youth
(HEY ) program in the San Jose/San Francisco/Oakland region is a
collaboration of thirty-six public, private and nonprofit agencies
designed and funded by United Way of the Bay Area to assist foster
youth to successfully transition to adult independence. HEY’s partner
agencies provide housing and social services for young people “aging
out” of the foster care system at age eighteen, the emancipated foster
youth. Because 50 percent of former foster youths become homeless
within two to four years of exiting foster care, the need for housing and
services for these youths is tremendous (San Francisco Chronicle,
December 24, 2003)
Homelessness is a widespread and complex human problem in
many countries. In the United States, although reliable statistics are
hard to collect, The Economist reports that “between 700,000 and
800,000 people are homeless in the United States on any given night,
and between 2.5 million and 3.5 million people will experience home-
lessness [in 2003]. By most measures, the figure is rising, made worse
by a bleak economy” (The Economist, August 23, 2003, p. 19).3 Accord-
ing to various research, homeless people are mostly single adults who
are alcoholics, drug addicts, mentally ill, or simply unemployed. The
U.S. Conference of Mayors estimated, in a survey of thirty major cities,
that families with children made up about 38 percent of the homeless
population in 1998, compared with about 27 percent in 1985.4 More-
over, the needs and assistance that they require differ greatly. Although
homelessness is an episodic event for many people, who rely temporar-
ily on emergency shelters to help them get through a difficult situation,
it is a chronic condition for others, particularly for those who have a
serious substance abuse disorder or a serious physical or mental dis-
ability. Consequently, in addition to housing, these individuals may
require intensive and ongoing supportive services, such as mental
health care or substance abuse treatment, so that they do not slide into
homelessness again.
In 1987, U.S. Congress enacted the Stewart B. McKinney Home-
less Assistance Act, recognizing that state, local, and private efforts
alone were not adequate to address the growing problem of homeless-
ness in this country. Since the McKinney Act passed, federal resources
for alleviating homelessness have increased significantly, and a number
of new federal programs have been created specifically to serve home-

less people. At the federal level, fifty programs, administered by eight
federal agencies, provide services to the homeless, including the depart-
ments of Agriculture; Health and Human Services; Education; Labor
and Veterans Affairs; and two independent agencies, the Federal Emer-
gency Management Agency and the Social Security Administration.
The federal government spent $2.2 billion in fiscal year 2002–2003 on
homeless programs, and in the same period, many cities, such as San
Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Miami,
each spent millions of dollars on programs for the homeless.
The most significant barrier that homeless people face in getting off
the street is a dire lack of housing. Single-parent families and single
adults cannot find affordable enough housing. Although the responsi-
bility for providing housing for people across the country is shared by
city, state, and federal governments, the problem has grown to such pro-
portions that only with a massive infusion of federal housing dollars can
the crisis be meaningfully addressed. When the federal budget for per-
manent affordable housing was cut, the problem of homelessness across
the nation grew, and once the cuts reached $29 billion, the problem
became one of epidemic proportions. The last significant attempt to
build low-income housing was made in the mid 1970s, during the Ford
administration. In 2003, a diverse national coalition that includes Reli-
gious Leaders’ National Call for Action on Housing, the Religious Wit-
ness with Homeless People, and various coalitions on homelessness (for
example, the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness) emerged to
campaign for passage of the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund,
which is currently making its way through Congress. Such legislation
would restore the capacity of the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development to build permanent, affordable housing, finally
addressing the nation’s housing crisis.
Designing and implementing programs to help the homeless, such
as soup kitchens, shelters, job training, health services, and job refer-
rals, requires the coordination and contributions of government agen-
cies, volunteers, charity organizations, religious organizations, and
businesses. Government alone cannot possibly solve the complex issues
of the homelessness problem. Likewise, neither rational-economic
analysis nor incremental politics can solve the problem of homeless-
ness. The only meaningful solution to this lingering social problem
depends on the collaboration and networking of multiple organizations
and actors. A strongly hierarchical governing of such programs, which

is often imposed by government agencies, would be counterproductive.
Even if a program required intercity coordination, a hierarchical
approach would not be possible. Furthermore, understanding the prob-
lems of chronically homeless people requires a broad knowledge and
the contributions of many fields, including psychiatry, sociology, psy-
chology, and anthropology. The analysis and interpretation of the
problems of homeless people that scholars in relevant fields offer are
invaluable to the design of programs that reflect homeless people’s
everyday experiences. In addition, the facilitative role of public admin-
istrators is to identify resources and activities that can assist the home-
less and inform them about service-providing organizations. Unfortu-
nately, people who provide direct services to the homeless people are
often not well informed about the resources available. One resource is
the Department of Energy, which provides insulation to qualifying
homeless shelters. Other resources are the Veterans Administration
and the Rural Housing Services in the Department of Agriculture,
which make foreclosed properties available to nonprofit organizations
for housing the homeless.
DESIGNING THE PUBLIC TRANSIT SYSTEM
The public transit problem in the metropolitan areas of the United

States provides an excellent example of how social design could be put
into practice.5 Creating an effective transit system in the diverse envi-
ronment of a U.S. metropolitan area is difficult indeed. In every met-
ropolitan area in the United States, there are scores of population con-
centrations, but few dominate. There are several county governments
and many city governments, thousands of business and manufacturing
firms, many powerful interests, multiple domains, extraordinary real
estate requirements and costs, demanding and changing technologies,
insufficient funds, and other problems. In this environment, those
committed to the model of administration as science (rational design)
would approach the problem from its technical and engineering
aspects. Guidelines would include reliability, safety, appropriate techni-
cal applications (conservatively viewed), and service to major centers.
Traffic volume, speed, the location and cost of rights-of-way, and other
matters of this nature would also be pertinent.
Incremental designers, the administrative artists, would focus more

on the users of the facilities. They would be more interested in the
political (and societal) dimensions of the project, and their product
would be somewhat less abusive of the people and the area affected.
These administrators would pay careful attention to political consider-
ations, accommodate more variations among client needs, and treat the
public interest more insightfully. They would be more sensitive to the
consequences of all of the alternatives. Negative unintended outcomes
would be less likely.
The social design approach to the transit problem, by contrast,
would draw on experts of all sorts, as well as interest groups, politicians,
and members of the public, to put together a creative amalgam that took
account into technical, political, social, and people’s needs. Both short-
term and long-term goals and possible consequences would be consid-
ered. A social designer would treat elemental functions of the system
fully (collection, rapid transit, and distribution), but he or she would also
reach for larger, more elegant solutions in metropolitan terms. Some of
the social designer’s considerations would include the following:
• inner city transportation for the poor; commuter transportation for

the middle class
• conservation of energy and resources; protection of the environment
• transit services seen in broad terms, rather than as just physical
facilities
• public transit perceived as connecting people, rather than simply areas
• maximizing benefit, rather than minimizing investment
• cherishing the integrity of neighborhoods and serving their needs
• public access to work, shops, and recreation; improving the quality
of life
• relating all transit to metropolitan problems, including congestion,
land use, quality of the environment, resource use, private trans-
portation, costs, recreation, pollution, growth, economic health,
minorities, and so on
• access to the “goods” of society by everyone; the “right of mobility”
for those without cars, the disabled, the aged, children, stay-at-
home spouses in single-car households, tourists, transients, the
underprivileged, and so on
• system costs realistically appraised in comparison with the true

personal and social costs that automobiles impose on a metropoli-
tan area
• involvement of clientele, interests, neighborhoods, individuals,
experts, and other interested parties in the decision process
• imaginative consideration of cost, comfort, safety, aesthetics, and
state-of-the-art technology as these and other matters arise
• improved quality of working life for transit system employees.
One of the successful transit programs using the social design

approach is the development of a transit system for disabled people that
includes all elements of a democratic process. The local governments in
the United States have been developing the transportation facilities for
handicapped people better than most countries. Paratransit is a program
that offers persons with disabilities an opportunity to connect to places
within a community through nontypical public transportation options.
Public transportation services for the general public usually employ a
fixed route service that travels along a predetermined route at estab-
lished times. Persons with disabilities commonly have difficulty access-
ing fixed route systems due to travel distances to designated stops. The
Paratransit program and the resulting benefits for this distinct popula-
tion are direct results of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of
1990. Today there are over 54 million Americans with disabilities that
qualify for considerations under ADA. The ADA was established to
provide a clear and comprehensive prohibition of discrimination on the
basis of disability (Urban Mass Transportation Administration, 1991).
Title II of the ADA requires that local, state, and other nonfederal pub-
lic government agencies make services, programs, and activities accessi-
ble to those covered under ADA. Title II also seeks to guarantee that
people with disabilities will have reasonable access to modes of public
transportation. Transit authorities and providers must provide a service
that is supplementary to regular fixed-route services for persons with
ADA. This type of service is called “paratransit” and usually includes a
bus service or other special transportation services that provide door-to-
door, or curb-to-curb service and assistance for ADA users. There is an
exception to this rule if providing this service would place an undue bur-
den on the government agency. Title II also addresses the necessary
enhancements in equipment used for providing paratransit service.
Without this vital service many disabled persons could not get to doc-
tor’s appointments, supermarkets, social events, and so on.
The input from stakeholders, seniors and people with disabilities,
helps to develop local policy. In many local cities, the result of satisfied
constituents was realized by providing access to essential places to
those persons requiring public transportation. The strength of the
paratransit programs comes from strong policy support from the com-
munity. This is a direct result of a system designed from community
involvement and supported by federal, state, and local mandates. The
continuous improvement of paratransit programs requires the survey of
stakeholders in order to receive feedback directly from the users of the
system. The role of city administrators is to actively seek out the voices
in the community.
THE CLINTON HEALTH CARE REFORM PLAN:

FROM SOCIAL DESIGN TO INCREMENTALISM
President Bill Clinton’s introduction of the 1993 Health Security Bill

serves as an important example of a national debate on a health care
reform. Five days after his inauguration, the President Clinton
appointed First Lady Hillary Clinton as head of the Task Force on
National Health Care Reform. The task force was given a clear mis-
sion: write legislation to be submitted to Congress. Ira Magaziner, a
policy expert and friend of the president, was appointed coordinator of
the twelve-member task force, which included Donna Shalala, secre-
tary of Health and Human Services. Magaziner, who disliked politics
and public relations, designed the structured policy-making process
with particular attention to detail. More than five hundred people were
under his supervision, and they were organized into fifteen cluster
groups, studying such issues as cost controls, coverage, benefits, long-
term care, and the ethical foundations of the new health care system.
The task force spent nine months debating, drafting, and revising leg-
islative language in order to create a blueprint for health care reorgani-
zation (Morton, 2001, p. 72; Birenbaum, 1997).
On September 22, 1993, President Clinton outlined his proposal
to a joint session of Congress. The bill guaranteed coverage for pre-
ventive, primary, and acute health care and limited mental health care,
and long-term care services to all U.S. residents. Employers would pay
at least 80 percent of the insurance premiums for their employees, and

universal coverage would be achieved by 1999. The president submit-
ted his Health Security Bill to Congress in November 1993. This bill
was widely debated. In order to build support from the public, interest
groups, professionals, politicians, labor unions, large and small busi-
nesses, and health related industries, the Clinton administration
engaged in public debate through town hall meetings, conferences,
focus group meetings, university forums, TV programs, and congres-
sional subcommittee hearings. While the task force was formulating
policy options, politics was left to the president, the first lady, and their
political advisers. Hillary Clinton met with important health care con-
stituencies and gave numerous speeches on behalf of national health
insurance.
The Clinton plan, however, came under tremendous assault from
various opponents, such as the Business Roundtable (representing
about two hundred of the nation’s largest companies), the National
Federation of Independent Business, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
the National Association of Manufacturers, and the Health Insurance
Association of America. Lobbyists for every conceivable interest that
could be affected by any version of the legislation swarmed over the
capitol. According to the New York Times (August 29, 1994), oppo-
nents spent “more than $50 million in advertising and much of it sim-
ply false.”6 For example, negative commercials by the insurance indus-
try led the public to believe that passage of the bill would mean the
creation of a billion-dollar bureaucracy.
Between 1990 and early 1993, there was a vast grassroots interest in
radical change in the nation’s health care system. The White House
assumed that a newly elected president had a mandate for reducing the
federal deficit and reforming the health care system. However, the pres-
ident and his task force misunderstood the mandate for a tremendously
complicated overhaul of a system as sensitive as health care. When the
task force produced a 1,342–page plan at the end of 1993, there were not
many supporters of the president’s proposal; political resistance began to
emerge. The voters wanted reform, but they wanted something easy to
understand, something that did not look as threatening as the Clinton
plan. Sallayanne Payton, who was legal counsel to the Clinton White
House for health care and a member of the task force, says that “the
apparent public support for what was being described as ‘health care
reform’ was a weak need. Middle-class dissatisfaction with the present
state of affairs did not assure informed and vigorous support for univer-
sal coverage, come what may be” (Payton, 1998, p. 221).
There were other numerous mistakes, misjudgments, and unantic-
ipated political barriers that surrounded the campaign to achieve uni-
versal health care coverage:
• The policy experts developing proposals for universal health care

coverage, a comprehensive package of health benefits and federal
subsidies for poor people, rarely spoke to the fiscal experts. Payton
admits that “the Clinton Plan, as it was submitted to Congress,
was a consequence of the Clinton planners’ attempt to achieve
comprehensive rationality within the logic of their goal of univer-
sal coverage” (Payton, 1998, p. 224).
• Many business executives rejected the complexity of the Clinton
plan and the expansion of Federal authority that the president
was proposing. They thought that they could control health care
costs much better than the federal government could. They also
feared that under the Clinton plan, they would lose the right to
design health benefits to meet their employees’ needs. The
National Federation of Independent Business had strongly
opposed the plan to require employers to help buy health insur-
ance for their workers. According to these organizations,
employers had to absorb added insurance costs, and then many of
them would have to lay off their employees. Losing the support
of big business was a significant setback for the president,
because the administration had counted on such companies to
offset the opposition of the small-business lobby. The National
Federation of Independent Business argued that jobs would be
lost if employers had to absorb added insurance costs. This tactic
seemed to induce a fear in the minds of the public.
• Instead of analyzing the issues and educating the public about
health care reform, newspapers and television largely increased
public skepticism.
• Supporters of the Clinton health care reform plan, such as AFL-
CIO, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Catholic Health
Association, the Health Care Reform Project, and the American
Association of Retired Persons, proved no match for the groups
opposing the president. Citizen Action, a consumer group, said
that political action committees formed by insurance companies,

doctors, hospitals, drug companies, and others in the health care
industry contributed more than $26 million to members of Con-
gress from January 1993 to May 1994.
• The president’s allies continually qualified their support by
expressing concern about specific parts of his plan. Labor unions
worried that the plan was going to tax away some of the benefits
that they had won in collective bargaining. Doctors specializing in
internal medicine supported much of the plan but objected to the
proposed cutbacks in Medicare and to the idea of federal limits on
private health insurance premiums.
The Clinton administration handled the political process poorly.

In order to share legislative responsibility, Congress created five com-
mittees. There were three in the House of Representatives: the Ways
and Means Committee, the Energy and Commerce Committee, and
the Education and Labor Committee. There were two in the Senate:
the Labor and Human Resources Committee and the Finance Com-
mittee. These five committees, rather than a single, joint committee,
dealt with health insurance reform. The struggle for universal coverage
began to collapse in the committees because each committee worked
independently. Separate committee deliberations opened up “greater
opportunity for legislative disagreement” (Heirich, 1998, p. 120).
Sallyanne Payton pointed out “a mismatch between the comprehen-
siveness of the president’s proposal and the fragmented nature of Con-
gressional considerations” (Payton, 1998, p. 211–12). The committees
tried to reach consensus on how to cover everybody without antago-
nizing the small-business lobby, but they always ran up against the
same insoluble issues. Without an employer mandate (putting the
financial burden on employers) or a broad-based tax increase (putting
the financial burden on taxpayers), how could they pay for it?
On August 2, 1994, Senator George Mitchell of Maine, the Sen-
ate majority leader, introduced an alternative health care reform bill,
which would, through voluntary measures and subsidies, cover 95 per-
cent of all Americans by the year 2000. The president said that the
Mitchell bill met his requirements, but congressional leaders and
White House officials all but conceded that there was no chance of
passing universal health insurance legislation that year. On September
26, 1994, Mitchell announced that “there will be no major health
insurance legislation this year.” The Clinton administration showed a

continuing uncertainty about how to deal with Republicans and other
combative oppositions. Because of too many negative forces rising, the
president had to withdraw the health care reform plan.
Implications
The Clinton plan opened up governmental processes, inviting partici-

pation. Citizens, powerful interest groups, nongovernmental organiza-
tions, politicians, professionals, and the media all became involved in
the development of the health care reform plan. It was perhaps the
most open process of public policy formulation to occur in this coun-
try, and it occupied from November 1993 and September 1994. The
Clinton administration’s appeal to the public is an example of the social
design approach. The Clinton administration, however, demonstrated
some major shortcomings in its pursuit of the social design approach.
Moreover, the Clinton health care reform plan eventually became a
victim of the incremental politics of Congress.
The demise of the Clinton plan was largely caused by poor political
handling of the plan in Congress; in particular, Congress exhibited an
unwillingness to compromise. The Republicans opted out of the consen-
sus process, and the Democrats were doubtful about the future of the
reform plan. There was a general agreement that the president would have
gotten much closer to his reform goal if he had acted faster and compro-
mised earlier, before the opposition had mobilized and his own standing
had weakened. Some policy analysts thought that his delay was a funda-
mental error, the crucial stumbling block to the passing of the legislation.
The history of the Clinton health care legislation shows the com-
plexity involved in attempting to legislate major change in an era of
intense partisanship, with a public that does not trust the national gov-
ernment to manage big bureaucracy. The Clinton administration, par-
ticularly Hillary Clinton, had a strong conviction about its reform plan
and was unwilling to compromise. For instance, Hillary Clinton and
Ira Magaziner met with many outside groups but did not have confi-
dence in them. They assumed that because the public favored funda-
mental change in health care, it was the kind of change the policy ana-
lysts (and the task force) wanted. Furthermore, the administration
officials and Magaziner alienated potential allies in Congress by ignor-
ing the politicians’ points of view.
Perhaps the most important consequence of the failed reform plan

was that it raised the consciousness of the nation about the fact that 45
million of its citizens are uninsured and that the rise in health care
costs today is equivalent to nearly 14.5 percent of the Gross Domestic
Product. Furthermore, through the widely publicized process of the
health care debate, the public has gained some valuable insights into
the complexity of the health care issue.
THE LIMITS OF SOCIAL DESIGN
The social design approach not only describes how problems can be
solved through the collaboration of the stakeholders and the many
people who will be affected by their decision, but it also stresses how
they ought to be solved. It is descriptive in the sense that the work of
many effective public organizations can be explained through the
process of social construction, as presented in chapter 4. It is also a nor-
mative approach to problem solving, because an emphasis on process,
values, learning, and change provides a direction for purposeful action
in which humans interact with one another to create a shared reality.
Through social design processes, actors can explore alternative possi-
bilities, change traditional ways of solving problems, and develop new
strategies for the effective implementation of shared goals.
Despite its conceptual advantage over other types of design and
problem solving, social design is not widely practiced in rigid public
organizations and inactive communities. If the concept of social design
is to be related to administrative practice, then students of public
administration need to examine critically constraints discussed in the
rest of this section.
Policy design in government, particularly at the federal and state
levels, is largely the outcome of incremental politics. This includes pol-
itics between and among government agencies, executive offices (e.g.,
the Office of Management and Budget and a state governor’s office),
the houses of Congress, experts, and special-interest groups. Citizens
and interest groups with limited economic resources or political muscle
are mostly unable to influence the decision-making process. The case of
the Clinton health care reform plan demonstrates the difficulty of
implementing the social design process at the national level. At the local
level, however, the social design process has had numerous successes.
Because local governments are close to citizens and deal with commu-
nity problems directly, various forms of civic engagement in the deci-
sion-making process can make for effective collaboration between pub-
lic administrators and citizens.
Professionals in government agencies often view citizen participa-
tion as a hindrance to their comprehensive planning of long-term
goals. They attempt to solve problems through technical means.
Involving citizens and special-interest groups in policy design and
community problem solving is time consuming and, at best, a slow
process. Participation is often viewed as inefficient and, in the short
run, unproductive.
Although the social design approach is more widely used at the
local level, its effectiveness depends largely on the attitude and action
orientation of city and county officials. Public administrators and
elected officials often take a reactive approach to citizens’ needs and
community problem solving. However, when public administrators are
reactive—indifferent to innovation, uninterested in changing the tradi-
tional way of governing—then citizens will eventually take on the
advocacy role in order to change their behavior.
Finally, many public organizations are designed to be unproduc-
tive, unresponsive, bureaucratic, and resistant to innovation. Experi-
mentation in social design requires proactive behavior on the part of
administrators. These administrators need to be less conscious of their
official status, willing to share their authority and power with less pow-
erful individuals and change the centralized system to a decentralized,
participatory process of management.
CONCLUSION
One positive attribute of social design is that multiple actors are

involved. Additionally, administrative and policy-making formats are
more democratic. Organizational change projects, such as organiza-
tional development, improving the quality of work life, organizational
redesign, participatory management, creative problem solving, team-
work, action research, flextime, job rotation, networking, and career
development, are natural outcomes of the enlarged perspective of social
design. So are such social policy developments as AIDs education pro-
grams, long-range community planning, developing a mission state-
ment and goals, building a sustainable (or conserving) society, and

revising a city’s general plan. These require the combined efforts of
many people and groups, extensive interaction, and expenditures of
resources of many kinds. Furthermore, social design and community
planning involving politics and deliberation demand sharing informa-
tion, clarifying the rules and language used, and developing trust
between administrators and citizens through communicative action
(Forester, 1985, pp. 202–27). In performing these problem-solving
activities, public administrators may proactively facilitate citizen
involvement in identifying problems as well as setting goals in order to
guide the development of their communities. The most important
implication is that government alone cannot solve many complex social
problems, such as homelessness.
Currently, local public administrators are also finding it useful to
work with citizens, interest groups, and advisory committees in design-
ing alternative ways to deliver community services, such as commu-
nity-based health care services. What is evolving is citizen participa-
tion in such activities as setting budget priorities, coproduction
between citizens and government (as in crime prevention), social
(community) networks among concerned individuals, neighborhood
action groups for crime prevention, volunteer programs for the elderly,
planning local transportation systems, and narrowing the digital
divide. In all cases, the process requires citizen participation and a
“future consciousness” on the part of many people.
CHAPTER 6
Understanding Action,
Praxis, and Change
Changing an organization is one of the most difficult endeavors because

not only does change require resources, but, most important, it requires
that people share knowledge, learn, and make a commitment to their
plans. When change results from the social construction process, as
opposed to the application of theory to changing people’s behavior, the
participants develop a new understanding of what they have to achieve.
As William James points out, the object (a change project in this case)
itself is nonspiritual: what is spiritual is the subject’s consciousness and
existence, or, “what the world means to us” (Wilshire, 1968). In this
chapter, I engage an essential and necessary aspect of changing organi-
zations—understanding human action—and raise it to a level of special
concern. Traditional organizational development (OD) methods for
organizational change treat change as an object or an intended goal to
be accomplished by following an established model. But these methods
explain little about interpreting what the individual participants actual-
ly experience. When people are involved in changing organizations or
creating projects through the action research process, they begin to
appreciate and experience their contribution to the creation and accom-
plishment. Changing a person’s behavior in organizations in the Eastern
and the Western countries depends on how well an individual internal-
izes new ideas and makes them symbolically meaningful. Thus change
results from a reflexive action that derives from his or her critical con-
sciousness (praxis). Paulo Freire, a Brazilian education philosopher,
points out, “Human beings are active beings, capable of reflection on
themselves and on the activity in which they are engaged” (1973, p.
105). Because the process of changing organizations demands that par-
ticipants in the process reflect critically upon themselves in relation to
behavior, action, established culture, peers, and environment, the con-
cept of ‘praxis’ is emphasized in order to distinguish a reflexive sense-
making act of a public administrator from a less critical act of routine
123
practice. Other questions explored in this chapter are: How are actions
of organizational members to be conceptualized? How is repetitive
practice different from a critical, reflexive act (praxis)? What are its
implications for changing organizations? These questions certainly
apply to public administrators in both Eastern and Western countries.
THE DIALECTIC OF ORGANIZATIONAL ACTION
The concept of ‘action’ represents actual phenomena of human conduct

in the everyday world of administration. No analysis of organizational
change would be complete without a proper understanding of actions.
Furthermore, a scholar’s attempt to construct an administrative theory
would be incomplete without an action frame of reference that incor-
porated the dimensions of the organization, the individuals in the
organization, and the public. Although historically, action theory has
been an important theoretical perspective in sociology and public
administration (Parsons, 1937; 1968; 1978; Parsons and Shils, 1951;
Silverman, 1970; Harmon, 1981; Denhardt, 1981), in recent years, it
has received less attention from students of public administration. This
shift in theoretical inquiry may be influenced by the currently strong
management orientation toward controlling scarce resources and
employee performance. Managers are more interested in modifying
employees’ behavior than in understanding the problems of actions.
In this chapter, I briefly discuss three perspectives on the explana-
tion and understanding of action. I particularly emphasize my opinion
that meanings of administrative action need to be dialectically con-
structed. The dialectical approach to the understanding of action pro-
ceeds from an examination of the assumptions and interpretations of
acting individuals when they relate to other actors and external objects.
When employees are pressured to conform to the rules of their orga-
nization, they do not have the power to disobey. They can, however,
contrive ways to not cooperate with management’s demand by being
noncommittal and slow to do the work. But the latter choice may bring
about undesirable consequences. Both managers and employees can
impose limits upon each other that prevent effective collaboration.
Thus the dialectical approach can help individuals to eschew a one-
dimensional view of human action, one that is determined either by
organizational requirements or by a voluntary (often selfish) choice on
Understanding Action, Praxis, and Change 125
the part of the individual. The dialectical view of action provides a con-
structive ground for satisfying value judgments on the basis of organi-
zational necessity (collective interest) as well as the individual’s subjec-
tive intentionality. As long as administrative organizations aim to solve
problems effectively to change, both internally and externally, then
interdependence, interconnectedness, and a constructive synthesis
between them are often inevitable and necessary, although there is no
subtle way of achieving that synthesis (Bernstein, 1983; Schein, 1970).
The Functionalist Perspective: Objective Meaning-Context
The prevalent view of action in public administration literature is one

that refers to the idea of administrative action, suggesting that an
administrative agency enforces a particular decision or policy, targeting
a particular client group in society. Administrative action also refers to
a course of action taken by an organizational actor, such as an agency
director. In this situation, action is largely interpreted as a system of
action consisting of organizational relationships between actors and
their environmental situations and interactions among the subsystems
(subunits) of administrative action. This view of human action is com-
mon in functionalist explanations.
The functionalist view of administrative action is most forcefully
illustrated by the complex work of Talcott Parsons, who was influenced
by the positivistic and empirical epistemology of Kant and Durkheim,
the interpretive and idealistic epistemology of Weber, and the psycho-
analytic theory of Freud (Münch, 1987). Parsons’s action theory was
intended to go beyond the methodological dualism that was empha-
sized by his predecessors. He appreciated Weber’s integration of posi-
tivism and idealism to his construction of an action theory and his
development of ideal types. In his own action theory, Parsons inte-
grates and explains interdependence and interpenetration among com-
plex elements of a cultural system, a social system, and an individual’s
personality (Parsons, 1951, 1949, 1978; Parsons and Shils, 1951).1
For Parsons, social action is all human behavior that is motivated
and directed by the meanings that actors perceive in the external world,
meanings that they take into account and to which they respond.
Parsons derives this idea from Weber’s view of the subjective meanings
of human action. He is concerned with the meanings of people and
external objects. He calls his theory a “voluntaristic” theory of action,
in which actors must choose among different goals (or ends) and the
means to achieve them. Actors’ choices, however, are influenced by a
number of physical and social factors that limit the range of choices.
Social norms and accepted values influence people’s choices of goals
and means. Parsons argues that the voluntary nature of action is limit-
ed by the systems of action, as an actor engages in interaction with
other actors representing the social roles of the subsystems of the social
system.
As we consider the functionalist view of human action in public
administration, we cannot escape Parsons’s analysis of social action,
because the language and the normative requirement of expected roles
used to describe administrative action are closely related to the con-
cepts introduced in Parsonian action theory. As we apply his view of
human action to the context of public administration, we may describe
how the act of administrative organization (or reified administrative
action) is made up of an agency actor, goals, means, and an adminis-
trative environment, which consists of norms, values, and organiza-
tional imperatives. An actor’s choices and roles are largely determined
by the existing organizational culture (accepted norms and values),
economic and political environments, and rules and regulations.
Conforming to these external elements is an ethical obligation of each
actor, because the whole system must achieve collective goals, survive
as an organization, and maintain organizational order if it is to pro-
mote stability and coordination among subsystems.
Functionalist explanations of action tend to focus on the power of
the administrative state and the role of top executives and professional
managers in guiding society and changing organizations.
Consequently, having discovered the power of centralized administra-
tion, the administrative state believes that the only thing that is need-
ed is to place competent people at the top of government bureaucracy.
With this belief, government agencies devote more of their efforts to
training managers for efficient leadership. Fewer of their efforts are
devoted to train lower-level employees. Although in the guidance of a
complex society government bureaucrats play a crucial role, the func-
tionalist view is an amiable elitist and technocratic view of governing a
democratic administration.
In the functionalist tradition, the integration of organizational
action with that of individuals is taken for granted. It is the role of the
proactive manager to motivate passive individuals so that they become
efficient and productive. Thus the basic approach to the reality con-
struction and explanation of individual actions is to largely reflect the
values and perceptions of the manager, who tries to control and influ-
ence the reality of employees. In recent years, the popular rhetoric in
management literature has been about “achieving excellence” with lim-
ited resources or “reinventing government” or “new public manage-
ment,” an idea that aims to justify the proactive role of entrepreneurial
managers. This idea also implies that the organization should not just
do something better but should achieve an optimal level of perfor-
mance, which involves the positive commitment of employees. In
achieving organizational excellence or better results, whether it
involves the entrepreneurial activity of managers or the quality control
of workers, managers are considered to be an active force in bringing
about change and innovation. Although this argument has validity,
given the conditions of institutional power and authority, employees
are, unfortunately, largely viewed as passive individuals who must adapt
to the needs of the organization and assume their organizational duty
as a moral obligation. Furthermore, the problem of politics, social
interaction, and participatory democracy is grossly underestimated.
Administrative organizations in Asia are highly bureaucratic and
depersonalizing. It has been the experience of government bureaucra-
cies in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore that with the adop-
tion of new information technology and computers, government ser-
vices to citizens have become more efficient, transparent, and democ-
ratic to some extent.
The Interpretive View of Action: Subjective Meaning-Context
Interpretive theorists argue that functionalist explanations of human

action fail to see the theoretical presuppositions and limitations of the
positivistic and empirical epistemology. The basic failure lies in the
functionalist assumptions about persons and actions. As we have seen,
on the one hand, the functionalist concept of a person assumes that a
person is mainly a passive and reactive object, subjected to environ-
mental influences, such as organizational, economic, political, and
social factors. Interpretive theorists’ concept of the individual, on the
other hand, is that he or she is an active, purposeful, and creative sub-
ject. The interpretive view stresses that what is lacking in the objective
way of defining individual obligation and action is the problem of
understanding the everyday world of an individual from the subject’s

own point of view.
The concept of social action, as introduced by Max Weber, must
include the subjective meaning of the actor (Weber, 1947). For Weber,
the individual and his or her action is the basic unit of organizational
analysis. Weber emphasizes the interpretive understanding of mean-
ings of action in order to develop a causal explanation of the cause and
effect of human action. In order to understand an actor’s reasons for
acting, we must understand the symbols and language that the actor
uses to describe his or her own behavior. Alfred Schutz further devel-
oped the major ideas of the interpretive view of human action
(Schutz, 1962, p. 1967). He rejected Parsonian structural-functional-
ism, instead following Edmund Husserl’s phenomenological method.
Husserl was concerned with the problem of human consciousness and
the individual’s unique experiences of phenomena (Husserl, 1962;
1965; Macann, 1993). His method of understanding conscious expe-
riences of the individual is called “phenomenological reduction.” In
this method, the individual is free from all theoretical and scientific
preconceptions about objects and attempts to interpret the meaning-
fulness of phenomena as he or she experiences them. Husserl argues
that conscious experience is intentional, because the individual is
directing his or her attention toward the objects to be experienced.
Intentionality in phenomenology refers not only to human action but
refers also to the fact that all consciousness is consciousness of some-
thing (an object). Thus intentionality describes “some kind of rela-
tionship between a subject and object,” such as a relationship between
a manager and an employee (Phillipson, 1972, p. 124). As Sokolowski
points out, phenomenology emphasizes that “the mind is a public
thing, that it acts and manifests itself out in the open, not just inside
its own confines” (2000, p. 12).
Schutz’s analysis of action focuses on the subjective meaning-con-
text, that is, the individual’s subjective interpretation of the meanings
of commonsense knowledge. For Schutz, actions are oriented to the
completion of projects that people can visualize in the future perfect
tense (“I will finish the budget preparation by next week”). In this
regard, an action is the bringing about of something and always
involves purposes, volitions, desires, and intentions. Actions are also
related to two different motives: an “in-order-to” motive refers to a
future state that an actor wishes to bring about by linking an activity to
a project; a “because” motive links project to past experience (a prior

causal condition).
Schutz sees a vital role for phenomenology in describing meanings
of social action and the structures of everyday life from the actor’s point
of view. Schutz describes the social world as a complex of meanings of
understanding that actors have constituted (subjective meaning-con-
text). Actions are based on individual consciousness, and the self-con-
scious individual interprets the meanings of his or her acts. This inter-
play between consciousness and meanings, which is reflexive, is large-
ly missed by the objective view of action as emphasized by functional-
ist theories such as the Parsonian action theory. Although he focuses
on the phenomena of social experience in which the individual is a
focus of social action, Schutz, like Weber, never denies the contribu-
tions of scientific and positivistic methods. In fact, he emphasizes that
in order to relate subjective meaning-contexts to objective meaning-
contexts, social scientists must construct models, or ideal types. He
suggests that social scientists must consider three postulates (logical
consistency, subjective interpretation, and adequacy) in constructing
models that will enable them to deal objectively with human actions
and their subjective meanings. Both Weber and Schutz are concerned
with what meaning the action has for the actor, as opposed to his or
her partner or a disinterested observer. Weber, however, is unable to
explain how the subjective meanings of individual action can be shared
with others in social situations. As I briefly mentioned in chapter 3, for
Schutz, the notion of intersubjectivity opens the possibility of mutual
interrelatedness between self and others in sharing experiences in the
everyday world. His discussion of the “reciprocity of perspectives”
describes the possibility of intersubjectivity.
How are meanings intersubjectively conveyed and understood?
This question has been studied by ethnomethodologists as well as sym-
bolic interactionists. Harold Garfinkel’s work is widely known as eth-
nomethodology that focuses on the empirical study of everyday, com-
monplace activities and phenomena (Garfinkel, 1967). Garfinkel looks
at (1) everyday conversations; (2) a common meaningful context of
conversation; (3) the common understanding resulting from the con-
versation and intersubjective interpretation; and (4) daily exchanges
and affairs. Garfinkel and his associates argue that the very heart of
understanding social interaction is not in language in a linguistic sense
but in the meaning context of ordinary conversation between actors.
Conversational interaction promotes interactional intimacy and an

interchange of ideas and experiences (Atkinson and Heritage, 1984).
Ethnomethodology, like symbolic interactionism, attempts to
interpret the dynamics of everyday life by closely examining experi-
ences and the structure of action (Czarniawska-Joerges, 1992, pp.
117–38), but no framework has been developed for relating its
methodology to the functionalist main concern of the social system. In
other words, ethnomethodology concentrates on individual experi-
ences, as opposed to an analysis of organizations (social systems).
Actions must be understood in terms of the context of action (action
in the particular situation), rather than in terms of a macro structural
framework. Ethnomethodology focuses on the “context-bound” mean-
ing of conversations; structural-functionalism, by contrast, is primarily
concerned with the “structure-bound” meaning. For Garfinkel and
other ethnomethodologists, when people adhere to rules and organiza-
tional demands, their responsive acts may be based on their anticipato-
ry anxiety about meeting organizational obligations and accountabili-
ty. Both ethnomethodologists and symbolic interactionists argue that
the functionalist view of organizational order undermines the idea of
the individual’s willingness to conform to the patterns of organization-
al culture. Because individuals are not passive beings, they do not
invariably comply with rules and regulations. They do not always make
rational choices according to situational requirements. In fact, they
often deliberately deviate from the existing norm.
Symbolic interactionists such as Herbert Blumer also focus on
interpretations and definitions of others’ actions (Blumer, 1969). Actors
do not simply react to others but interact with others based on an
assessment of the meanings of their acts. Blumer discusses three
premises of symbolic interaction. The first premise is that human beings
act toward things on the basis of the meanings that the things have for
them. The second premise is that the meaning of such things is derived
from, or arises out of, the social interaction that a person has with his or
her fellows. The third premise is that these meanings are handled in,
and modified through, an interpretive process used by the person in
dealing with the things that he or she encounters (Blumer, 1969: 2).
Symbolic interactionism is concerned with the way that people
construct the meaning of others’ acts by incorporating the responses of
others into their own acts (Becker and McCall, 1990, pp. 3–4). Human
interaction can be understood as symbolic processes of the individual
self. Blumer argues that people can think of themselves as the objects
of their own actions or act toward themselves as they might act toward
others (Blumer, 1969, p. 182). The object is not a simple response to a
situation but is constituted by the individual’s disposition to act. Thus
people tend to construct and reconstruct their actions and, hence, their
social world. Blumer opposes the notion of the mere response of indi-
viduals to external forces, such as organizational structure, rules, and
functional requirements. Blumer is also opposed to functionalist expla-
nations of reifying human actions. According to Blumer, organization
is nothing more than a plurality of disembodied selves interacting in
structureless situations. Individuals are the only ones who act: organi-
zations do not. In other words, an organization is not a determinant of
individual action.
The Dialectic of Action: Public Sphere as Meaning-Context
The discussion thus far suggests that the functionalist view of human
action is based on an “oversocialized” view of people, which under-
mines the notion of people’s ability to construct and reconstruct the
meanings of their own actions (Wrong, 1961). Functionalists tend to
be concerned mostly with those attributes of human nature that sup-
port consensus, conformity, loyalty, and role behavior. Individuals are
seen as having undergone a process of socialization that renders them
responsive to organizational demands. Functionalism tends to reduce
the ethical responsibility of people into the necessity of organizational
structure, purpose, and goals.
Moreover, the interpretive perspective focuses on the subjective
meaning-context, thus tending to reduce objective aspects, such as
organizational, political, economic, and cultural dimensions, into the
consciousness and the interpretive capability of people in social situa-
tions. Its treatment of external forces (organizational, economic, and
political) is inadequate and often even evaded. Therefore, both the
functionalist and the interpretive perspectives tend to be reductionis-
tic: a one-sided view of human action and social reality. What is need-
ed in understanding human action in administration is an inclusive and
critical perspective that dialectically encompasses both the objective
meaning-context and the subjective meaning-context. Public adminis-
trators live in an organizational culture of positivism and functionalism
that suggests that organizational norms, values, language, and tasks
determine people’s behavior. But in the real world of administration,

the meanings of these objective requirements always rely upon inter-
personally negotiated processes of interpretation and assumption. The
actions of a public administrator always require reflexive judgments:
What is “appropriate” action? What is my responsibility to manage-
ment? What is my responsibility to myself? What are the implications
of my actions for the public whom I serve?
The dialectical view of action attempts to connect human subjec-
tivity with organizational objectivity. In fact, the social construction-
ist view assumes that as a result of the individual’s continuous exter-
nalization and internalization, the phenomena of subjectivity and
objectivity are in the state of dialectical transformation (Berger and
Luckmann, 1967, chapter 3). In linking the subjectivity of human
actions and the objectivity of institutions, individuals, and organiza-
tions, many social scientists begin from either the objective framework
(i.e., structural-functionalism or the macro-micro integration) or the
subjective elements (Parsons, 1949; 1951; Münch, 1987; Alexander,
1988). I argue that the dialectic must begin at the subjective level and
move upward or else critically examine two approaches at the same
time, because all actions, whether they are based on some objective
obligation or on subjective experience, reflect certain reflexive judg-
ments on the part of the individual actor. Actions reflect people’s value
judgments in relation to empirical (factual) knowledge or their per-
sonal desires.
A difficulty of dialectic is interpretation of the meanings of ethical
action. Different actors have different and often opposing views.
Functionalists tend to resolve this difficulty by holding that there are
certain objective requirements (i.e., order, survival, efficiency, produc-
tivity, working procedures, and economic reward) for which organiza-
tional members strive and that therefore are collectively good. But
some people may focus on the intrinsic elements of their work, such as
effectiveness, quality, or psychological rewards, in preference to extrin-
sic elements. Therefore, certain objective conditions cannot be univer-
sally applied in order to determine what is good for all members. The
functionalist approach is positivistic and theoretical; the interpretive
approach is antipositivistic and atheoretical, because actions and the
meanings of objects are contingent upon the interpretation of acting
subjects. The interpretive view of action does not aim to improve the
functionalist concept of action and organizational obligation but rather
to understand the meaning of the objects, because the reified roles are
continuously defined and redefined by acting subjects.
The dialectical reason for critically understanding the epistemological
limits of the objective and the subjective views of human action is useful
not only in a methodological way but also in a practical way. Dialogue and
social interaction are used to examine constantly changing social phenom-
ena, the ambiguity of these phenomena, and the whole variety of possible
interpretations of the meanings of objects and human experiences. Thus
the dialectic is a way of thinking about problems that emphasizes norma-
tive obligations imposed on the individuals and that takes human experi-
ences. As Jürgen Habermas argues (Habermas, 1984; Ingram, 1987), if we
try to understand action as a complementarity of attitudes, instead of as an
either/or, then we may well reach a different level of understanding about
objective knowledge and human experiences: we may achieve a better
understanding of people’s experiences and their obligatory relationships to
an organization or how they reach a critical synthesis between these two
(Cooper, 1990, pp. 223–32; Bosserman, 1968).
The dialectic is also a method for humanizing and democratizing
organizational processes by recognizing the participation of individuals
in interpreting the meaning of the content of organizational obligation.
As long as the content and the process of participation in dialogue are
recognized, we may say that actions in a public organization are dialec-
tical. But if the managers are not willing to understand the subjective
nature of employees’ actions, insisting, instead, on their own definitions
of expected roles and actions, then there can be no mutuality or reci-
procity in sharing experiences. Burke Thomason says, “If one’s oppo-
nents are dogmatically antidialectical in their attitudes toward social
reality, it is justified to be dogmatically dialectical (in the ontological
sense) so as to counter their influence” (Thomason, 1982, p. 160).
Accordingly, managers may adopt “dogmatic countermeasures” to justi-
fy and maintain their personal perspectives and attitudes. Thus the
antidialectical attitude may become a constraint to the process of mak-
ing organizations more humanistic and effective in their governance.
When action is placed in the public sphere, a moral concern
becomes the foundation of individual action or of administrative action
representing an agency decision. In the dialectic of action, the interests
of the public are often recognized as a legitimate justification for
action. For example, when U.S. president George W. Bush justified his
administration’s action of invading Iraq in terms of protecting the
country from “the axis of evil,” the president’s argument was “rational
and highly principled” on the grounds of his reasoning (MacIntyre,
1984).2 If Bush’s rational decision to invade, reconstruct, and democra-
tize Iraq after removing Saddam Hussein had succeeded as planned
before the war, then his actions might have received little criticism. But
because the reconstruction process has not been going well—mainly
due to the resistance of the Iraqi people and the cost of rebuilding the
country, creating a huge burden on the U.S. economy—President Bush
has received a great deal of criticism. Critics say that his rational deci-
sion was based on unreliable information, that he misinformed the
public, that he overstated the threat from Saddam Hussein, that there
was a lack of transparency and a lack of public debate, and that he used
the September 11 crisis as an excuse for the war on Iraq.
By treating action as a dialectical process, people may be able to
change their ways of thinking about the processes of understanding
organizational phenomena, interpreting intersubjectivity and mutuali-
ty, and linking the objective and the subjective meaning-contexts of
human action. Because the dialectical view of action tends to rational-
ize individual or agency action, in order to avoid instrumental (or prin-
cipled) judgment and make a socially acceptable argument, public dis-
course regarding policies and a course of action must be emphasized.
Despite a possible political victory for those who hold power by per-
suading others, in a democracy, the contestation of opposing argu-
ments is imperative. (This view is discussed further in later chapters.)
To be effective in overcoming complex problems, action must be
informed by the contestable viewpoints of objective and subjective
contexts that influence our choices. Furthermore, action that occurs in
public space appears to promote the process of people overcoming pas-
sivity and defensiveness, attitudes that are prevalent among employees
of bureaucratic organizations. It is also a process of people learning to
act collectively and to honor their own needs for self-expression, per-
sonal growth, and a reenriched culture, by integrating different experi-
ences, knowledge, and cultures.
PRAXIS AND CHANGE
Many venerated philosophers and social theorists embrace the concept

of ‘praxis’3 when they discuss human action. Because of its impact on
the traditions of political and administrative thought, praxis has

become an intrinsically important term in administrative theory.4
Praxis is an elusive concept. To appreciate the concept fully, it must be
approached in a number of different but compatible ways.
‘Praxis’ is often used interchangeably with practice, as both imply
action. But ‘practice’ has a limited meaning in English that ‘praxis’ does
not. Practice is habitual action repeatedly performed so that one may
acquire skill. Praxis, like practice, concerns human activity that pro-
duces certain outcomes or objects. But, as Adolfo Sanchez Vazquez
points out, “All praxis is activity, but all activity is not praxis” (1977, p.
149). ‘Praxis’ is an old term to which administrative action has given
new life. The ancient Greeks define it as “practical activity,” “action,” or
“doing.” For Aristotle, ‘praxis’ meant a “special kind of human activity
devoted to political life,” as contrasted with contemplation or abstract
reasoning (theoria). In his analysis, theory implied “intellectual activi-
ties”—thinking, abstracting, and reflecting—whereas political life
implied “practical activity.” ‘Praxis’ implied the “performance of an
activity that has moral significance” (Lobkowicz, 1967; Joachim,
1951). Whereas Aristotle related ‘praxis’ exclusively to politics, Karl
Marx broadened the meaning to include “all activities that contribute
to the humanization of the person” (Markovic, 1974). Marx was con-
cerned with the consequences of action, “with altering the material
conditions of life, with making the world a better place. That better
place was for him one where human activity is at last everywhere fully
human. To Marx, the goal of revolutionary praxis is to liberate human
activity from the forces that debase it, to realize a condition wherein
the life of noble action is available to each person because of the noble
acts of every other person” (Allan, 1990, p. 4).
The praxis of human action is used exclusively in existentialism,
phenomenology, critical theory, classic political theory, Marxist theory,
and hermeneutics. Although praxis inquiry is emphasized differently
by different philosophers and social theorists, there is a common con-
cern with understanding human activity from the subject’s point of
view (in contrast to emphasizing activity that is a biological or natural
act influenced by a passive, uncritical consciousness). Moreover, the
functionalist or structuralist approach says that praxis provides “a pow-
erful sense-making device” for organizational members in directing or
influencing their actions, but it does not reflect how they interpret the
meanings of functions and structure.5
Practice is different from praxis in that practice may take place

without an individual employing any type of critical consciousness.
Praxis is always an activity developed by an individual and directed at
an object that is transformed through that activity. Thus, ‘praxis’ is
defined as “human activity in which an individual uses a reflexive con-
sciousness.” As an individual engages in communicative action with
others to transform his or her reality over time, the individual action
becomes social praxis ( Jun, 1994a, pp. 201–07).
Praxis can also arise out of social processes involving the sharing of
mutual interests. As such, it is social activity in which individuals col-
laborate critically and reflexively with other actors in order to accom-
plish collective purposes. Thus social praxis involves an intersubjective
praxis: a form of discourse embedded within a web of meanings that
the actors experience personally in relationship with others. Jürgen
Habermas’s contribution to the understanding of the social concept of
human action is most insightful in describing intersubjective action
(1973; 1984). According to Habermas, practical interest is the founda-
tion of social practice, which is communication and the establishment
of mutual relationships among individuals. Practical interest refers to
“those aspects of knowledge and action concerned with establishing a
shared understanding in intersubjective situations in order to achieve
community and mutuality.” Thus dialogue and the use of language are
the basic means of practical action.
Whereas social praxis is activity in which the subjects are engaged
individually and collectively in changing social reality, an organizational
praxis is action in which individuals attempt to transform organizational
and individual reality and to create a new intersubjective reality, involving
“the creation not only of new objects but also of new needs and poten-
tialities” (Crocker, 1977, p. 18). Through the process of self-reflexivity and
reasoning, the individual can evaluate knowledge and interest critically
and can transform them through the exploration of meaningful alterna-
tives. The act of reflexive self-inquiry can change the consciousness of the
individual. In changing his or her own consciousness, the individual
becomes involved in the process of reconstructing organizational reality.
THE PRAXIS-ORIENTED ADMINISTRATORS
Public managers are often viewed as people who are mostly concerned
with “practical” results that satisfy basic organizational needs. The
word practical implies a nonphilosophical and uncritical approach to

activity; in other words, practical managers are generally committed to
the sensible performance of their role as defined by the organization.
They are less interested in philosophical and normative discourse that
deals with purpose, conflicting interests, and ethical consequences of
their action. Practical managers are interested in the efficient accom-
plishment of tangible results.
Many activities that employees perform are cumbersome and
depersonalizing; but because these activities are also repetitive and do
not require much thought, some people feel comfortable with their
work routine. Much of the literature on organization theory empha-
sizes the necessity of improving the performance behavior of employ-
ees through having them master standardized procedures for conduct-
ing repetitive activities. Employees are expected to become efficient at
applying procedures and rules through short-term training and the
socialization process of working with others in the organizations.
Many management-oriented theorists and practicing administrators
assume that if organizations use new knowledge (or theories) in order
to improve their organizations, then the organizations can achieve a
high degree of objectivity, consequently increasing productivity and
efficiency.
Other employees, by contrast, are critically aware of the inadequa-
cies and undesirable consequences of their work routine, which is often
imposed on them by their supervisors. In the latter case, a conscious
administrator exercises a critical and reflexive consciousness, as
opposed to habitually performing everyday activities. Praxis-oriented
administrators are more sensitive to and aware of the moral conse-
quences of their acts. They are more concerned with their clients’ feel-
ings and the public good. For example, a reflexive (praxis-oriented)
manager evaluates his or her own acts, makes responsible decisions,
questions administrative procedures, and corrects personal and organi-
zational errors. His or her personal praxis is informed action resulting
from self-reflexivity and self-determination.
In the context of a changing organization, the praxis-oriented
administrator becomes a transformer of reality when he or she per-
ceives the contradictions between individual freedom and organiza-
tional control and sets out to resolve these contradictions. In changing
dehumanizing conditions, the individual exercises an emancipating
praxis within the context of the organization. Through reflexivity and
action, the individual has the possibility of transforming the organiza-

tion, redesigning it in order to satisfy shared needs.
The praxis of the individual in the social (or organizational) con-
text requires that the actor has the ability to share his or her interest
and experience with other individuals in the same situation. Habermas
supports the social nature of knowledge: a human activity is closely
related to a person’s practical interests, and knowledge is a social prod-
uct of shared meanings and perceptions in intersubjective relationships
(1986). Schutz has this to say: “[M]y experience of the world justifies
and corrects itself by the experience of the others with whom I am
interrelated by common knowledge, common work, and common suf-
fering” (1967, p. 9). The views of Habermas and Schutz on knowledge
and human action share some common concerns: they suggest the role
of the subjects in changing the external world. Action is largely guid-
ed by perceived needs and the anticipated product (or practical inter-
est); human knowledge (either concerned with practical outcome or
theoretical activity) is linked to “the demands of practical needs” of the
situation. I tend to concur with Karl Mannheim, who emphasizes that
the construction of social knowledge—all knowledge in the human
social sciences—is existentially determined in concrete historical situ-
ations (1940). In other words, ultimately, the individual has to deter-
mine the content of practicality, taking into consideration both objec-
tive and subjective contexts. As Mihailo Markovic; points out, a choice
of action is an expression of certain individual needs as well as general
social needs and interests: it cannot be made in a purely theoretical
(objective) manner (1974, p. 76).
John Dewey, as a pragmatic philosopher, has a similar view about
how people produce and justify knowledge. Knowledge is not based
upon some antecedent reality: rather, it follows human activity. Dewey
states, “[K]nowledge which is merely a reduplication in ideas of what
exists already in the world may afford us the satisfaction of a photo-
graph, but that is all” (1929, p. 137). He also argues that there is a nat-
ural relationship between knowledge and action: “If we see that know-
ing is not the act of an outside spectator but of a participator inside the
natural and social scene, then the true object of knowledge resides in
the consequences of directed action” (p. 196).
According to Habermas (1984), praxis expresses itself as a com-
municative action in which individuals interact with one another, relat-
ing themselves to the objective world (i.e., administrative organiza-
tion). In order to transform the object, the individual engages in prax-

is to establish intersubjectivity through communicative action. Put
another way, a meaningful construction of intersubjective understand-
ing is possible only when managers and other organizational members
engage in intersubjective praxis; that is, each subject tunes into the
consciousness of another by trying to understand and share in the
other’s experiences and ideas through authentic and critical dialogue.
This implies that when one party is not interested in engaging in open
dialogue, is indifferent to the possibility of learning from another per-
son, then intersubjective understanding is unlikely: the interconnect-
edness of intersubjective praxis does not occur as a result of people’s
defensiveness toward or difference to each other.
Furthermore, to be praxis oriented, the individual can begin by
simply asking what is required for a relationship to persist. Each party
to that relationship must have a continuing identity: that is, each party
must perceive himself or herself as acting and engaging in dialogue
with the other party. Praxis discourse allows administrators to under-
stand the meanings of actions that are grounded in everyday experi-
ences in the workplace, realizing the dialectical possibility of resolving
various contradictions between two opposing intellectual traditions,
the positivistic versus interpretive epistemology, and organizational
goals versus individual needs.
CHANGING ORGANIZATIONS AND ACTION RESEARCH
To appreciate the relationship between change (or changing) and

action, a conceptual distinction between change and changing is need-
ed. The two words actually refer to fundamentally different ways of
constructing social reality. ‘Change’ brings up an ex post facto frame of
mind toward human events, a historical viewpoint. Change, as
described in organization theory literature, is a linear process aimed at
accomplishing of established change goals or successfully testing a
change theory. The process of change is essentially deterministic in the
sense that change theory predicts how to modify human behavior.
When a change is proposed by adopting a government reorganization
plan or other kinds of organizational change projects, the designers of
change assume that people are likely to accept the proposed change if
it can be rationally justified (Chin and Benne, 1984, p. 23). Systems
engineers, managers, and consultants often tend to hypothesize a pre-

determined reality within which the individual is merely a passive
being whose behavior is largely shaped by the designs of their presup-
posed change efforts.
Changing, on the other hand, is a dialectical process. It is a con-
tinuously evolving creative process, a way of realizing new forms of
complex human associations that constitute the construction of orga-
nizational (social) reality. Changing is concerned with the shared and
appreciative meaning of a project as the participants work together to
accomplish their goal. The process of changing is based on the assump-
tion that people are active and continuously interact with their envi-
ronment and with one another. As people participate in designing and
implementing change strategies, they are engaged in their own reedu-
cation. Chin and Benne stress that “[r]e-education is a normative
change as well as a cognitive and perceptual change” (p. 31). How can
we incorporate the dialectical and interactive ways of transforming our
thinking and being into the changing process? We may begin with a
critical reflection on the existing composition of institutions and struc-
tures. Changing begins with a struggle to new ways of constructing
reality that reconceptualize existing modes of being and doing. As
such, changing is an ongoing learning process that is deeply rooted in
the present based upon the past and heading toward an imagined
future. This imagined future consists of the reconceptualization of real-
ity, or the opening of our minds to alternative ways of seeing and being.
High-level executives and managers can facilitate the participation
of people in defining and exploring a problem in their own terms and
also help them to develop a collective vision of their world. In his dis-
cussion of action research, Earnst Stringer points out the following:
[T]he taken-for-granted visions and versions of reality that make up

people’s day-to-day life-worlds, [bring] their unquestioned assump-
tions, views, and beliefs out in the open and [display] them for
inspection. As people struggle to realize a collective vision/version of
their world, they will discover perspectives that reveal new possibili-
ties for resolving their problems. These collective visions may involve
minor adjustments to people’s own perspectives or may result in
transformations that dramatically alter their world-views. At best,
this activity is liberating, enabling people to master their world as
they see it in a different way—a tangible process of enlightenment.
(Stringer, 1996, p. 59)
It is essential that the ordinary experiences of people be included as

they are engaged in the process of changing their organizations.
Although most management-driven change projects assume the deter-
ministic and positivistic view of producing intended results, the imple-
mentation of the projects may remain incomplete. Throughout the
world, there are numerous examples of the failure of top-down reform
projects. For example, in 1998 a newly elected South Korean president,
Kim Dae Jung, launched the first reorganization of his administration,
spending $3.8 million for formulating a reform proposal by hiring sev-
eral research and consulting firms. But because the plan was ill-con-
ceived and hasty, its implementation lasted less than a year. In its sec-
ond reform plan, failing to account for the shortcomings of the first
plan, the national government continued its focus on the consolidation
and streamlining of cabinet-level agencies. The failures of these reorga-
nization plans were largely due to a misunderstanding of the funda-
mental problems of agencies. For example, the administrative cultures
in different ministries were not taken into account; they did not partic-
ipate in the design of reform strategies; and no incentives were provid-
ed for ministries to cooperate with the reforms. Many people predicted
that the reorganization plan would not produce any substantive
improvements in public services. This prediction came true. Instead, the
plan only contributed to the power struggle between ministries because
of new structural arrangements, which give more power to the office of
prime minister. The incompleteness of organizational change projects is
conspicuous at the national levels; it is also a common phenomenon in
local public agencies, which attempt to design projects from the top
down, not allowing broad participation. Thus the effective design and
implementation of reform plans can produce a better outcome when
executives and managers pay attention to the ordinary experiences of
organizational members, facilitating these experiences in order to define
problems and develop their own strategies for changing.
Action Research as a Framework for Learning and Changing
Although action research has been practiced by social scientists for

more than a half-century, it is not well known among public adminis-
trators, perhaps because it lacks scientific rigor, structure, and a univer-
sal theoretical framework. Action research is, however, becoming an
important subject among applied social scientists, people-oriented
training consultants (not public management experts), interpretive

theorists, and qualitative researchers (Greenwood and Levin, 1998;
Stringer, 1996; Argyris, Putnam and Smith, 1985; Weisbord, 1992;
Whyte, 1984). Action research is based on Kurt Lewin’s 1940s work on
group dynamics, which stresses group, rather than individual, actions
(Lewin, 1947; 1951). Lewin emphasizes action research as a strategy of
changing, and participation in groups as a medium of education and
learning. Action research assumes that a group process provides oppor-
tunities for members to reflect on their experiences and thus gain
insight into their own behavior and actions, analyze problems, design
action steps to achieve established goals, and evaluate the consequences
of their actions.
Action research is a practical framework for social design, team-
work, group problem solving, and changing strategies, a framework
within which the various concepts that I discuss in the social construc-
tionist and social design approaches can be synthesized and opera-
tionalized. First, as Eric Trist points out, action research aims to help
us design the future, rather than adapt to it (1976). People involved in
the problem-solving process are viewed as active agents with different
ideas and experiences, rather than as reactive and passive. Next, action
research is a way of facilitating “collaborative relationships in an area of
conflict” (Foster, 1976). Different collaborators (top administrators,
managers, professionals, employees, clients, and politicians, depending
on the issue) join together to solve a problem. Dialogue and feedback
are the mediums for sharing knowledge and resolving conflict.
Further, when action research is applied to planned organizational
change, it can be a framework for integrating the “practical concerns of
people in an immediate problematic situation” and the theoretical
knowledge of change agents or outside consultants (Gardner, 1974). In
addition, in the process of diagnosing what the problem is and what
ought to be done, the analytical method may be used to gather relevant
survey data concerning people’s attitudes and perceptions, and the phe-
nomenological method or qualitative research may be used to conduct
open-ended interviews and elicit knowledge. The action research team
can jointly evaluate the validity of factual information, reflecting upon
its moral and value orientations. Finally, action research is a participa-
tory framework for community problem solving. Anne Khademian’s
illustration of the East St. Louis Action Research Project (ESLARP)
is a good case study of community-based problem solving. By the late
1980s, East St. Louis, Illinois, was a dilapidated city, having urban
decay, environmental pollution, high unemployment, poverty, and
crime. The implementation of numerous government programs, such
as the War on Poverty, Model Cities, and the Community
Development Block Programs, failed to stabilize the socioeconomic
and environmental conditions. In the mid-1990s, the University of
Illinois Champaign-Urban under the leadership of Kenneth Reardon
initiated the ESLARP project through a productive partnership
among residents, neighborhood organizations, and university students
and faculty. The action research team shared the responsibility for
defining neighborhood problems, setting an agenda, researching prob-
lems, and developing solutions (2002, pp. 1–14). The success of the
project was attributed to not only the effective leadership of the project
facilitators, but, more important, the inclusion of residents in dealing
with urban renewal problems.
The process of designing action research and problem solving
varies from situation to situation. The following list illustrates some
basic steps that may be relevant to organizational and social problem
solving:
1. Forming an action research group. This consists of the people who

are interested in examining problems and taking action.
2. Diagnosing the problem. Action research group members must
study significant problems analytically and phenomenologically.
3. Developing goals. Based on problem diagnosis, the action research
group must define its collective goals.
4. Designing action steps. Group members assign shared responsibil-
ities in relation to problems and goals.
5. Evaluation and feedback. Evaluation and feedback must be exercised
in steps 1 to 4, analyzing both positive and negative consequences.
The process of action research is flexible and adaptive because it is

supposed to evaluate human action based on continuous feedback during
each one of the preceding steps. The success of action research and prob-
lem solving depends on the active participation of collaborators (action
research group members) in order to assess whether problems were dis-
cussed openly, action purposes were accomplished, the process was par-
ticipatory and open to organization and community, participants learned,
and the degree to which the process contributed to the freedom and self-
enhancement of the individuals involved (Gardner, 1974, p. 113).
When action research is used to solve organizational problems, it
is necessary to anticipate some obstacles. The establishment of collab-
orative relationships and conflict resolution among group members is
difficult because group members will necessarily differ in their interests
and values. This implies that, as Chris Argyris has written, the effec-
tiveness of problem solving invariably depends upon the degree of
interpersonal competence and trust among members (1970). The
process of action research may be impeded by unanticipated factors
such as management’s attempt to control the problem-solving agenda,
the unethical conduct of some individual members, delays in imple-
mentation of assigned activities, or lack of management support.
CONCLUSION
I began this chapter by discussing how the omnipresent assumption of

the functionalist perspective of human action in organizations has
forced positivistic and deterministic approaches to behavior and action,
treating organizational members as merely passive, reactive beings. The
interpretive perspective argues that the objective requirement for
action lacks an understanding of everyday experience of people from
their subjective viewpoints. Both the functionalist and the interpretive
approaches tend to be reductionistic in their methods of explaining and
understanding actions. A one-sided approach to action may be justifi-
able from either the objective, management viewpoint or the subjec-
tive, individual’s viewpoint, but its uncritical application to the activi-
ties of public administration could lead to an only partial understand-
ing of social reality and action. It is a humanistic and practical matter
to accept the limitations of a one-sided epistemology and try to find a
critical, constructive way of realizing the dialectical possibility and the
complex network of human relationships.
I also introduced the concept of praxis, emphasizing the responsi-
bility of public administrators in changing organizations and con-
structing social reality through the exercise of critical and reflexive
action. Unlike the concept of ‘planned change’ based on the application
of change theory to the change target, changing an organization is an
evolutionary (continuously emerging) process of understanding and
transforming cultures, resources, people, and complex external envi-

ronments. In this regard, action research is a framework that promotes
dialogue, learning, sharing, and participation. Another similar
approach is the “future search conference,” which is used as a process
approach to sharing knowledge, learning among participants, and
building commitment.6
CHAPTER 7
The Self in Social Construction
The social construction of public administration must include a clear

consideration of the nature of the individual within social and cultural
contexts. From a positivist (functionalist) perspective, an organization is
seen as an assembly of autonomous individuals working together for
economic gain. Roles and tasks are assigned to ensure that individuals
will meet organizational goals. Individuals are supposed to sacrifice
their autonomy for organizational needs, and the self is reduced to the
person’s role in the organization structure. Alternatively, social con-
structionists see the self and identity being created and sustained
through our social, historical, cultural, and temporal relationships. From
this perspective individual identity is not determined by our role in soci-
ety but is an ongoing process in which we shape ourselves and others
within the various contexts and relations in which we find ourselves.
While some argue that this conception of the self leads to ethical rela-
tivism, others, such as Max Weber, William James, George Herbert
Mead, Alfred Schutz, and Jürgen Habermas, have formulated theories
that attempt to balance these two opposing conceptions of the self.
The viable existence of organizational life presupposes that mem-
bers make certain kinds of commitments and accept certain organiza-
tional norms but still have individual autonomy and freedom. In this
chapter, I discuss how the individual constructs the concept of ‘the self ’
in historical, cultural, and social contexts. The self as a human being is
the most important intervening factor to come between phenomenal
objects (other people, roles, and external things) and an individual’s
own behavior and action. During the 1960s and 1970s, there was a
surge of interest in the changing consciousness of people in organiza-
tion and in society (Reich, 1970; Bellah et al., 1985). Since the early
1980s, however, our attention has shifted to the macro concerns of
managing a complex society, such as rising national debt and budget
cuts, the costs of social programs, and the demand for better govern-
ment performance. Where we put our attention has been influenced by
the crisis in management and the dwindling economic resources to
147
meet this crisis. Also in this chapter, I ask questions about the nature
of the individual and his or her role in the social construction process,
by comparing Eastern and Western thought about the concept of self
and discussing the dialectical relationships between and among self,
culture, organization, and society.
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE SELF:

EASTERN AND WESTERN VIEWS
An exploration of Eastern and Western views is necessary for at least

three significant epistemological and pragmatic reasons. First, the
world is becoming increasingly borderless in terms of geographical and
social space. Because of this growing network of interaction and inter-
dependence among people, organizations, and nations, it is difficult for
Western nations to sustain themselves without the cooperation of the
East; conversely, Eastern countries cannot progress without working
with the West. The “modern Western mind-set” is geared to control
and change based on instrumental and rational individual achievement
and on scientific principles. The Western view of identity also serves
the dominant group interest because it establishes what are acceptable
behavior, roles, and obligations. It also assumes that those who do not
fit the norm (the underprivileged, diverse minorities) must be guided
by leaders and professionals because they are unmotivated, or they act
in less than rational ways. Any fundamental transformation in the
organizations or society of the West would require that people change
their minds about the way that they interpret the implications of sci-
ence, health care, education, economics, the market, security, poverty,
and the natural environment.1 The Eastern mind-set tends to be more
intuitive, less rational, and nonscientific in its orientation; it values per-
sonal connections. Although contemporary educated people who occu-
py professional and managerial jobs in the East have learned and often
adopted a Western orientation, the majority of people in the East still
think in a less rational and nonempirical manner. Even those profes-
sionals who adopt Western orientations still tend to retain aspects of
their Eastern heritage.
Another justification for understanding the self from both the
Eastern and the Western viewpoint is that this comparison allows us to
go beyond the conventional idea that the organization and society have
The Self in Social Construction 149
sole responsibility for governing, in order to protect people and help

them grow. Those who design and implement this macro-oriented
development and management philosophy justify it in terms of creat-
ing a prosperous future and material satisfaction by making rational
choices on behalf of the people. This centralized policy making and
hierarchical governing, however, ignores diverse group interests and
local conditions and underestimates individual values, needs, feelings,
and life experiences.
Finally, by understanding self as socially constructed in relation to
others, we can overcome the problem of duality between the individual
and the organization, between subjectivity and objectivity, and between
administration and the public. These dualistic boundaries can be tran-
scended only by thinking about self through the enlargement of the
person’s boundary into other spheres. People support change as a result
of a change in consciousness; this transcendence in consciousness
comes from viewing selfhood (both conscious and unconscious aspects
of the self ) as taking place in social and cultural contexts and, in par-
ticular, through communication with other humans.
Modern Western Concepts of Self
Although there is no one single concept of self in Western thought, the

Cartesian view of the self has influenced the Western approach to eco-
nomic, political, legal, cultural, and administrative systems. This con-
cept depicts the highly atomistic, separate, I-me, autonomous individ-
ual or ego. Thus, most modern concepts of self have Cartesian episte-
mological roots, but anti-Cartesian views have also emerged with the
development of post-Enlightenment philosophy, symbolic interaction-
ism, ethnomethodology, humanistic psychology, and postmodernism.
René Descartes (1596–1650) is regarded as one of the founders of
modern epistemology. In his method, the first reality discovered is the
thinking self. His view of the thinking self (“thinking thing”) is that of
a separate and individual self with a rational mind. He argues that “an
objective, ego-oriented world of meaning” allows the individual to be
rational. His view on an atomistic view of the self does not include a
person’s social, or relational, nature. He assumes that “the real is the
rational—so that the more rational we become, the more in touch with
reality we are.” Thus any rational person will accept “the existence of
the self as an individual thinking thing” (Allen, 1997b, p. 7). This
“thing” is not historically, relationally, and culturally constituted and is

able to control society through practical reason and scientific means.
Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and John Locke (1632–1704) assert
that atomistic individuals can come together to establish government
by means of contract (Hobbes) or as affairs of fiduciary trust (Locke).
Hobbes emphasizes the absolute power of the state over the individual,
arguing that state power is essential because people are so possessed by
the will to achieve power and security that they will wreak havoc on
others, taking the property of others in order to make themselves more
powerful. According to Hobbes, only a superior coercive power will
prevent or punish the antisocial behavior of individuals. Locke oppos-
es the idea that only government has full authority to secure public
safety and to maintain order. He argues that citizens may dissolve the
contract: “[People] may dissolve their government, but they may
remain in society.” Locke’s liberal political theory is “less political—less
about the state—and more social and individual. A free society, one
free from governmental interference, is the refuge for free [people]”
(Hacker, 1961, pp. 245–46).2 Thus Locke sees the need for limiting the
power of the state so that the individual may have more freedom.
The idea of atomistic selves is further reflected in the writings of
many economists. Adam Smith (1723–1790), who established his rep-
utation as not only a liberal economic theorist but also a distinguished
lecturer on literature and moral philosophy, wrote two important books,
The Wealth of Nations (1937/1776) and The Theory of Moral Sentiments
(1966/1759). His work on economic theory became the foundation
work of modern economic thought. His idea that every individual is
motivated by prudent self-interest recalls Plato’s concept of ‘virtue’:
every member of the republic follows his or her own natural predispo-
sition in developing his or her talents to perfection. Smith assumes that
if people are allowed to follow their economic interests unrestrictedly
(except for the control of criminal behavior and fraud), then a natural
economic balance will evolve in which the state as a whole will profit
from the integral interests and labors of the population. Smith recog-
nizes that the wealth of a nation grows with the increased skill and effi-
ciency of labor and with the greater involvement of the population in
production and, eventually, in consumption (Smith, 1776/1937).
Smith’s unified theory of economic development, which is largely based
on the promotion of the genuine self-interest of individuals, has influ-
enced other theorists, such as David Ricardo, Jeremy Bentham, and
John Stuart Mill. Since the late nineteenth century, there have been
numerous movements that critique this construction of the self that
largely promote the interests of atomistic and self-centered individuals.
These critiques have come from communists, pragmatists, feminists,
communitarians, and contemporary virtue theorists.
Eastern Views of Self

When Western atomistic and self-interest-oriented concepts of self are
applied to the complex and dynamic nature of Eastern countries, mis-
understandings occur; a shallow understanding of people from other
cultures produces not only distrust but also unintended consequences
in working relationships. This misunderstanding often derives from
our projection of known concepts and reasoning into the unknown cul-
ture. Gunnar Myrdal, in his insightful book Asian Drama: An Inquiry
into the Poverty of Nations (1968), describes some of traditional Asian
characteristics:
A central claim is that people in Asia are more spiritual and less
materialistic than Westerners. They are otherworldly, selfless, and
disposed to disregard wealth or material comfort. They sustain
poverty with equanimity and even see positive virtues in it. They
have a special respect for learning and a capacity for contemplation
and meditation. Their intellectual strength lies in intuition more
than in reason and hard calculation. In current affairs, their main cri-
terion is the moral worth of a person or a policy, and they are apt to
censure expediency and opportunitism in politics. With spiritual
concerns and personal salvation paramount, the external world takes
on an illusory and transient aspect. The attitude toward the environ-
ment tends to be timeless, formless, and therefore carefree and even
fatalistic. The ideal is alleged to be detachment, withdrawal, if not
renunciation and asceticism. This bent of mind gives Asians sereni-
ty and the capacity to endure extreme physical suffering. They are
pictured as tolerant, non-aggressive, and non-militant in their social
relations and their international politics. They are said to dislike
definitive legal principles and to prefer to settle conflicts by mutual
agreement rather than by formal procedures; to regard status as more
important than contracts; and to desire peace with their neighbors
and the world, and peace in their souls. (pp. 23–24)
Myrdal implies that the above illustration is a biased, general-

ized image of the characteristics of Asians. Although many Asians
still possess those traits today, because of the influence of modern-

ization and industrialization, these traditional values and conscious-
ness have been changing rapidly, becoming more like those of
Western countries; that is, many people have become materialistic,
egoistic, individualistic, and self-centered, paying little heed to the
interests and rights of others and the community in which they live.
Young people in particular do seem to be becoming more Western.
This changing phenomenon does not mean that Asian values and
concepts of self are becoming more like the self-concepts of the peo-
ple in the West. Of course, mutual influences continue to occur, but
some basic cultural norms and people’s values, based on their histor-
ical, cultural, and religious roots, will remain in people’s minds for a
long time; some may never want to change their traditional beliefs.
Today we witness this tendency among people in Middle Eastern
countries when they resist the U.S.-imposed movement toward
democratization.3
Because the social construction of self in Asian countries has a
wide range of interpretations, in this section I briefly describe some
major Asian schools of thought—Confucianism, Buddhism, and
Hinduism—to illustrate the contrasting views of self.4 Furthermore, an
understanding (or blending) of Western and Eastern conceptions can
lead to more humanistic and ethical ways of organizational governance
and human relationships. In many ways, Confucian principles for liv-
ing a virtuous and ethical life complement the Western understanding
of the individual. Born in 551 B.C., Confucius became a cabinet-level
official of the state of Lu at fifty-one. After he resigned his government
job, he traveled through many of the feudal states of China accompa-
nied by his disciples; he spent the rest of his life in literary studies. His
work helps to form the basis of Chinese culture, and his philosophy
continues to influence many Asian societies, particularly East Asian
countries. He preached an exclusively ethical doctrine, with an empha-
sis on the practical side of human conduct. According to Confucius,
“[T]he best individual morality in the world could fail collectively if
there were not good government as well” (Feibleman, 1976, p. 91). To
Confucius, becoming a moral person is an ongoing and lifelong
process, and this learning process must take place within one’s partic-
ular moral community.
Confucius explained that there are six virtues and six accompany-
ing failures:
First, there is the mere love of morality: that alone, without culture,
degenerates into fatuity. Secondly, there is the mere love of knowl-
edge: that alone, without culture, tends to dilettantism. Thirdly, there
is the mere love of honesty: that alone, without culture, produces
heartlessness. Fourthly, there is the mere love of uprightness: that
alone, without culture, leads to tyranny. Fifthly, there is the mere love
of courage: that alone, without culture, produces recklessness.
Sixthly, there is the mere love of strength of character: that alone,
without culture, produces eccentricity. (Confucius Analects, XVII, 8)
According to Confucian ethics, a superior person (a sage) behaves

morally; such a person is what Alasdair MacIntyre terms a “character,”
not necessarily a “superior” individual. According to MacIntyre, such
people are “the moral representatives of their culture and they are so
because of the way in which moral and metaphysical ideas and theories
assume through them an embodied existence in the social world.
Characters are the masks worn by moral philosophers” (1981, p. 28).
One can take the role of a character without believing in its values—for
example, managers justify their role through this “character” as moral
and rational agents of the organization. MacIntyre says the problem
with these characters is that they do not engage in reflexivity or moral
debate. They accept their right to make decisions for others based on
objective and rational criteria. Most modern managers are morally neu-
tral technicians. For a superior person according to Confucius, living as
the “character” within the moral community means above all else a
commitment to the process of moral self-cultivation and constructing
personal identity through the virtue of jen (benevolence) and li (propri-
ety) (Tu, 1985; Chong, Tan, and Ten, 2003).5
In contrast to the Cartesian view of the atomistic self, the
Confucian self is relational and interdependent. East Asian countries
influenced by Confucian practice believe that certain sets of human
relationships are the basis of the moral community. Traditionally, these
relationships are described hierarchically in five pairs, namely, (1) ruler
and ministers; (2) father and son; (3) husband and wife; (4) elder and
younger brother; and (5) friend and friend (i.e., considering age differ-
ence). In these hierarchical relationships, loyalty and obedience are
critical to the maintenance of trusting relationships, and the sovereign
and his ministers share a common moral purpose of righteousness or
justice. Thus vertical relationships are fundamental to the Confucian
philosophy, and this hierarchical bent is reflected in the sociopolitical,
administrative, and business aspects of East Asian countries. Many

economists and social scientists believe that the successes of economic
development in South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and
Taiwan can be attributed to a great extent, to these relationships of
duty and service to one’s country and to society. Loyalty is particularly
important to Japanese social, political, and business relationships. In
social interactions, Koreans try to establish their relative status in terms
of age, family background, education, and job before they form a close
relationship with a stranger. In Asian countries, close friendship entails
a degree of loyalty toward one another, but when a difference in age
and social status exists, the relationship becomes more paternalistic. In
contrast to Confucian thought, Buddhism has no discussion of the
hierarchical nature of human relationships. Thus, Buddhism helps us
think in a nonhierarchical way by focusing on our being in connection
to other things around us.
Buddhism is the dominant religious, philosophical, cultural, social,
and spiritual force in most of Asia, especially in China, Japan, Korea,
Vietnam, Cambodia, Nepal, and Thailand. Buddha, whose real name
was Siddhartha Gautama, was born about 563 B.C. in southern Nepal,
near the Indian border. Buddha means “enlightened one” or “awakened
one.” Gautama the Buddha was a member of a rich and powerful royal
family. At the age of about twenty-nine, he became overwhelmed with
the conviction that life is filled with suffering and unhappiness. After
traveling throughout northeast India for about six years, he experi-
enced enlightenment. He had, he believed, discovered why life is filled
with suffering and how humanity can escape from this unhappy exis-
tence. Buddha’s doctrine is derived from “experience in the transfor-
mations of consciousness and the stages of meditation,” not from sense
perception or logical operations. The core of the Buddha’s knowledge
is perceived only through meditation: rational thinking is not adequate
to the task of understanding human existence ( Jaspers, 1957). Through
meditation, yoga, and prayer, an individual can become enlightened,
liberated, and aware of his or her unity with the universe. A person
becomes aware of the Middle Way, the way between the “extremes of
asceticism, on the one hand, and indulgence, on the other. It is the con-
cept of the rationed life, in which the body is given what it needs to
function optimally, but no more” (Smith and Novak, 2003, p. 8).
Buddha denies the self: there is no self (“not self ”), no individual,
in his doctrine. Being and nonbeing in the universe is a reflection of
one’s own self. No-self is the nature of an intuitive and subjective per-
ception toward oneself beyond the ordinary range of human experience
that is full of the anxieties and defensiveness. According to Zen
Buddhism, “to study the self is to forget the self.” When the self
becomes anxiety-free, one can act spontaneously. Suler points out, “In
the spontaneity of no-self one acts without thinking, even though the
plan and precision of ‘thoughtfulness’ remains. There are no bound-
aries, lines of pressure, traces, or intermediaries. When you first learn
to play the piano, you have to think your fingers into position. But
when this skill is mastered, the fingers play themselves, and, in fact,
allow deeper layers of self-expression to emerge spontaneously” (Suler,
1993, p. 54). We humans often live in suffering, craving, hatred, and
delusion because we lose sight of the real self and attach ourselves to
our smaller self. Buddha emphasizes that “our concepts of the self or
ego are illusory, that an ego-constructed world is essential to our igno-
rance and suffering, and that freedom or liberation entails self-tran-
scendence—or, since there is no substantial self, transcendence of the
illusion of the self ” (Allen, 1997b, pp. 10–11). Karl Jaspers illustrates
this concept further: “There is no true self. In sensory existence the
body is the self. In the first stage of meditation, the spiritual self of the
ethereal body becomes real; the former self vanishes into nothingness.
But in higher stages the spiritual self is itself annulled. Thus even in
meditation the self is not denied, but is shown to be relative. The true
self is attained only at the highest stage which coincides with Nirvana”
( Jaspers, 1957, pp. 30–31). Buddha rejects the notion that anything,
such as a self or soul, is permanent and unchanging. “[E]verything is
impermanent in the continuous becoming of lived experience,” accord-
ing to Buddha. He also says that “[a] false belief in an independent
separate self is essential to the generation of our selfish desires, greed,
craving, hatred, and ego-attachments” (Allen, 1997b, p. 11). The impli-
cations of Buddhism are to have compassion for others, act in an eth-
ically disciplined manner, and conduct ourselves with restraint out of a
sense of responsibility. (His Holiness the Dalai Lama, 1999, pp.
81–131). Like other religious teachings, Buddhism facilitates us to see
human qualities of compassion, love, patience, tolerance, humility, for-
giveness, mutual respect and understanding, harmony, and so forth.
These would have a special role to play in our contemporary world.
Hinduism is the most important influence on the culture of India.
A basic tenet of Hinduism is the caste system, which determines the
way of life of most Indian Hindus. Like most religions, Hinduism has
beliefs about the Divine, life after death, and how its followers should
conduct their lives. Hindus believe that an individual’s actions
(Karma)—the bad or good actions that the individual performed in a
previous life—determine his or her caste. Hinduism is concerned with
the spiritual essence of the self. The religion is heavily mystical and
deals with many supernatural ideas and forces (Feibleman, 1976, p. 74).
The Bhagavad-Gita, a philosophical work and one of Hinduism’s
sacred writings, emphasizes selfless action, that is, “renunciation of any
ego-attachment to the fruit of one’s action” (Allen, 1997b, p. 9). The
Gita suggests means for transcending a false, or illusory, self, that is, the
ego-oriented self. This transcendence of self is seen as essential to spir-
itual liberation.
Although Confucius is more widely known to the West, the book
of Tao Te Ching, the teachings of Lao-tze, is the most widely translat-
ed Chinese text, the text that establishes Taoism and offers a different
view of the relationship between self and society. There are more than
fifteen translations in English alone and other translations in Japanese,
Korean, and German. Although the exact translation in English is dif-
ficult, Tao means “the way” or “the path,” Te means “virtue”; and Ching
means “book.” Almost every chapter of the Tao Te Ching describes “this
way of living.” “The secret of living, according to the Tao Te Ching, is
to open within ourselves to the great flow of fundamental forces that
constitute the ultimate nature of the universe—both the movement
that descends from the source and the movement of return” (Lao Zsu,
tran., by Feng and English, 1989, xiv).
Lao-tze was born around 571 B.C. and was a keeper of the impe-
rial archives at the capital before retiring and in middle life disap-
pearing. Confucian philosophy is a philosophy of social order, and
order by maintaining hierarchical relationships is seldom exciting.
Lao-tze’s proverbs convey an excitement and a poetry that Confucian
commonsensical proverbs cannot. Confucians respect culture and rea-
son, but Taoists reject these things in favor of nature and intuition.
Lao-tze, because he discusses the mystery and beauty of the universe,
the meaning of life and death, the shaking of the inner self, the realm
of the obvious and the hidden, and action and nonaction, is a mystic.
I believe Taoism (along with Chuang-tze’s philosophy, which further
developed Lao-tze’s philosophy) will be widely appreciated by people
in the East and the West in the twenty-first century because the
teachings are naturalistic, free flowing, dialectic, paradoxical, and

democratic because of the emphasis on horizontal and collaborative
relationships with others.
Lao-tze’s paradoxical expressions arise from his view of the rela-
tionship of opposites: all things merge in harmony. Allen Watts points
out that “the relativity of one’s perspective is a fundamental principle
that everyone must understand in order to know the meaning of the
Tao, which is the Chinese sense of the course of nature” (1997, p. 52).
The following expression of Lao-tze is an example of what it means to
be in a relationship of opposites:
In this universe, we can see beauty as beauty,

Because of the contrast of ugliness.
And recognize virtue as virtue,
Because of the contrast of evil.
Have and have-not arise together.
Difficult and easy harmonize with one another.
Long and short oppose each other.
High and low balance one another.
Music and sound harmonize with each other.
Front and back follow one after another.
So, the sage is working by non-action,
Teaching by not speaking.
Ten thousand things evolve ceaselessly.
Create, yet do not possess.
Work, yet do not take credit.
Accomplishment, then forgotten;
Therefore, it is eternal.
(Tao Te Ching)
In Taoism, the relativity of opposites is present in other aspects of the

universe, such as yin and yang: yin is all that is feminine, gentle, dark,
and meek; yang is all that is masculine, forceful, light, and active. Yin
and yang exist in a mutual relationship and reinforce each other. Life
arises from death, and vice versa; possibility arises from impossibility,
and vice versa; affirmation is based upon denial, and vice versa. These
opposites are very different, but they are inseparable; they are not in
conflict with each other but instead embrace the possibility of unity.
Opposites therefore do not have the same meaning as they do in the
West, with its strong sense of dualism; rather, opposites are an “explic-
it duality expressing an implicit unity” (Watts, 1997).
In Taoism, self does not exist without the existence of the other;
self as a separate identity is supported by the “equal and opposite sen-
sation of otherness” such as the dialectical relationship between yin
and yang (Watts, 1997, p. 68). Thus, the development of self-knowl-
edge is recognition of the mutual relations between self and others. In
Taoism, all changes in nature stem from “the dynamic interplay
between the polar opposites” where each influences the other in the
process of transmuting into other things. In the East, the emphasis is
on going beyond extreme opposites, but “for the Western mind, this
idea of the implicit unity of all opposites is extremely difficult to
accept” (Capra, 1975, 114).
Transcendence beyond Self-boundary
This brief investigation of Asian philosophy, particularly Buddhism

and Hinduism, reveals a shared belief that through spiritual liberation,
the individual can transcend his or her immediate illusion, overcoming
the self-restricting boundary that stems from selfish interest.
Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Taoism also teach individuals how to
transcend the self-boundary line and to be aware that there is no
boundary between self and no-self or no dividing line between the self
and external things (Wilber, 1979).
Religions are a spiritual force that is intrinsically personal and
help us understand human experience and conditions of society
(Smith, 2001; Lynch and Lynch, 1999). Thomas Jefferson points out
that religious beliefs and practices originate from the “liberty of the
individual’s intellect and conscience, and [therefore] religion is a
strictly private matter” ( Johnson, 1997, p. 25). It is difficult indeed to
assign a role to spirituality in public organizations. I like to think,
however, that the personal experience of spirituality can help individ-
uals to be better aware of the self by having the will to negate and
transcend self, to live harmoniously with others by prompting them
to go beyond selfishness and greed, and to care for people in need.
Furthermore, the spiritual aspects of individual lives could enable
people to transcend the intolerable nature of human reality through
the enhancement of human consciousness (Smith, 2001, pp.
79–102).
The transcendence of self to no-self and in relation to the other

arises from one’s willingness to change the primary boundary of the
self. Ken Wilber calls this awareness that all life is one, “unity con-
sciousness.” Further, he says,
[This awareness] cannot occur as long as the primary boundary,
which separates the self from the universe, is mistaken as real. But
once the primary boundary is understood to be illusory, one’s sense
of self envelops the All—there is then no longer anything outside of
oneself, and so nowhere to draw any sort of boundary. Thus, if we can
at all begin to see through the primary boundary, the sense of unity
consciousness will not be far from us. (1979, p. 47)
In sum, Taoism has a slightly different approach to the problem

of self and other, placing them in a nondualistic relationship.
Although it does not address the transcendental aspects of bound-
aries, boundaries are never seriously considered because reality is seen
as nondualistic: all boundaries are illusory. Thus, a nondualistic rela-
tionship between two opposites implies that we are a self only in rela-
tion to others.
THE SELF AND SOCIALITY: WESTERN VIEWS
Although both Eastern and Western views of the self stress the indi-
vidual as moral agent, most Asian religious and philosophical con-
cepts assert the inseparable relationship between the self and the
entire moral universe, denying any duality between the self and
objects. Eastern views oppose excessive individualism, which, it is
believed, leads to egoistic and selfish behavior and limits the individ-
ual’s spiritual growth or the development of a virtuous character.6
Another commonality between Eastern and Western views of self is
the idea of relationship with other people. Yet in the Eastern view, the
transcendence of self is largely possible as the individual experiences
the existence of others and realizes the limits of the egoistic self.
Either at the spiritual level or in relationship with opposites, the per-
son realizes that there is no separation: all of life contributes to the
creation of unity. Eastern thoughts in general do not address the
importance of discursive and rational processes for establishing rela-
tionships and how the individual, through relating with other people,
can become an agent of reality construction. In this section, I discuss
Western views of how the individual experiences the meaning of rela-

tionship with others, that is, the “sociality” that emerges between and
among selves (Natanson, 1970, p. 47).
The self is the core of developing a we-relationship with other
organizational members that constructs intersubjective reality. The
idea of a we-relationship with intersubjective reality is a constructive
approach that promotes an appreciative and reciprocal relationship of
the self with others. When the we-relationship develops in an organi-
zation, the individual shares his or her experiences with others and
engages in learning, moving toward a “domain of ‘betweenness’ which
characterizes social action” (Natanson, 1970, p. 48). The quality of
“betweenness” in the we-relationship depends on various elements,
such as face-to-face interaction; dialogue; the commonality of work;
the strength of mutuality; sharing of past, present, and future interests;
and the willingness to participate in the relationship. Other approach-
es, introduced by such theorists as George Herbert Mead, Chris
Argyris, and Carl Rogers, also deal with the possibility of transcending
the self through relationships with others.
In his influential book Mind, Self, and Society (1934), Mead
describes how, through the use of significant gestures, the self and the
consciousness become individualized (and internalized), evolving out
of an intersubjectivity or sociality. Although Mead is often seen as a
social behavioralist, his explanation and interpretation of the self
demonstrates a phenomenological and interpretive orientation. Mead
attempts “to explore and describe experience within society, treating
consciousness, language, communication, and meaning as emergents
from the social process” (Natanson, 1973, p. 5). The self is constituted
through communicative practice, not necessarily through the influence
of the social environment, although the self may be influenced by a cer-
tain environment.
According to Mead, the evolution of the self is a process of inter-
action between an “I” and a “me”; the I and the me constitute the total-
ity of the self. The me is all those perspectives on the self that the indi-
vidual has learned from others: the attitudes that the I assumes toward
his or her own person when taking the role of the other. In a self, there
is also something that responds to his or her own behavior. The me is
the representative of the attitude of the other or others: it is the objec-
tification of gestural behavior. That which responds to this objectifica-
tion is the I. The I and me relationship is the “inner forum,” the silent
internal conversation that is continually going on inside the human

organism; it is an ongoing dialectical process (1934, pp. 173–78,
192–200, 209–13, 273–81). In internal dialogue, the I is thought of as
an “audience.” The I responds to the me, and the me reflects the I. The
I is the actual process of thinking and acting, and the me is the reflec-
tive process. Because the self engages in social activity in the relation-
ship of I and me as a communicating process, the self emerges in a
form of dialogue.
Mead provides a dialectical framework for relating the self to the
role of the other. He emphasizes the process of “reflexive role-taking”:
seeing oneself from the perspective of the other (1934, pp. 15–56, 254,
360–62, 364–67). An interaction between the self and the other makes
it possible for the individual to improve his or her self-knowledge in
relationship to others through human collaboration. In his discussion
of a mutual relationship between the individual and the community in
which he or she lives, he argues that “people have to adjust themselves
to him [or her] as much as he [or she] adjusts himself [herself ] to
them.” Through this process, “the change may be desirable or it may be
undesirable, but it inevitably takes place” (p. 216). According to Mead,
this illustration of a process of “mutual adjustment” is sociality. The
Habermasian view of rational communicative action between people in
the social process is also a view of sociality that emerges as intersub-
jective reality (1984). Thus both Habermas and Mead argue that the
self is constituted socially, and the human self is a product of sociality
that emerges between and among people.
One theoretical perspective that seems particularly helpful in
enabling students of public administration to understand relating the
self (or the individual) to the organization and its members is the
approach that deals with interpersonal relationships and interpersonal
competence: the self in relationship with other members of the organi-
zation. Although symbolic interactionism provides an important theo-
retical framework in sociology and social psychology, the concepts
developed by Chris Argyris and Carl Rogers during the 1960s and
1970s, concerning the problem of interpersonal relationships in organi-
zations, have had a profound influence on the study of participatory,
effective, and humanistic organizations. How well the individual relates
to other members of the organization is an important factor in the social
construction process. Argyris has had extensive experience with
research, consulting, therapy, and training people to become effective
individuals in relating to organizations, community, and family.7 During

his lifetime, Rogers had similar extensive experience.
According to Argyris, interpersonal competence is the ability of
the individual to cope effectively with interpersonal relationships. He
stresses three criteria for such effective interpersonal coping: (1) the
individual perceives the interpersonal situation accurately; (2) the indi-
vidual is able to solve a problem in such a way that it remains solved;
and (3) the solution is achieved in such a way that the people involved
are able to continue to work with each other at least as effectively as
when they began to look at the problem (1968, p. 147). An important
aspect of interpersonal competence is the “changingness” of the person,
the individual’s capacity for change. It is a latent capacity in the indi-
vidual and a latent function in organizations. Rogers argues that
change capability is inhibited in many organizations by pessimistic
attitudes among people, particularly administrators, toward many
long-range policies (1968). He illustrates this with the example of
administrative refusal to face up to many urban problems and insists
that in the future, highly functional interpersonal relationships will be
the natural built-in motivation for individual growth and change,
rather than change that is introduced by top management and submis-
sively accepted by those in the ranks below. But Roger’s prediction for
building interpersonal relationships has not taken place over the last
thirty-five years since he first articulated it, and administrative organi-
zations continue to underestimate the importance of developing inter-
personal change capability.
POSTMODERN VIEWS OF THE SELF
Beginning in the 1960s, the Western view of self, particularly on ideas

concerning the experience of communicating and relating to others,
was questioned by poststructuralist and postmodernists, such as
Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault. In classical phenomenology, the
subject of experience, “the transcendental ego,”8 is necessary to objec-
tivity or the objectification of subjectivity. The denial of self in relation
to organization and others by postmodernists, however, is tantamount
to a rejection of “the notion of a stable, coherent self ” and an insistence
that “the self consists of nothing more than superficial, disjointed frag-
ments” (Goldman and Papson, 1994). This philosophical perspective
within late modernism not only recognizes the limitations of a subject-

centered approach within a philosophy of consciousness but also rejects
a concomitant abandonment of subjectivity. Postmodernists replace the
person as a thinking, experiencing, and conscious self with the idea of a
subject, because people are not autonomous and free-thinking individ-
uals but products of language and discursive practices. The role of the
subject in institutions, culture, and society is minimized. To postmod-
ernists, the subject is “a mask, a role, a victim, at worst an ideological
construct, at best nostalgic effigy” (Carravetta, 1988, p. 395). Because
postmodern views of the subject are diverse and disjointed, it is not
possible to represent them as a cohesive unit. Therefore, I discuss here
the thoughts of only a few key thinkers—Michel Foucault, Jacques
Derrida, and Jacques Lacan—in order to give some flavor for a post-
modern approach to the self.
• Michel Foucault (1926–1984), who was very much a part of
poststructuralist thinking, argues that the subject no longer has the
power to control the self and disputes the liberal humanist ideology of
enlightening the individual self. He treats the subject as simply a vic-
tim of power relationships, describing the “death of the subject.” In a
system in which the power structure is rigid and authoritative, the indi-
vidual subject is incapable of resisting institutional power and cannot
control his or her actions. Foucault, however, sees power residing in any
relationship, hierarchical or otherwise. He suggests that to obtain pro-
ductive services from people “power had to be able to gain access to the
bodies of individuals, to their acts, attitudes, and modes of everyday
behavior” (Foucault, 1980, p. 97). So the subject is constituted through
different forces, discursive and nondiscursive practices (language, ways
of talking, rules, experts, and so forth), desires, and materials.
• Jacques Derrida (1932–2004) is concerned with the issue of the
origin of meaning. To existential phenomenologists and symbolic
interactionists, the individual is conscious of and able to express mean-
ings; meanings also have relationships with other meanings. Derrida
denies that the self as an active, transcendental ego is the underlying
basis of meaning (Surber, 1998, p. 203). For Derrida, there is no per-
ception, and there is no consciousness before any text. Derrida stresses
the decentering of the text, which means that texts have plural mean-
ings. He rejects the idea of having a single, unified meaning: meaning
is in the text. All different interpretations of the meaning of a text are
equally interesting (Derrida, 1978). In order to discover hidden

assumptions and different meanings, a text must be demystified. To
demystify a text is “to tear it apart to reveal its internal, arbitrary hier-
archies, and its presuppositions” (Rosenau, 1992, p. 122). Derrida
advocates the need for decentering our thoughts so that we can under-
stand how it was centered in the first place. This is the idea of decon-
struction, which Derrida emphasizes in most of his arguments. Derrida
critiques the assumptions of both phenomenology and structuralism by
denying “transparent expressions of some subject or author or as mere
instances of a unified and overarching system” (Surber, 1998, p. 203)
Although these assumptions are necessary to these schools of thought,
their hope of finding a correct interpretation or a truth where inter-
pretation itself can come to rest is mislead by our habit of mind and
language (Derrida, 1970, pp. 247–65).
• Jacques Lacan (1901–1981) was a practicing psychoanalyst as

well as a theorist who carefully reviewed Sigmund Freud’s work (1982;
Bowie, 1991; Sarup, 1992). Surber says, “The heart of Lacan’s critical
project was to recover in Freud’s writings a notion of ‘subject of psy-
choanalysis’ as irreducibly multivalent, dynamic, open, and decentered”
(1998, p. 195). To public administration students, Lacan is more inter-
esting than Derrida, because his theory offers “a way of thinking about
the social and the linguistic construction of the self, of thinking
through the problem of the individual and society” (Sarup, 1988, p. 6).
McSwite argues that the development of public administration theory
has been seriously impeded by the promotion of utility maximizing
behavior (the rational ego) of the economic rationalism, and believes
that Lacanian theory of the self would make an important contribution
to public administration because his theory allows for the “existence of
an unconscious dimension of mind, at least an unconscious dimension
that is independent of the control and apprehension of the conscious
mind” (1997a, p. 57). Lacan tries to integrate phenomenology and
structuralism in relating the self to the linguistic construction; phe-
nomenology stresses the free self (subjectivity); structuralism empha-
sizes language determinism. Lacan uses structuralism but never rejects
the subject (ibid.). He encourages the process of decentering the sub-
ject to discover multiple meanings. His theory is also dialectical: an I-
thou relationship mutually defines subjectivity; society and individual
inhibit each other; the subject changes the world; and the subject over-
comes the master-and-the slave relationship (in the Hegelian sense).

The slave changes and frees himself by working. Lacan provides
numerous examples to illustrate the subject’s experience: for example,
he considers the Oedipus complex to be a linguistic transaction
describing the set of relationships involving the Phallus as a signifier,
the Other in the Name-of-the Father, and M with the Mother-signi-
fier (Surber, p. 199; Sarup, pp. 10–14).
Although Lacan recognizes the dialectical relationships, he argues

that full recognition by the subject and the object (the signifiers) is not
possible because we cannot share another person’s consciousness fully.
Accordingly, he believes that “the subject and the object are irreconcil-
ably divided” (Sarup, p. 13). Furthermore, as we try to learn from oth-
ers, because of the possibility of misinterpretation and misunderstand-
ing, intersubjectivity can never be sufficiently achieved.
I tend to concur with other social science critics that a “subjectless”
inquiry by Derrida and Foucault leading to a textual analysis or a
power/knowledge relationship just is not persuasive and unclear where
the arguments take us (Goldman and Papson, 1994; Taylor, 1995;
O’Neill, 1995; Callinicos, 1990; Haber, 1994). As applied to public
administration, an analysis of text has its role in understanding politics,
power relationships, and symbols and may help us understand multiple
meanings of text and also find out who or what is left out of a text. But
it is hard to believe that text-centered inquiry could become the main
thrust in critiquing complex social and administrative phenomena. To
understand the problem of power relationships, we need to pay attention
to the experiences of people by listening to their viewpoints. Foucault’s
analysis does add new insight to an analysis of power relationships. His
argument, however, is critical and negative without providing any posi-
tive suggestions as to how the subject can cope with the alienating envi-
ronment of institutions. Many postmodernists (Lacan being a notable
exception) tend to be antisubject (i.e., they see the death of the subject).
By emphasizing the fuction of language, Lacan never rejects the subject,
but he still does not offer constructive ways of dealing with the problem
of intersubjectivity in organizational and social contexts. It is hard to
imagine studying public administration without promoting the ideals of
individual realization, participatory democracy, humanistic organiza-
tions, and moral community; indeed, how could we pay less attention to
the problems of people at the organizational, societal, and global levels?
Among the various theories and approaches that are currently in vogue,
each has advantages and disadvantages, but the postmodernists’ views of
the subject in general seem to add little that is useful for understanding
the ontological problem of public administration except Lacan. By
exploring postmodern views of self, however, we may realize that mod-
ern views of self as interpreted in the East and the West have been under
radical criticism in recent years. Postmodern thinkers, however, help us
understand changes taking place at the global, societal, institutional, and
individual levels by questioning the traditional assumptions of modern
organizations and human nature (Turner, 1994).
IMPLICATIONS OF EASTERN AND WESTERN VIEWS
The concept of the self provides an important linkage between East

and West in studying problems of people in society and administra-
tion. Through understanding of the differences, we may be able to
learn what is inadequate in having meaningful life, acting ethically, or
working as a compassionate administrator in the workplace. By under-
standing the similarities between East and West, we can explore their
complementary approaches to the improvement of people’s responsi-
bility to others as well as the development of organizational ability to
achieve a “higher-order concept that integrates the two” and generate
a synergistic alternative (Suler, 1993, pp. 134–14).
The concept of the self in Eastern philosophy is difficult—perhaps
impossible—to grasp, as depicted in the Buddhist teaching of the
self/no-self and the Hindu philosophy of egolessness. The self is con-
sidered an illusion. To be free from the burden of suffering, we must
not be bounded by a focus on the self. Whereas Eastern thought tends
to negate the importance of the individual, Western thought empha-
sizes “the self-conscious, self-indulgent, self-aggrandizing forms of
spiritual pursuit” (Suler, 1993, p. 11). Western ideas strongly empha-
size the active nature of the individual in constructing his or her own
identity and vision. This concept is reflected in the theories and meth-
ods of changing organizations, which are propounded by Western
scholars today, such as introduced in voluminous books and articles on
organization development (OD) and corporate organizational change.
Perhaps the most important commonality between Eastern and
Western thought is an emphasis on constructing the self in relationship
with others. Among Eastern philosophers, this idea is discussed by

Confucius, Lao Tze, and their disciples. The importance of human
relationships is also developed by Buddhism, phenomenology, and
humanistic psychology. The spiritual ideas of Buddhism, such as mutu-
al respect, harmony, compassion, and love, are similar to Husserl’s tran-
scendental phenomenological reduction (1966), Schutz’s “we-rela-
tions” (1967), Habermasian intersubjective ethics (1984 and 1990),
and Mead’s self in sociality.
Perhaps the most important idea from the East is an understand-
ing of the human mind and the interconnectivity of everything. In
order to resolve social and organizational problems, we have to start
within the human mind; Buddhist mental training is useful here. We
must look at the violence within ourselves, control it, and then tran-
scend it before we look at the violence outside. Thus the social con-
struction of possibilities begins with the self in relationship with oth-
ers. This idea is stressed by scholars from both the East and the West.
It is not my intention to simply integrate Eastern and Western
ideas into an understanding of organizational phenomena. As Suler
points out, the integration of ideas could degenerate into a form of
“Eurocentrism” or “Orientcentrism”: one ideology could be touted as
better at explaining human phenomena. It could be assumed that
Western concepts could cover all the bases (Suler, 1993, p. 13). Suler
points out, “[T]he most ideal form of integration encompasses a draw-
ing together from both sides simultaneously. It involves a fluid shifting
back and forth between interpretations from the East and interpreta-
tions from the West” (p. 183). In this process of exploring social, cul-
tural, and human contexts, we need to amplify the similarities as well
as understand the differences.
The postmodern view of the self is remarkably different from the
transcendental and transformative emphasis of the self as discussed in
this chapter. Although the critical analysis of text and power relation-
ships in organizations suggests some important insights into the
process of decentering the self from modern bureaucracy, the role of
the self, however, is grossly underestimated by French postmodernists.
In changing organizations, relating the individuals to the change
process is imperative because the individual members must learn the
meaning of change and be the participants, not necessarily through the
centralizing and converging of individual functions to meet organiza-
tional demands, but rather through the voluntary and participatory
means. This also implies that meaningful organizational change does

not occur without active involvement and contribution by organiza-
tional members.
THE SELF-REFLEXIVE INDIVIDUAL

IN A SOCIAL CONTEXT
According to existential phenomenology and existential psychology,

the self is constructed in part by self-reflexivity; that is, one’s own self
is viewed as an object of reflection and knowledge. Human beings have
a reflexive quality of examining our selves in relation to others. The self
is able to engage in the practice of reflexivity because an individual is a
self-conscious and self-questioning being who is “capable of formulat-
ing and reflecting on his or her means and ends of action” (Lash, 1993,
p. 202). In the everyday life of the self, an individual turns his or her
attention inward, reflecting on personal thoughts and experiences. In
turning inward, the individual questions his or her ways of being in the
world and is critically conscious of acting in a reflexive manner. A
reflexive act in this sense involves “psychological introspection” in
which “the self becomes object to itself, [and] consciousness is aware of
consciousness” (Carr, 1999, p. 85).
Reflexivity is a necessary practice for examining the everyday activ-
ities of public administrators in light of social context (including admin-
istrative situations), human interaction, criticism, and dialectic. When
public administrators reflect on their role in relationship to the situa-
tion, the culture, and the public, they seek to define the meaning of their
role performance contextually. They also interpret their responsibility
and construct the meaning of action in relation to significant others,
such as members of the organization, the public, and citizens. Their act
is critical in the sense of revealing negative and undesirable conse-
quences of enforcing particular policy or administrative procedures.
Thus reflexivity calls us to examine critically our own practices as
researchers, educators, and practitioners. Because public organizations
thrive on stability, it is interesting to see how deliberate destabilization
through incorporation of a reflexive process affects an organization and
the individuals trying to implement practical reflexivity.
As public administrators engage in social interactions, they may be
able to construct dialectical possibilities by placing their responsibility
into the larger contexts of society, citizens, and ethics. Reflexivity is

dialectical in the sense that it entails the exploration of alternatives
through understanding and overcoming the limits of institutional inad-
equacies as individuals engage in discourse with others intersubjectively.
If public administrators understand the limits of their theoretical stance,
politics, managerial approaches, or administrative practice, then they can
change those limits by considering the implications of using new ways to
change organizations. As administrators actively engage in a reflexive
process through dialogue with others in an organization, they open up
possibilities for emancipating themselves from their own assumptions,
biases, and procedures with regard to administrative practice. Reflexivity,
although an important faculty of the individual actor, is not easily prac-
ticed in an organization where distrust and fear are common.
Reflexivity helps an individual to see beyond presuppositions and
frameworks. In Being and Time, Heidegger sees reflexivity as “a posi-
tive means of showing the limitations of our previous outlook and of
moving beyond that outlook” (1962; Lawson, 1985, pp. 58–89;
Macann, 1993, pp. 56–109). In the same book, Heidegger discusses the
reflexive character of “Dasein” (the Being of man). He considers
Dasein to be different from the Being of all others, such as animals or
physical objects, in that reflexivity is the center of Dasein. Heidegger
argues that “existence is not an unquestioned simplicity but is an exis-
tence which owes the character of its existence to its own concern with
that existence” (Lawson, 1985, p. 71). As an existential phenomenolo-
gist, Heidegger considers the basic task of phenomenology to be
understanding, through reflexive engagement, the hidden aspects of
Being and the meaning of Being. Through a reflexive understanding of
Being, an individual can explore relationships and possibilities.
Because self-reflexivity requires critical thinking, it is a difficult and
demanding task. In an organization, people are accustomed to perform-
ing routine activities, which do not require a critical assessment of what
they do. They find themselves subject to both conscious and unconscious
pressures to act within and conform to the status quo. If one’s continued
employment, promotion, and pay raises depend upon meeting existing
system requirements and rules, then to question existing ways of doing
things can be an isolating activity. One can be accused of “not being a
team player,” or of “stirring up trouble.” Becoming self-reflexive and
being critical of organizational goals and practices—even the mere idea
of changing the bureaucracy—can cause anxiety and stress.
Given these drawbacks, what motivates people to be reflexive?

When an administrator wishes to be ethically responsible, to improve
his or her sense of self-worth, or to change the work environment, he
or she is likely to first engage in an activity of self-realization. This
means that the person attempts to understand himself or herself in
relationship to others and the organizational context through critical
self-reflexivity. Thus self-reflexivity is the acquired ability to question
one’s connection to oneself and to others. As people deeply engage in
the act of reflexivity, they begin to understand and to appreciate com-
plex relationships. In doing so, they recognize that they are active sub-
jects and begin to critically take circumstances into consideration
rather than merely react to them, to shape activities in a self-confirm-
ing manner in relationship to significant others.
Why is reflexivity crucial to social and administrative practice?
How does an individual practice reflexivity in the organization and the
community? This question grounds reflexivity in the everyday world of
administration. The social construction of self accepts the organiza-
tional phenomena that we are self in relation to others and emphasizes
our role in constructing realities and the need to involve others in its
construction. Reflexivity should not be practiced exclusively on an
intellectual and an individual basis: it consists of more than an individ-
ual examining his or her existence in the organizational world or cri-
tiquing knowledge and methods. Rather, reflexivity should be embed-
ded in lived experience and embrace the recognition that we construct
our social world as we interact with those around us. We draw on the
notion that as we live, work, and make sense of our world, we do so in
relationship to others and the otherness of our surroundings (Shotter
and Cunliffe, 2002). Therefore, in order to act in more responsive ways
and develop our intersubjective understandings, we need to engage in
dialogue that is critical, open, and self-reflexive. We also need to pay
attention to differences of ideas and experiences (Habermas, 1984;
Gouldner, 1970; Bourdieu, 1990; Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992).
THE SELF IN BUREAUCRACY
A bureaucracy is a rational construction of a structure of relationships

arranged hierarchically for the purpose of organizing human activity so
that it meets established goals. The fact that it is a rationalized and
instrumental construction, however, does not necessarily mean that an

organization performs rationally. What is rational is itself a construc-
tion that can be used by those in authority to determine the actions of
others. Nor does it mean that all activity within it yields rational con-
sequences or people behave in a rational manner. Bureaucratic actions,
like thoughts, do not derive their substance from some ultimate truth
or accomplishment: administrators’ claims to organizational legitima-
cy are based solely on how well they represent the organization’s con-
struction of reality. People inside and outside of bureaucracy lend legit-
imacy to a bureaucracy. Therefore bureaucratic actions may be consid-
ered rational insofar as such actions are consistent with the expecta-
tions of those in authority. In many non-Western countries, for exam-
ple, government bureaucracies with rampant corruption certainly do
not receive the support of citizens. People continue to accept these
depersonalizing institutions, however; this is largely because of the
power that government officials have over their lives. In this case, peo-
ple’s submission to authority is virtually inevitable, because from birth
they experience no alternative to hierarchy.
The relationship between the self and rigid bureaucracy is reinforc-
ing in mutually destructive ways. It is destructive to the individual
because the bureaucratic functionary must deny the feelings of power-
lessness and helplessness that are inherent consequences of bureaucrat-
ic practice. The psychological tension that is subsequently created from
continuous denial and repression of those feelings will seek relief. The
individual, marking the real world with mental constructs through
which the person can justify the commitment that was made to remain
in the bureaucracy, expresses such relief most commonly as unconscious
projections. In-as-much as the commitment was made in order to avoid
a crisis that would force the person either to leave the bureaucracy or to
confront it (risking the fear and anxiety that either choice would create),
the projections are real to the person. Consequently, those projections
are integrated into the person’s belief system, thereby rationalizing the
values that justify bureaucratic tasks as important to the organization,
the self, and society. But the belief in the significance of bureaucratic
tasks can only be viewed as delusional, because the newly organized
belief system is entrenched in denial and was, in fact, created to deflect
from the self the crisis of the aforementioned responsibility.
The bureaucracy is also, in the very process of consolidation or
expansion, destructive of itself. Consolidation is meant here as the
process of centralizing power within the bureaucracy; expansion means

the bureaucracy’s tendency to enlarge its scope and influence over the
social landscape. In time of economic prosperity, bureaucracy expands
its structure by introducing additional agencies and functions. As econ-
omy declines and government faces budget cuts, bureaucracy tends to
shrink its operations by consolidating structure and functions.
Although these processes are necessarily in reforming government
organizations, what is destructive about them is that they exist in con-
tradiction to each other, producing tensions that bureaucracies have
traditionally responded to with an almost instinctive surrender. Thus
resolution is not sought in a purging of the emotions but in terms of
greater repressive measures against the very subordinates on which it
must depend for its survival and in the maintenance of its goals. That
is why management must so often confront such issues as low worker
morale, layoffs, the need for service improvement, performance evalu-
ation, and disenchanted citizens who must face unhappy and disgrun-
tled public employees. If management were aware of the reciprocal
relationship between its repressive measures and the resultant conse-
quences (i.e., low morale and low productivity), then its actions would
perhaps be more constructive. Management might consider various
organizational changes, including participation and openness of dia-
logue, to remedy these problems.
Bureaucracy is premised on the belief that organizational members
will carry out their assigned tasks and functions and implement rules and
regulations properly. There is, however, no ontological basis for bureau-
cracy’s exclusive existence. There is no ontological reason why people’s
activities must be arranged hierarchically and why, therein, they must
suffer the indignity of having to acquiesce their identity in favor of an
organizational identity (Hummel, 1994, p. 11). Yet bureaucracies con-
tinue to exist, and people enter them, becoming unreflexive and uncriti-
cal beings and prisoners of their own reifications. Thus not only do those
people connected with a bureaucracy perceive it as a monolith; but those
same people have lost an awareness of themselves as motivated, creative
beings capable of dereifying or redesigning or even dismantling organi-
zations. Bureaucracies are creations of human interactions and assump-
tions: they do not exist independent of the self. Max Weber describes
only what people have created in their need for social organization.
Novels portray unreflexive (and unreflective) individuals and orga-
nizations. One of the most famous novels of this sort is The Trial by
Franz Kafka (1948), which depicts human life deteriorating into a

mere performance of organizational tasks that are devoid of justice,
humanness, or compassion. In The Trial, the arrest of Joseph K. is sud-
den and seems to him to be unjustified. Joseph K. believes that the
court is an utterly aimless, absurd institution, interested in condemn-
ing innocent victims while keeping them in ignorance of what action
is being brought against them. The novel is a satirical description of a
dehumanizing bureaucracy in which the hierarchical order is corrupt.
Bureaucrats have a very narrow concept of their work but insist upon
the importance of this work. It is, they believe, their duty to provide
efficient services: their technical rationality and accurate measurements
show their dedication to their profession. In The Trial, a lack of reflex-
ivity turns individuals into uncritical functionaries in a rigid bureau-
cracy. Obedient functionaries carry out the routine work of a bureau-
cracy. An extreme example of this lack of reflexivity is seen in the activ-
ities of Nazi bureaucrats, who were technically efficient, blindly loyal,
and uncritical human beings (Arendt, 1964; Adams and Balfour,
1998). Today most organizations in democratic societies are not like
the one described by Kafka. Members, clients, and customers of large
organizations, however, are made to feel marginalized and possibly
dehumanized from time to time.
The following case of a Japanese bureaucrat who was blindly com-
mitted to rules of a bureaucracy illustrates how one can lose a sense of
compassion and caring for citizens. The case involves the death of a
seventy-nine-year-old widow who suffered from hypertension. The
summer of 1994 was unusually hot in the central part of Japan.
According to the Asahi-Shimbun (a major newspaper), the woman was
living in a tiny house that had a tin roof and faced the southeast. She
was living alone on her late husband’s small pension and on govern-
ment assistance. On July 9, 1994, a government employee from the
local social welfare agency in Okegawa paid a routine visit to her house
and discovered that she owned an air conditioner. The public servant
ordered her to remove the air conditioner immediately, because it was
considered a luxury item according to the welfare guidelines estab-
lished by the central government. To make sure that they were acting
correctly, the government employee’s office called the central govern-
ment in Tokyo and received the order to follow the rules specified in
the administrative guidance established by the Central Social Welfare
Department. Despite her pleas to the city social welfare office to be
allowed to keep the air conditioner, officials there ordered her to

remove it, advising her to exchange it for some other household appli-
ance. Fearful of losing her welfare assistance, she went to the nearby
electrical appliance shop and exchanged it for a rice cooker. When, on
July 18, 1994, the temperature inside her house reached over 104
degrees, she tried to cool off by opening the refrigerator door. She was,
however, unable to cope with the heat wave and finally was hospital-
ized for six weeks to recover from dehydration and malnourishment.
When she was discharged from the hospital, the kind electrical appli-
ance shop owner loaned her an air conditioner. Despite the compassion
shown by her neighbors, she died shortly afterward.
This kind of bureaucratic behavior is not unique to Japan; rather,
it occurs in many countries. Frequently, bureaucrats must obey the
orders and rules established by the central authorities, because they do
not have the autonomy to exercise their own discretion. The case of
Okegawa did much to convince policymakers in Japan to revise the
implementation of social welfare policy by transferring some central
government functions to the local level. However, neither the local nor
the central government public servants showed compassion for the old
woman. They were blindly interpreting the regulations, even though
the guidelines did not specify that an air conditioner was a luxury item.
When the death of the woman became public news, no one in the
social welfare agency took responsibility. Instead, government employ-
ees blamed the ambiguous rules and guidelines. Clearly, they did not
exercise autonomy and critical reflexivity: they did not examine the
established rules in the context of the needs of another human being.
It is my contention that if people wish to change such dehumaniz-
ing activities, then they need to engage in reflexive practice, questioning
how they relate to their surroundings, to others, and to their knowledge
of the world. A reflexive person in a bureaucracy is existentially serious
in the sense that he or she tries to understand the limitations and deper-
sonalizing aspects of bureaucracy and to overcome them. As Kiros
points out, “[T] he existentially serious individual is painfully aware of
the existential fact and comports his or her entire desire toward the real-
ization of [a] self-imposed goal” (1998, p. 185). The self-reflexive indi-
vidual does not simply work in the organization: routine work is not
enough. Instead, this person is existentially serious about his or her life
in a bureaucracy and explores ways of understanding and interpreting
paradoxical aspects of the bureaucracy, such as stability and flexibility,
control and autonomy, power and powerlessness, voice and silence, con-
formity and caring, and domination and empowerment.
Bureaucratic culture encourages unreflexive action, and its focus on
rationality, efficiency, and the administrator (and manager) as authori-
tative expert can lead to the justification of inhumane action. Managers
and administrators become “morally-neutral technicians” (MacIntyre,
1981) in which the goal is often to protect the interests of the self and
the institution rather than to serve the public first. Employees are “nor-
malized” into acceptable practice, the “right way of doing things” (even
though they may personally disagree), and rational criteria for making
decisions. Unreflexive actions, especially when grounded in a techno-
rational culture, objectify people as costs and benefits and allow us to
justify our decisions as experts who serve the interests of the organiza-
tion. Socio-ontological resources are ignored in the drive to ensure that
rules are followed; officials do not use their discretion to make a
humane choice. Self-reflexivity calls upon us to challenge these taken-
for-granted practices and think about morally responsible choices.
CONCLUSION
Undertaking a cross-cultural dialogue on concepts of the self may help

one clarify social and cultural difficulties in one’s own tradition, while
at the same time broadening one’s understanding of a different tradi-
tion. For example, when one learns a foreign language, takes a class on
foreign history and culture, or lives in another culture, one’s perspective
on one’s own native language, culture, and life experience is deepened
and expanded. In the same way, comparing Eastern and Western views
of self enhances one’s self-reflexivity, helping one to examine how one’s
own activities are socially constructed.
For those who believe in a clear separation between the self and
external things, such as between the self and citizens, the community,
institutions, society, nature, or the world, problematic boundaries can
be ignored or controlled. But those who do not believe in a rigid sep-
aration—as established in Taoism—work hard to transcend boundary
restrictions. Accordingly, public administrators who do not see an
intersubjective relationship between the administration and the public,
between objectivity and subjectivity, or between management and
employees maintain a separation between themselves and external
things, working only within their primary boundary. Others try to go

beyond their immediate psychological and administrative spheres,
moving into the social and public spheres. As Lao Tze suggests, they
raise the practical question of how to search for possible unity and how
to live.
Only consciously aware individuals who are reflexive and willing to
experiment with different means for transcending the self, as suggest-
ed by Confucian teaching and Western virtue theorists, can practice
the virtuous character of the individual. It is not enough to have virtues
as individual moral ideals: we must facilitate the process of turning
these ideals into responsible conduct, not just for the individual moral
agent but also for the whole organization. In contemporary public
administration, the dimensions of bureaucracy have become more
important than the concerns of individuals. A missing element or a
weak link is a focus on the importance of the self in relationship to oth-
ers and the community. Administrative organizations tend to isolate
individuals by treating them as passive, reactive humans. But when we
perceive people as self-transcending or self-actualizing social beings
who are capable of exercising self-reflexivity and interpretation, and
who have the potential to learn and to change, we see that the self is a
most important agent for changing relationships and for overcoming
the tendency of bureaucracy to depersonalize its actions and for people
to be narrow-minded.
The social construction of organizational reality rejects the duality
of administrative phenomena. Instead, it considers both sides of a
problem, such as the objective view and the subjective view. Shunning
duality, it embraces relationships, interdependence, reciprocity, and
dialectic. These ideas can be seen in both the Eastern view and the
Western view of social reality. Moreover, both Eastern and Western
public administration must find ways to improve organizational gover-
nance without sacrificing the unique individuality or autonomy of each
person. Public administrators must facilitate the process of changing
organizations by relating the organization and the individual, the
administration and citizens, and objectivity and subjectivity, rather
than separating them. They must learn the problems and learn the val-
ues of organizational members and citizens if they are to comprehend
their responses to changes that originate with the administration.
CHAPTER 8
The Social Construction

of Ethical Responsibility
Many administrative responsibilities with which the public adminis-

trator is charged are fundamentally ethical in context. In public admin-
istration, however, there is an increasing tendency to assume that the
“reality” of the administrative context renders ethical and moral con-
siderations old-fashioned, even ludicrous. Time pressures, political
considerations, tight deadlines, complexity, harassment from supervi-
sors, demands from clients and the public, and scrutiny by the media
are explanations cited to justify behavior that is merely expedient or as
Herbert Simon describes it “satisficing.” The consideration of the
ethics of everyday administrative decision making is sometimes made
to seem pathetic or softheaded.
Public administrators frequently emphasize their administrative
functions too much as they work to meet their organizational oblig-
ations and perform their assigned tasks. Ethical questions often
interfere with their commitment to efficiency and productivity. In all
problem-solving situations in which administrators are involved,
however, ethical judgments are inherent. The ethical side of public
administration demands responsible performance, both individually
and collectively, of all aspects of the administrative role. This must
become an immutable professional commitment that goes far beyond
simply applying established rules or a prescribed code of ethics. Terry
Cooper points out that “responsibility is the key concept in develop-
ing an ethic for the administrative role” (1998, p. 65). And yet para-
doxically, a public administrator often faces situations that require a
personal decision about what is right and wrong, obligation to the
organization as opposed to responsibility to the self, good and evil,
and justice and injustice (Harmon, 1995). Despite the complex
nature of ethics in the public service, public administrators can never
escape the ethics of administration because of their responsibility to
the public that they serve.
177
This chapter emphasizes that the social construction of ethics is

important for public administrators because in the pluralistic work
environment, people must come up with the appropriate actions to
take, concerning problematic issues. Alan Wolfe points out in his dis-
cussion of the social construction of morality that “individuals create
their own moral rules through the social interactions they experience
with others” (1989, p. 212). Thus the meaning of ethical responsibility
is shaped either through the individual formulating the right thing to
do in a conflict-ridden situation or through the individual interacting
and communicating his or her view with others, who may or may not
share the same view. Ethical choice is socially constructed by reflecting
on an ongoing process of individual self-cultivation and self-constitu-
tion. My premise in this chapter is based on the belief that no society
(or community) can flourish without civic virtue. A public conception
of autonomy is not only political, in the Rawlsian sense, but also social.
John Rawls points out,
[Citizens] are prepared to offer one another fair terms of social coop-
eration (defined by principles and ideals) and they agree to act on
those terms, even at the cost of their own interests in particular situ-
ations, provided that others also accept those terms. (1993, p. xliv)
The need for a public conception of autonomy goes beyond the

liberal view of private interests and is related to the role of citizens in
a civil society. Policy makers and managers have the responsibility to
empower organizational members to develop a sense of autonomy (or
self-rule) as well as to facilitate a shared understanding of values.
THE ETHICAL DILEMMA OF THE

RESPONSIBLE ADMINISTRATOR
The problems posed by the “organization ethic,” political pressures, polit-

ical favors, and whistle-blowing present a dilemma for public employees
as they are concerned with organizational obligation, political influence
from the external environment, and responsibility for the public.
The Organization Ethic

The prime tenet of traditional organizational life is to put loyalty and
team play above personal conscience. William H. Whyte calls this “the
The Social Construction of Ethical Responsibility 179
organization ethic,” and it normally has a strong effect on organization

members (1965). The organization ethic demands loyalty and accep-
tance of institutional tactics and policies in return for companionship,
security, advancement, and the shared adventure of the common enter-
prise. This ethic is dominant in most organizations. As a result, indi-
viduals may come to believe that not only do they merely work for or
with the organization but also that they belong to it and depend on it
for meaning and identity. The longer a person is employed by an orga-
nization, the harder it becomes for her to jeopardize her job or leave
her job. If she did, she might have to give up her income, status, retire-
ment plan, and fringe benefits.
Leaders sometimes demand loyalty that is blind and unquestion-
ing: conformity in every detail. The “loyal” member becomes the “yes
person,” the sycophant who is more determined to display his personal
loyalty than to deal critically with difficult issues. A member may con-
form because he is truly loyal or because he fears for his job or reputa-
tion if he does not conform. But whatever his motivation, the organi-
zation ethic demands an outward show of loyalty, which is manifested
in conformity. In his study of executive task forces, Irving Janis con-
cludes, “In a sense, members consider loyalty to the group the highest
form of morality” (1972, p. 12). Edward Weisband and Thomas Franck
note, “Being right is no excuse for disloyalty to the team.” They give
the example of the member of the tribal council who insists on shout-
ing, “The dam is out,” when the chief has said that the dam is safe. The
member is in trouble either way. If the dam is safe, he will look ridicu-
lous and be chased into the desert. If it is crumbling, he will probably
drown with everyone else—unless he has already been stoned to death
for confronting the chief, who is the embodiment of the tribe’s collec-
tive wisdom. This is truly a “no win” situation (1975, pp. 3, 6).
The kind of loyalty demanded of team players does not allow much
constructive dissent—only a little from within. Organizational leaders
often demand full suppression of public signs of disenchantment and
view with disfavor anyone who is almost totally loyal. They demand
total loyalty. (The blind loyalists to Richard Nixon during the Water-
gate scandal displayed such a behavior.) A few public officials have
resigned as a form of mild protest, hoping to inform the public with-
out offending the organization. They have generally ended up accom-
plishing neither, and they usually have not been called back into pub-
lic service.
The Connection between Politics and Business
Unethical behavior by public officials is often a product of our plural-

istic political system; in the private sector, such behavior stems from
greed generated by entrepreneurial opportunities. The problem is espe-
cially prevalent in the business world, where competitive pressure and
desire for profit make bribery, payoffs, misrepresentation, short-cuts,
and other questionable behaviors more likely; but it is increasingly evi-
dent in the public sector as well. Far more than business executives,
public officials have felt the sting of such labels as “unrealistic,” “starry-
eyed,” or “idealistic” for insisting on equity or morality in critical situ-
ations. In a world where most power is held by elected representatives,
and where such representatives must secure reaffirmation from their
constituents every two, four, or six years, there is much pressure for
conspicuous effectiveness and short-term achievement in administra-
tive agencies. Thus public officials are pressured into implementing
“quick and dirty” solutions and extending favors to business leaders,
often at the price of bypassing ethical norms and forfeiting professional
standards.
Big corporations have great wealth and power, and they strongly
influence the policies that shape American society. Often this influence
is contrary to the public interest. Some years ago, Neil Jacoby made five
allegations against big business that continue to be relevant (1973, pp.
10–15). First, corporations exercise economic control over the private
sector by shaping economic policies to suit their own needs. Second,
corporations exert political control by buying into political campaigns;
by controlling the judicial system, which exonerates corporate crimes;
and by gaining privileged access to the democratic process. Third, big
business policies are controlled by a power elite: the role of the share-
holders is largely ceremonial. Fourth, corporations dehumanize their
employees by stifling their individuality and ignoring their civil rights.
Fifth, corporations degrade the environment and our quality of life by
polluting, exhausting natural resources, and focusing on profitability
without examining the side effects of these profits on the public. All of
these concerns suggest the need for a broader, clearer statement on the
matter of ethics in official behavior, in both the private and public sec-
tors. The recent cases of corporate corruption, involving such U.S. cor-
porations as Enron, MCI, and Tyco demonstrate the unethical and
greedy motives of executives in those companies, who disregard the
public interest. In most Asian countries, business leaders have always

influenced government officials; they are allowed to quietly pull strings
because of their financial contributions to politicians and parties. The
uncovering of corruption in South Korea in 2003 resulted in the
indictment of high-level politicians—of both the ruling and the oppo-
site parties—who received large cash contributions from business.
Some significant results of this scandal were that the corrupt politi-
cians were not reelected in the 2004 national election and that the con-
sciousness of voters was raised regarding democratic government.
Political Machines and Dirty Hands
Many large cities in the Eastern United States were, by the end of the
nineteenth century, governed by an organizational phenomenon
known as the political machine. Used by Democrats and Republicans
alike, the political machine was generally found under a strong-
elected-mayor type of municipal government and featured city hall to
precinct organization and communication, down to the block and even
tenement level. Through district, precinct, and block leaders, the polit-
ical party in power saw to it that the needs of constituents were read-
ily met. Whether people needed a job, a loan, a place to live after a fire,
or help with the courts, the machine accommodated them (Riordan,
1963, pp. xi–xvi). In addition, newly arrived immigrants, reaching
American cities in great numbers during this period, were aided and,
to some extent, enculturated more rapidly through political machines.
All of this was given with only one thing asked in return: that the ben-
eficiaries give their votes to candidates of the political machine.
One of the most effective political machines of this era was New
York City’s Tammany Hall, headquarters of the Democratic Party and
the seat of almost continuous political power from 1854 until 1934
(Riordan, 1963, p. x). Like other political organizations of its type and
time, Tammany Hall dispensed favors and made loans to constituents;
sent representatives to weddings, christenings, and funerals; nominated
candidates for city officers (including the mayor); and presided over
patronage for political jobs. Political machines administered the “spoils
system” on the local level, presided over an early welfare system, and
helped to educate many citizens about the intricacies of representative
government (ibid., p. xix). Despite these quasihumanitarian activities,
the political machines’ negative activities were often excessive and
brought about their eventual demise. When George Washington

Plunkitt, New York state senator and longtime Tammany Hall politi-
cal leader, died in 1924, Nation magazine summed up his political
credo by stating that he understood that in politics, honesty does not
matter, efficiency does not matter, and progressive vision does not mat-
ter. What matters is the chance to get a better job, a better price for
wheat, or better business conditions (Ibid., p. xx). Because of their
excesses, the political machines of Tammany Hall and other American
cities eventually gave way to reform governments. With the demise of
Mayor Richard Daley’s machine in Chicago in the 1970s, there
appears to be no large U.S. city with such an organization still intact.
However, ethics violations can and still do take place, although in a
reduced and less organized fashion.
A similar evaluation might be made of politicians in less industri-
alized and industrialized countries in Asia. The abilities that enabled
the politicians of ruling parties in particular to curry favors, win elec-
tions, and dispense patronage did not lend themselves readily to social
vision; like Tammany Hall, ruling political parties in Asian countries
abuse the tremendous power at their disposal because they have no
goal for justice, social change, or serving the public good. Particularly
in developing countries, authoritarian governments have a tendency to
create their own ethics. Justifying whatever they do with self-serving
rationales is a regular feature of both government bureaucrats and
politicians. Too often political leaders everywhere display an “ends jus-
tify the means” philosophy that marks them as inadvertent disciples of
Machiavelli. Michael Walzer notes that not many politicians are suc-
cessful in politics “without getting [their] hands dirty” (1973). In fact,
public officials often commit crimes deliberately and systematically.
The Problem of Whistle-blowing
Public employees who discover that the agency they work for is violat-
ing the trust of the people it is supposed to serve face an ethical
dilemma. Do they go public and blow the whistle, offering information
to the media? Do they attempt to correct the agency’s unethical con-
duct internally? Or do they remain quiet out of loyalty to the group and
to protect their jobs? Over the years, public employees in both Eastern
and Western countries have not tended to express publicly their mis-
givings about public policies and public agency conduct. Why is this
so? Largely because political and administrative systems have tradi-

tionally fostered “conformity rather than conviction.” In particular,
bureaucratic organizations emphasize group loyalty rather than indi-
vidual accountability; they reward people for their willingness to play
the organizational game (Weisband and Franck, 1975).
Deena Weinstein describes whistle-blowing as a form of “bureau-
cratic opposition” exercised by those who do not have any authority to
change bureaucratic policy. She assumes that not all individuals work-
ing in the bureaucracy are blindly loyal to management, that some have
not lost sight of who they are. According to her description of these
individuals, whistle-blowers tend to “act on motives that are not rooted
in fear, resentment, or selfish enjoyment. [They are] able to question
the prevailing ‘definition of the situation’ and to act on their critical
insight” (1979).
There are, of course, strategies for whistle-blowing (Hirshman,
1970; Nader, 1972). The whistle-blower can be overt or covert. Advan-
tages of the latter course include protection from arbitrary dismissal,
reassignment, or loss of income while the matter is investigated and
resolved. Or the whistle-blower may instead choose to resign and make
the case from the outside. He or she may hold a press conference, mak-
ing a public statement about the basis for the resignation or launching
an attack on the perceived wrongdoing. In the film China Syndrome,
Jack Lemmon portrays the ethical dilemma of an engineer who rejects
blind loyalty to management and coworkers; instead, he establishes an
alliance with a TV reporter and a camera operator. In U.S. public
administration, there have been numerous whistle-blowing cases, con-
cerning cost overruns of defense contracts, the violation of environmen-
tal regulations by industries, and the mismanagement of public funds.
Whistle-blowers may work through outside contacts, leaking
charges to the public. This is less popular, as a rule, than more overt
expression, preferably within the organization. To bring an allegation to
the attention of top management is considered the most honorable
approach, if such a channel can be opened. The creation of an atmos-
phere of ethical responsibility implies exhausting potential solutions
within the organization before going public or seeking outside aid. This
fits within the “exhaustion of remedies” rules in the codes of many gov-
ernment agencies. It helps avoid the multidimensional costs of public
hearings, litigation, and scandal. Ordinarily, individual employees who
have evidence of unethical conduct by their superiors or peers do not
have to go to the press or other external channels. In the United States,

the protection of legitimate whistle-blowers in the federal government
began during the Carter administration. For example, after passage of
the Civil Service Reform Act of 1979, an Office of Inspector General
was established in each cabinet-level agency. This office investigates
charges without revealing the identity of the whistle-blower and reports
results of the investigation to the whistle-blower. Furthermore, federal
agencies may be required to conduct investigations and prepare reports
on the substance of complaints made by whistle-blowers.
Whistle-blowing is rare in Asian countries. Additionally, there are
no strong forces, either inside or outside the public bureaucracy, that
act as a vigilant and countervailing force to the excesses of corporations
or politicians. Furthermore, the media and civil society organizations
in all Asian countries are relatively weak, too weak to act as agents of
social change by supporting whistle-blowers. The traditional organiza-
tion ethic in those countries is such that employees remain silent when
they perceive the organization to be involved in corruption, graft, mis-
management, or other harmful activities. Dissenters (or wave makers)
are more likely to be ostracized than applauded; they are more likely to
be thought quitters, betrayers, or heretics than people of principle. No
laws protect whistle-blowers in Asian countries. Under the protection
of the basic rights of citizens, people may go to the public to disclose
an agency’s unethical activity, but the burden of taking a course of legal
action discourages people from whistle-blowing.
The Economist reported that during the first half of 2004, twenty-
one thousand new corruption cases in China—an increase of nearly 7
percent over the previous year—were investigated. The Chinese offi-
cials fighting corruption have no protection from the government and
even receive death threats from the targets of their investigations. A
county-level Communist Party chief from Fujian province published
an open letter of his agitating story on the website of the People’s Daily,
explaining a death threat faced as he deeply probed into a corrupt rede-
velopment project. As a result, not only was he confronted with the
problem of getting cooperation from other officials, but also his supe-
riors accused him of “making a grave political mistake by publishing his
letter, violating party discipline and threatening social stability” (Sep-
tember 4–10, 2004, p. 43).
In Japan, whistle-blowing is very rare: the culture frowns upon
anyone who reveals the unethical conduct of his or her colleagues,
his or her superior, or a government agency or who exposes ineffi-

cient administrative services. The administrative culture of Japanese
bureaucracy puts its emphasis on employee loyalty, obligation, and
conformity. Group harmony is encouraged; individualism, diversity,
and critical reflexivity are discouraged ( Jun and Muto, 1995, p. 133):
“The nail that sticks out must be pounded down.” Masao Miyamoto,
M.D., completed his postgraduate work in psychiatry in the United
States and worked as the deputy director of the Mental Health Divi-
sion of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, at a Japanese national
government agency. He has been the most incisive critic of Japanese
bureaucracy and has contributed numerous essays to a leading news-
paper, Asahi Shimbun. In response to an article he wrote titled “The
Nail That Sticks Too Far Out Can’t Be Pounded Down,” a con-
cerned reader wrote to him: “[Y]ou should know that bureaucrats
immersed in the philosophy of self-sacrifice for the organization
look on criticism with a jaundiced eye. They are not to be trifled
with. And they may well decide that a nail like you should be pulled
out. Please, be careful” (Miyamoto, 1994, p. 190). Because he persis-
tently hinders the behavioral norm (acceptable behavior) of a con-
servative bureaucracy, he was demoted to a dead-end job as quaran-
tine director at the port of Kobe, which is far away from Tokyo;
several years later, he was fired from his post for criticizing Japan’s
bureaucracy to an audience at the National Press Club in Washing-
ton, D.C. Until recently, the Japanese government has done nothing
to protect whistle-blowers. In late 2003, Premier Koizumi’s admin-
istration drafted a bill to protect whistle-blowers and invited public
review to improve its content.
In public administration in both Eastern and Western countries,
opposition to one’s superior may result in the loss of one’s career, plus
a serious break in relationships with one’s peers. When a public
employee feels powerless against higher authority, he or she hesitates
to speak up, even if the unethical behavior of a superior or peer may
cause great harm to the public. Moving to a position of ethical
responsibility requires a public administrator to speak out to the pub-
lic and to organizational leadership. When an employee becomes a
whistle-blower in defense of the public good, he or she does not act
out of selfishness. Many Japanese think that Miyamoto is a brave
man, a hero: he had the personal integrity to stand up to Japan’s pub-
lic bureaucracy.
CONSTRUCTING ETHICS IN ORGANIZATIONS
Ethics influence the purposive behavior of public administrators

because their motivations and actions involve an interpretation and
understanding of the situation that requires ethical judgment. For this
reason, the ethical responsibility of public administrators cannot be
value-free or positivistic. In a positivistic view, the ethical behavior of
individuals is prescribed in terms of an organization’s idea of ethics and
language. Organizations (for example, government agencies) demand
ethics from employees in terms of expected duties and obligations.
What is required in situations involving ethical practice is prescribed in
laws and ethical codes without considering the experiences or practices
of individuals.
Although there is a substantial dichotomy between organizational
obligation and individual responsibility, in the ethical life of public
administrators, the dichotomy between objective responsibility and
subjective responsibility is ambiguous because the conditions that are
responsible for organizational obligation depend on the actions of indi-
viduals. The requirement that a public administrator should behave in
accordance with established laws and a code of ethics is only one of the
many elements that the administrator can consider. The administrator
may see other elements, such as compassion, caring, communication,
and integrity, as equally important in making an ethical judgment.
An Objective View of Ethical Responsibility
Objective responsibility imposed by the organization is one of the most

common ways in which administrators experience problems in defining
their responsibility. Objective responsibility arises from legal, organiza-
tional, and societal demands on the role performance of public admin-
istrators (Cooper, 1998, pp. 66–78). Expectations are imposed from the
outside and encapsulate a dual dimension of accountability and organi-
zational obligation. All objective responsibility involves responsibility to
someone, such as superiors, elected officials, or citizens. Organizational
obligations also include a responsibility to accomplish goals through
assigned tasks and functions. A code of ethics is the major form of
external control, as it represents values collectively imposed on individ-
uals by organizations and professional associations. This approach
attempts to project ideals, norms, and obligations for particular profes-
sional groups and is supposed to be customized to the particular situa-

tions of a profession. The limitations of a code of ethics are that it is
vague and abstract and can be difficult to apply to specific situations
where ethical guidance is needed (p. 152). Moreover, a code of ethics
lacks incentives for adherence, so an administrator could still make
unethical decisions. When a code is vague, interpretations can differ
widely. Therefore, a code of ethics is harder to implement than a law
because of a lack of enforcement mechanisms, sanctions, or adherence.2
External control establishes limits, requirements, boundaries, stan-
dards, and sanctions to govern the operation of organizations.
Although external controls call for the enforcement of laws and codes
of ethics, administrators will have a difficult time adhering to those
laws and ethical guidelines without exercising a degree of internal con-
trols that depends on subjective judgment. Objective responsibility
through the use of external control assumes that once ethical demands
are legislated and become laws, administrators can no longer exercise
their personal discretion in applying their own values to situations.
Instead, they are coerced by sanctions to engage in certain types of con-
duct (Cooper, 1998, p. 141). When people attempt to cling to the
enforcement of external rules and regulations, they become increas-
ingly bureaucratic and depersonalizing to their clients.
Laws and ethical codes are generally prescribed in “the language of
universals” that assumes the universal quality of professional obligation
(Rohr, 1998, pp. 9–15), and they must be viewed as instruments that
complete the process of creating ethically responsible conduct. In order
to make a law or code meaningful, however, the enforcement must
depend upon an individual’s ethical reflection and critical conscious-
ness. Objective criteria are an abstraction of the presumed behavior of
people in organizations, not the behavior itself. The implementation of
a law or code of ethics is contingent upon the compliance of people
who are expected to act morally in conducting organizational work. For
example, most governments in Asia have laws that specify severe pun-
ishment of those who engage in corrupt behavior, but corruption in the
public sector is still rampant, except in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and
Singapore. Thus the eradication of corruption requires not only tough
laws but, more important, depends upon changes in culture, behavior,
transparency, and raising the level of the quality of life (Quah, 2003).
An emphasis on objective responsibility takes a macrolevel
approach to ethics (see Table 8.1), which is generally based on an
TABLE 8.1
Perspectives on Ethical Responsibility
Responsibility Level of emphasis Constitution of ethics Assumptions about human nature
Objective Macro strategy: an emphasis Legalistic and institutional The situated self: passive being and
responsibility on communitarianism; demands: laws, rules, ethical malleable; acting on organizational
loyalty and obligation codes; role performance; interests; not challenging rules;
accountability to authority self-aware of functional responsibility
Social construction Meso strategy: an emphasis Social interaction: communicative The social self: engaging in
of responsibility on self-transcendence, action; dialogue, and discourse; interpersonal relations; possibility of
virtues, and relationships working toward intersubjectivity; reshaping the future by moral
cultural influence on moral character; concerns; a self through participation
social experiences in cultural context in the social process with others
Subjective Micro strategy: an emphasis Interpretation and understanding of The moral self; moral conscience:
responsibility on individualism, the self, ethical issues: critical consciousness; actively constructing self-identity;
autonomy, and discretion individual praxis; integrity and reflexive and interpretive capability;
self-cultivation; relativity of against the universalization of
moral practice morality
assumption that human nature is passive, reactive, and malleable. Peo-

ple should be subordinate to universal rules and organizational goals.
The behavior of people working in a large bureaucracy is conditioned
by the organizational culture. It is the individual’s responsibility to con-
form to established rules and regulations. The individual should follow
a prescribed course of action rather than considering constructive alter-
natives to a problematic situation. William Whyte describes this type
of individual as an “organization man” (1965). An organization man
avoids conflicts and does not challenge procedures or programs. He
seeks constancy and predictability, enforces poor procedures as well as
good ones, is not interested in innovation or creativity, and is good at
maintaining the status quo and order in the workplace. This type of
manager exhibits loyalty to the organization and, in turn, demands loy-
alty from subordinates.
The limitations of objective responsibility and external controls are
uncovered in order to demonstrate the ways in which they lack an eth-
ical basis and how, ultimately, an individual’s reflexive and subjective
judgment is needed.
The Ethical Self and Subjective Responsibility
Administrative activities and decisions that affect citizens may be

reduced to a situation of individual ethical choice. Because ethics can-
not be separated from the function of the individual self, such as con-
sciousness, values, cultural experiences, and motivation, ethical respon-
sibility is incomprehensible to a public administrator who considers
only objective requirements. A public administrator develops a profes-
sional ethic through personal experience, organizational role, and the
socialization process inside and outside the organization. Subjective
responsibility is the building block of an ethical disposition, as an indi-
vidual is compelled by his or her conscience to act in a particular way.
Although objectivity informs a person that he or she must meet legal
and organizational demands, it is a person’s inner drive—composed of
beliefs, values, and character—that compels him or her to act in certain
ways (Cooper, 1998, pp. 78–84). When an individual works in an orga-
nization, he or she learns a sense of ethical behavior. An individual’s
ethics are therefore always tinged with his or her subjective judgment.
For this reason, an administrator’s actions in an organization may be
enigmatic when she or he is faced with a choice between objective
responsibility to the organization and her or his subjective interpreta-

tion of how to act. Thus the question of ethics is often reduced to a
question that only the individual or the organization can answer.
According to Hans Jonas, the main obstacle to an adequate theory of
ethical responsibility is scientific materialism (material prosperity in
the technological age) that denies the reality of actors, subjects, or
minds (1984). In order to construct a new ethics of responsibility, we
must pay attention to the very ontological possibility of subjectivity or
mind: that is to return to the immediate experience of our selves and
our world.
The subjective perspective with regard to the interpretive view of
action, which is discussed in chapter 6, primarily emphasizes the
experiences and perceptions of the individual. Ethics must be subjec-
tively made meaningful by “creating sense-making” (Allan, 1998).
Weber insists that social reality depends upon the actions of individ-
ual actors, that is, the subjective meaning of the actor in bureaucracy.
When we apply Schutz’s phenomenological view of the life-world to
the administrative context, we see that what is important in making
an ethical choice is subjective meanings of ethical concerns (Schutz,
1967). The problem of subjective responsibility and action can be
illustrated in terms of the 2004 episode involving the U.S. treatment
of prisoners of War in Iraq. The violation of human rights involving
the inhumane treatment of Iraqi prisoners by some U.S. soldiers, as
disclosed in despicable photographs, demonstrates that despite the
treaty signed at the Geneva Convention to protect the rights of pris-
oners, soldiers ignored the law and deliberately committed atrocities,
even deriving some satisfaction out of their inhumane acts. It is not
acceptable to say that the soldiers were just following the orders of
higher authority or acting according to established procedures. In
recent years, we have witnessed numerous atrocities involving wars
and ethnic conflicts.
Hannah Arendt succinctly summarizes the moral conscience of the
individual during the Nazi Holocaust, resisting social solidarity and
believing in personal integrity, as follows:
[H]uman beings may be capable of telling right from wrong
even when all they have to guide them is their own judgment, which,
moreover, happens to be completely at odds with what they must
regard as the unanimous opinion of all those around them. Those
few who were still able to tell right from wrong went really only by
their own judgments, and they did so freely; there were no rules to
be abided by . . . because no rules existed for the unprecedented.
(1964, pp. 294–95; also cited in Bauman, 1993, p. 249)
Zygmunt Bauman, in his book Postmodern Ethics, stresses that because

“moral responsibility is precisely the act of self-constitution,” any
attempt to move from the moral self to the social self (or the situated
self ) would diminish the individual’s sense of moral responsibility
(1993, p. 14).
The micro approach to subjective responsibility assumes that
human nature is reflexive, critical, interpretive, and self-constituting
(see Table 8.1). Contrary to the general observation of the macro view
of responsibility, people do not always act according to the prescribed
law, a code of ethics, or administrative procedures. Because an organi-
zation consists of individual members whose behavior is unpredictable
because of their interpretation of a situation and because of personal
judgment, ethical judgment derives from individual interpretation and
action first. The ethically responsible administrator is concerned with
arriving at a justifiable course of action; thus the individual struggles
with problems, rather than merely memorizing rules or a code of ethics
dictated by the organization. The administrator may discover that a
good judgment requires not only critical self-reflection, but also per-
sonal instinct (Harmon, 1995, pp. 79–96).3 And although ethics are
important guidelines for administrative action, an administrator’s per-
sonal sentiment, consideration of others, integrity, and reflexive ability
to make judgments are also important.
The internal necessity that is required for us to arrive at more con-
scious and critical ways of thinking occurs through the process of self-
reflexivity (Harmon, 1995, 79–88; Cunliffe and Jun, 2005). Self-reflex-
ivity can lead administrators to more critical, responsible, and ethical
actions. Administrators need to practice reflexivity in order to ade-
quately assess the moral possibilities of a course of action and also to
think more systematically about the values that are embedded in the
choices that we would otherwise make on practical or political grounds
alone. Self-reflexivity requires individuals to think critically as they draw
from their own experiences; they must begin with the self in order to
arrive at sound, objective decisions. Through this process, they critically
examine how they relate to others and negotiate on an external level,
and they consciously examine the limitations of their ethical choice.
From the Ethical Self to Social Construction
The social construction of ethical responsibility realizes that there are

reciprocal interactions among the administrator, society, culture, orga-
nization, and citizens. Learning ethical responsibility is dialectical in
the sense that the organization and society can influence the individ-
ual through accepted cultural norms and expectations, just as the indi-
vidual can influence the organization and society through his or her
self-constitution and changing relationships. Learning ethical respon-
sibility is an ongoing process of interaction among people through
externalization, objectification, and internalization (Berger and Luck-
mann, 1966) within the cultural context (Allan, 1998, pp. 37–59).
To a large extent, ethical behavior is different from moral charac-
ter, although this phenomenon varies from culture to culture. In East-
ern countries in particular, where traditional values influence many
aspects of a person’s moral life, individuals learn how to behave appro-
priately in different social contexts. Public administrators in Asian
countries tend to behave differently from administrators in the United
States because of what is socially acceptable behavior in those coun-
tries. Language is used differently in organizational relationships to
distinguish a person’s relationship to another party; the ways in which
individuals in Japan, South Korea, and China interact and communi-
cate are distinctly different from the ways in which people in the
United States conduct their affairs. To get along in organizational and
social life, the individual learns perceptual orientations, cognitive
biases, cultural norms and beliefs, family values, symbols, and habits.
Through an ongoing socialization process, these elements become the
attributes of a person’s moral character.
Public administrators need to be conscious of their subjective and
objective responsibility to serve the public, but when they face difficult
issues and are no longer clear about the right thing to do, their concern
can be discussed with others “to make the moral order possible” (Wolfe,
1989, p. 213). Equally important, their decision sometimes needs to be
socially limited in situations involving unethical behavior, such as cor-
ruption, discrimination, or unfair and uncaring services rendered to cit-
izens. Furthermore, by gaining support from the organization, an
employee can use his or her voice to ward off the influence of powerful
interest groups. When an employee, for example, has information about
hazardous wastes being dumped in open public space by private com-
panies, with agency support he or she can fight against polluting indus-
tries as well as pressure from any politicians or high-level officials.
Consulting others in an organization, however, does not mean that
an administrator is free to make an unethical or inhumane judgment.
For example, as discussed in chapter 7, when a Japanese social worker
was faced with a difficult ethical choice, he consulted his immediate
supervisor and an official at the central government. They all reached
the same conclusion: to take away an elderly woman’s air conditioner
during a hot summer. They failed to discuss the humane thing to do to
help the old woman without violating the established guidelines, which
were ambiguous and open to interpretation. Their action may be viewed
as functionally correct, but the outcome was, obviously, grossly flawed.
The social construction of ethics has negative consequences when
group members reinforce one another’s unexamined behavior. When
reaching a positive and unopposed consensus only among group mem-
bers closely involved in making a decision becomes the urgent task,
group members (i.e., participants in the decision-making process) tend
to ignore negative information that may contradict their preconceived
course of action. Irving Janis calls this pathological behavior “group-
think”: group members tend to support their leader’s desires and dis-
courage critical thinking ( Janis, 1972). Particularly in a crisis, a cohe-
sive group has a strong “we versus they” feeling toward an adversary
group, a psychological symptom that exists alongside “shared stereo-
types” about an enemy or competing party. The decision-making
process on the Iraqi War clearly demonstrates uncritical thinking
among the key players. On July 9, 2004, the seventeen-member U.S.
Senate Intelligence Committee of nine Republicans and eight Democ-
rats revealed the 511-page report on the investigation of the U.S. intel-
ligence judgments about Iraq’s weapons programs (New York Times,
Washington Post, and San Francisco Chronicle, July 10, 2004). The com-
mittee members unanimously criticized that the flawed and exagger-
ated prewar intelligence by the CIA and other spy agencies fueled the
Bush administration position that Saddam Hussein’s regime posed a
serious threat to the United States. They agreed that “groupthink” led
to incorrect intelligence about Iraq’s supposed chemical and biological
weapons and its development of nuclear weapons and pushed aside the
doubts of dissenting analysts. The intelligence officials did not com-
municate their uncertainties and had a collective presumption that Iraq
possessed weapons of mass destruction.
The social construction of responsibility is considered the meso-

level approach (see Table 8.1): ethical judgment begins with the indi-
vidual’s subjective understanding of an ethical situation and moves to
interpersonal and group relationships. It is not a balancing approach—
seeking to reconcile two opposing views of objective and subjective
responsibility—rather it is a constructive and deliberative strategy. It
employs dialogue and discourse between the self and others to arrive at
an ethical decision. The individual takes an active role in constructing
an ethical life in relationship with others. The social constructionist
view of human nature assumes that people have the ability to act, inter-
pret, and exercise reflexivity; this is reflected in the individual’s ability
to make an ethical choice. The social concept of the self here implies
that the individual can engage in social practice through communica-
tive action and cultivate his or her ethical judgment.
Because organizational regulations and policies can often be inter-
preted in different ways by different people, what is required is social-
ization that helps us actively construct choices in self-confirming ways
in communicative relationships with others, by exploring organiza-
tional and public obligations. Contrary to the postmodern argument,
such as Bauman’s position, this transcendental learning process does
not necessarily surrender to the communitarian emphasis of serving
organizational interests. Instead of passively carrying out the require-
ments of organizational duties, an ethically conscious administrator
can expose the contradictions that present themselves in organizational
policies and practices and can exercise personal discretion in applying
his or her own values to situations within the organization. Thus the
ethical responsibility of a public administrator is to be grounded in the
individual’s understanding of self and self-realization; this, in turn,
connects the individual with others through active participation in
organizational activities and working with citizens in the public sphere.
The Problem of Social Construction of Ethics
There are three important points in the preceding discussion. First, the
meaning of ethical responsibility can be shaped through the individ-
ual’s sense of ethical responsibility. Second, the meaning of ethical
responsibility can be shaped through the individual’s process of inter-
acting and communicating his or her viewpoint with others, who may
or may not share the same meaning. Third, a dialectical and reflexive
construction of ethics (or sharing of mutual interests) is possible when

the actor moves from the micro level of understanding to the meso
level, not from the macro level to the micro level. The macro-level
strategy may influence the ethical behavior of the actor to some extent,
as long as the actors are reactive and loyal to the organization and will-
ingly comply with universal ethical standards, such as laws and codes
of ethics. These ideas, however, present some limitations, as people
behave and think differently involving ethical matters.
There are at least two limitations of the social construction of
ethics: (1) the influence of cultural norms prevails over the individual’s
critical thinking; and (2) the individual’s subjective judgment is crucial
in making a choice. When a public administrator’s moral life is consti-
tuted by the influence of culture, it inevitably comes in conflict with
the individual’s attempt to perform good work or to overcome the lim-
itations of organizational demands. Public administrators in Asia, such
as China, South Korea, Japan, and Singapore, who are strongly influ-
enced by Confucian culture, may apply these cultural norms, values,
and experiences to group decision making. Their instincts in judging
others may reflect their own emotions and the expectations of accepted
behavior in that particular cultural context. Because of their past expe-
riences in handling similar situations, they may interpret a situation
using reified categories and old principles to make a choice, thus
underestimating the uniqueness of a local situation. So in making an
ethical decision, external criteria, such as ethical codes, past adminis-
trative practices, or cultural norms, may dictate the act of an adminis-
trator. The individual may go along with the opinion of a majority or
the guidance of other peers against his or her own moral belief, by sac-
rificing individual autonomy and his or her reflexive interpretation of
cultural elements or external demands.
Another problem is the difficulty of avoiding ethical relativism,
that is, to believe that one ethical judgment is just as good as any other.
In general, this represents the postmodern perspective (Bauman,
1993). As Bauman implies, public administrators live through crisis,
and there are no universal solutions to “the messiness of the human
predicament” (p. 245). He also states, “[M]oral responsibility is pre-
cisely the act of self-constitution” (p. 14). The ethical life of a public
administrator largely depends upon the individual realizing what an
individual is supposed to do or ought to do. Because an individual’s
ethical life requires reflexive judgment in terms of values and moral
beliefs, in this respect, an individual may become relativistic, insisting

on his or her own judgment. This tendency makes sharing or shaping
an ethical consensus with others difficult.
An important element of a bridge that spans the preceding limita-
tions is personal integrity (and civic integrity). When it comes to sub-
jective responsibility, integrity of the self endures the honesty and sin-
cerity of the individual. “Loss of integrity is not a function of change
of beliefs, but rather of unreflective change” (May, 1996, p. 24). When
taking personal action, what a person does must coincide with what he
or she holds to be true. This melding of integrity with action directs
administrators on a path of growth.
Integrity has a great deal to do with the individual’s commitment
to organizational goals and to dedication to serving the public. Public
administrators, however, often compromise their action, as they use
their organizational skills to manipulate the public, break the rules, or
promote their own self-interest. They may lose their integrity, all the
while engendering trust in the public. Public administrators have an
inherent desire to “do the right thing” because they have learned
important virtues through their socialization from childhood to adult-
hood. Most people in public service want to see changes. They want
change because change would directly help their own growth and sense
of self-worth. Some administrators, of course, do not choose to change.
Change must come from within; the motivation to change originates
in the individual self.
A PUBLIC CONCEPTION OF AUTONOMY:

CONFUCIAN AND WESTERN VIEWS
A public conception of autonomy embodies reflexive activity: individ-

uals realize the constraints of individual autonomy and move toward a
shared understanding of others by engaging in social relationships as
well as questioning their own assumptions and values. Thus the social
constructionist view of moral thinking regarding others is essential in
the public conception of autonomy and the formation of a self-con-
cept. Charles Taylor says, “[T]o understand our moral world, we have
to see not only what ideas and pictures underlie our sense of respect for
others, but also those which underpin our notions of a full life” (Tay-
lor, 1989, p. 14). Taylor considers the autonomous self to be identified
with others, and he describes the necessary relationship between

autonomy and virtue, or goodness. To an extent, Western views of the
self are similar to the Confucian view of the self.
The individual self, according to Confucianism, is not an object in
the world, but rather a subject, capable of achieving an ideal of perfec-
tion independent of the contingencies and limitations of the empirical
world. This philosophy results from a recognition of the intrinsic inde-
pendence of subject-nature from object-nature, as well as a conscious-
ness of inner freedom and the power of the self to realize complete
freedom. The ontological justification of moral consciousness stem-
ming from a sense of individual autonomy gives the ontological mean-
ing of an individual’s existence and his or her fundamental ability to
transform constructively the self and the world, which consists of his
or her society, living community, and institution. Self-realization and
understanding develop as an individual opens to the views of others,
deliberately relating to others in the public sphere.
The self in this context is regarded not only as autonomous but
also as free from any limitations imposed by external requirements.
This is the classic Confucian view of the ontological self-realization of
the individual, that is, the discovery of the uniqueness of the individ-
ual self, the discovery of the universal in the individual, and the dis-
covery of the individual in the universal. In this regard, Confucian
moral philosophy is a dialectical view of how the individual recognizes
his or her freedom, which is his or her power of self-determination and
self-transformation (Cheng, 1991, pp. 280–84). The self is no longer
bounded by a self-concept but relates to others and the world. Confu-
cian morality emphasizes the moral autonomy of the individual, recog-
nizing the meaningfulness of the moral behavior of individuals who
make moral decisions and formulate moral reasons.
The argument for autonomy implies that it must provide an under-
standing of the human condition, which reveals the need for transfor-
mation. This means that community consciousness is derived, in part,
from recognizing the negative aspects of the human condition, which
generate all human problems. Although Confucian morality recognizes
the negative aspects of the human existence, such as passivity, irrational-
ity, doubts, fears, conflicts, and immoral acts, it also views the individual
as a subject capable of controlling, disciplining, and perfecting the self.
Morality is not merely a matter of an individual observing moral
principles, but of the individual creating moral principles in the light of
self-understanding and of understanding the meaning of the total real-

ity of a given situation. Kant’s view of individuals is that they are
autonomous persons who are rational in the sense that they are moti-
vated by rational reasons and are able to seek means to satisfy their per-
sonal goals. If the observation of moral principles, as dictated by reason,
is the predominant consideration of Kant (1963), then cultivation of the
person as a creator of moral principles is the predominant consideration
of Confucian theory. Thus for Confucian philosophers, morality is
embedded in an ontological theory of the individual developing into a
person who shows consideration for others in the community.
Confucian thought also provides a perspective for recognizing a
conflict between obeying authority and fulfilling other principles. Fur-
ther, it acknowledges the problem of conflicting authorities demanding
obedience, and it recognizes that the individual may need to make ago-
nizing decisions and carry out autonomous acts (Allen, 1997a, p. 154).
According to Confucius, our most important relationships begin in the
family, in which different members contribute to the well-being of the
whole, “according to their role-specific obligations”; obligations to the
family are considered “the source of our social obligations; our obliga-
tions to others were developed out of and modeled on the family”
(Ivanhoe, 1990, pp. 1–2).4 The Confucian idea of the relational self is
different from the Western liberal communitarian view of the
autonomous self in that the self is constituted and defined by its social
situatedness in relationship to loyalty, friendship, and obligations. In
other words, for liberal communitarians, the self is largely a product of
social factors (May, 1996, p. 3), whereas the Confucian self begins with
the inner self, which guides proper human conduct, such as the virtues
of “filial piety” (xiao) and “respect for an elder brother” (ti) (Roetz,
1993, pp. 53–66). In the Confucian Analects, the virtue of yi (right-
eousness) is fundamental to an understanding of the dynamics of per-
son making, that is to say, a person making his or her own life (Hall
and Ames, 1987, pp. 88–93).
A lack of autonomy as well as a lack of control over person mak-
ing can lead the individual into becoming an uncritical human being in
the bureaucratic institution. Hannah Arendt painstakingly illustrates
the dehumanization of bureaucrats in terms of their loss of autonomy
in Nazi Germany. Arendt argues that the dehumanization of the Nazi
bureaucracy set the stage for great evil (Arendt, 1964; Canovan, 1992;
Adams and Balfour, 1998; May, 1996, chapter 4). In dehumanizing
institutions, loyalty is the most important virtue. As Nazi bureaucrats

became socialized by Nazi organizations, these bureaucrats became
willing to perform immoral acts. Arendt calls this “the banality of evil,”
referring to the fact that evil deeds, which were committed by the
Nazis on a gigantic scale, could not be traced to any particularity of
wickedness, pathology, or ideological conviction in the doer, whose
only personal distinction was a perhaps extraordinary shallowness
(Arendt, 1971, p. 417; 1958) as well as a lack of feeling toward another
entire ethnic group as disclosed in the Abu Ghraib prison scandle.
In today’s bureaucratic organizations, it is not outside the realm of
possibility that administrators could lose their critical consciousness
and sense of moral responsibility toward other human beings as they
experience a loss of autonomy and self-identity. To the extent that pub-
lic employees are concerned with job security and fear punishment,
they will be inclined to show excessive loyalty and even perform dehu-
manizing acts. To recapitulate: in order to become a good administra-
tor and a good citizen in a civil society, an individual needs to have a
clear understanding of the self, which is gained by critically reflecting
on his or her own rights, obligations, and moral responsibility.
CIVIC VIRTUE AND THE PUBLIC GOOD
Aristotle defines the ideal polis as the one most likely to promote virtue
in its citizens, the exercise of which constitutes their good. Following his
view, the ideal community (or good governance of local government) is
the one that best promotes the interests of citizens as defined by the
good. But it is difficult to realize this concept of ‘the good’ in a large,
complex community because of the pluralistic and multicultural aspects
of community. Community consists of different values and identities of
individuals and groups. Citizens in a multicultural community value
their association with a particular group as well as form a concept of the
good in relationship to their own context (Kymlicka, 1995). This sug-
gests that public administrators inevitably deal with the pluralistic nature
of the good in the community. The perplexing questions are about how
public administrators in a multicultural society can help citizens see
diversity as a strength to be built upon and how public administrators
can provide opportunities to develop intergroup and public discourse for
dialogue and the sharing of mutual concerns in the community.
The query underlying these perplexing questions is how differ-

ences in concepts of the good can be resolved. If a person takes a rela-
tivistic view of the good, the differing views of different groups or indi-
viduals should be left alone, and the government should protect
different cultural interests and group identities. Moral relativism
emphasizes moral diversity among different cultures as well as moral
disagreements within cultures (Bunting, 1996; Young, 1997). Critics of
the relativistic view of the good argue that, among the different views
that deal with community problems, it is quite possible that some ideas
are better than others (Howard, 1992, p. 6).
Moving beyond a pluralistic and liberal view of the good, political
liberalism, as presented by Rawls, approaches the concept of the good
from the principle of justice (Rawls, 1971; 1993). Rawls argues that
justice is the most fundamental virtue of the individual’s moral life. It
is the one that best expresses the individual’s nature (Rawls, 1971, p.
491). The individual’s true nature and true self require him or her to be
just. Justice is the first virtue in an individual’s character to hinder any
inclination to oppress others. It is also the most important principle for
preserving humanity.
According to Rawls, citizens are free, equal, and moral beings in
that they possess two fundamental moral powers. The first is the
capacity to form, revise, and pursue a conception of the good. The sec-
ond is the capacity to propose, and to honor before others, fair terms
of social cooperation. Citizens are politically equal in that they all pos-
sess these two capacities to a degree sufficient to support full member-
ship within a fair system of social cooperation. Furthermore, they are
politically free in that they retain their status as citizens regardless of
their concept of the good. They are assumed to be capable of and
responsible for honoring the demands of justice; ideally, they also
affirm the basic social institutions, which fundamentally shape their
individual characters and interests.
As mentioned earlier, in Confucian morality, good involves not
only a self-consciousness of the subject-nature but also a sense of com-
munity in view of the fact that virtues are ways that the individual
relates to others. Good is conceived as a direct presentation and man-
ifestation of the reality of the self. This view contradicts Hegel’s view
of the individual in civil society. According to Hegel, in civil society,
the individual constructs self-consciousness as he or she engages in
communal life, such as property exchanges with others in the market-
place (Hegel, 1952, pp. 99–118). Through participation in communal

life in civil society, the individual’s wants and needs are met. The cor-
poration acts both to achieve security and other benefits for its mem-
bers through the promotion of group interests and to inculcate in its
members a sense of belonging and membership in a body, a group
beyond each particular individual. In this way, particularity, in Hegel’s
terms, is returned to itself through participation in the universal state
(Seligman, 1992, p. 49). The paradox of Hegel’s communal life is that
the individuals in civil society disappear into the universal state. As
Seligman points out, individual or group interests become transformed
into the realm of the state proper (and, more concretely, the universal
interests represented by the class of civil servants), which is the sole
representative of the universal idea (pp. 50–51).
CONNECTING ADMINISTRATORS AND CITIZENS
How can citizens and administrators carry out virtuous responsibilities

in order to improve their community? In an increasingly multicultural
society, it is difficult to agree on a common definition of what it means
to be virtuous. Throughout his or her life, a person may order and
reorder the virtues while developing his or her character without
thereby causing harm to others. A person may, for example, place the
highest premium on love or on truthfulness. But even though justice is
not the first virtue of that person’s character, that person may not
(should not) advocate injustice toward others in the community. It is
an important responsibility of public administrators to facilitate and
cultivate in all citizens a sense of civic responsibility toward their com-
munity. It is fair to say that not all citizens are motivated to contribute
to their community because of an inherent social and voluntary nature,
an idea espoused by liberal thinkers. I believe that it is important to
provide a sense of individual autonomy and help people develop their
selves. The individual who is unable to understand critically his or her
moral thinking also needs to develop the capability of relating to oth-
ers. This view is argued by those who attempt to disentangle republi-
canism from liberalism (Dagger, 1997; Gutmann, 1987; Galston, 1991;
Macedo, 1990; Kymlicka, 1995). For example, many argue that Rawls’s
political liberalism has failed to connect autonomy and civic virtues
(Dagger, 1997, p. 191). Rawls and other liberal communitarians
depend too much on individual commitment to institutions and vol-

untary associations.
William Galston argues that liberal theorists in the past focused
too much on the justification of rights and on the institutions that
secured these rights, without paying attention to the responsibilities of
citizens. This, he says, has greatly contributed to the decline of urban
communities (Barber, 1984). According to Galston, the virtues
required for responsible citizenship can be divided into four groups: (1)
general virtues—courage, law-abidingness, and loyalty; (2) virtues of
the liberal society—independence and tolerance; (3) virtues of the lib-
eral economy—work ethic—the capacity to allow moderate delay of
self-gratification, an adaptability to economic and technological
changes; and (4) virtues of liberal politics—the capacity to discern, and
the restraint to respect, the rights of others; the willingness to demand
only what can be paid for; the ability to evaluate the performance of
those in office; and the willingness to engage in public discourse (Gal-
ston, 1991, pp. 221–24). Of particular significance to the political
virtues is the citizen’s ability to question authority, listen to diverse
views, and engage in public discourse.
In Table 8.2, which follows, I list a set of significant civic virtues of
both administrators and citizens. This list is not intended to cover the
entire range of civic responsibilities but to suggest the ideas that are
useful to reconnect administrators and citizens in a civil society.
Because administrators are also citizens in their community, the ideas
listed are not mutually exclusive, but overlapping. This table also sug-
gests the relationship between citizen and administrator by presenting
a list of relevant character traits that underlie human and administra-
tive praxis as administrators engage in participatory relationships with
citizens. The complexity of human nature may require different order-
ings of the virtues without thereby implying that if the pursuit of, say,
self-interest in a reflexive manner were to replace justice as the preem-
inent virtue of an individual’s character, he or she would be prone to
oppress other persons.
The list of virtues of the administrator may, at first blush, appear
overly idealistic, focusing as it does on democratic qualities; but a mea-
sure of balance is achieved by organizational loyalty and commitment.
If public administrators were expected just to implement established
policies according to rules and regulations, they might need a different
set of virtues. However, it could be argued that if the rules are followed
TABLE 8.2
Civic Virtues of the Administrator and the Citizen
Virtues of a civic-minded administrator Virtues of a good citizen
• Is concerned with public good • Has a sense of justice

• Is fair in providing services • Has a sense of public good
• Engages in social interaction • Believes in equality
• Uses self-reflexivity • Values liberty
• Participates in public discourse and • Advocates for others
dialogue • Is concerned with community
• Is loyal and committed • The willingness to acknowledge the
• Has a sense of autonomy others (or opponents)
• Is trustworthy • Has a sense of decency and compassion
• Engages in deliberation • Values civility
• Is caring and compassionate • Associates with others and is involved
• Cultivates a context for development with community
of citizen responsibility • Values cultural diversity
• Promotes citizen participation • Is self-aware
• Assesses citizen needs • Engages in public discourse
• Shares information • Pursues self-interest in a reflexive
manner
properly, then administrative behavior is virtuous. The effective imple-

mentation of the rules, however, depends on the ability of administra-
tors to interpret the meaning of the rules and apply this meaning to the
situation at hand. It is also important for administrators to listen to the
claims of all citizens and treat them fairly as they consider the merits
of their claims.
Connecting administrators and citizens is essential in gaining the
support of citizens and their concern about the common good. A feel-
ing of alienation on the part of citizens can lead them to feel a lack of
responsibility to the community (May, 1996, p. 39). Furthermore,
administrators in particular need to be reflexive; however, as Arendt
points out, this quality can be obliterated by the urgent demands of liv-
ing (Arendt, 1971, p. 421). Like Nazi Germany, bureaucratic institu-
tions are especially good at instilling in people a sense of this urgency
and at pressing it in such a way that otherwise conscience-driven indi-
viduals come to accept even a reversal of their previous values: what
was once seen as wrong becomes right. In Arendt’s view, socialization
in institutions can have this negative effect. It is one of the most
important things to be countered if evil is to be diminished in the

world (May, 1996, p. 71; Arendt, 1964).
If an administrator is to be civic-minded, he or she must creatively
balance his or her ethical responsibility with the virtues of good citi-
zens, such as a sense of justice, active and sincere participation in pub-
lic discourse, decency and compassion, and the willingness to acknowl-
edge the others. These are the important elements of “civic integrity.”
To build meaningful and trusting relations, a public administrator must
reduce bureaucratic values, such as authority consciousness, rule-abid-
ingness, and other formalistic characteristics of administrative conduct,
and work to develop the social capital of interconnectedness, open-
mindedness, and gaining the public’s confidence. In a multicultural
community, it is difficult for people to develop trusting relationships
with those from different backgrounds, interest, race, language, or gen-
der. In this new century, this will be the most challenging responsibil-
ity of public administrators.
Collective action is often needed in order to accomplish projects in
organizations and in the community. When an individual is able to
transcend self-reflexivity, he or she becomes aware of his or her ethical
responsibility toward other citizens, to make available communicative
opportunities and “socio-ontological resources” (Shotter, 1993, p. 163).
This means recognizing our place in creating ethical discourse, respect-
ing the rights of those around us to speak, and understanding how our
assumptions and use of words orients ways of relating as well as a sense
of identity. Lyotard (1984, p.18) speaks of this type of understanding
as “knowing how, knowing how to live, knowing how to listen.” In this
regard, reflexivity toward others is a civic virtue (Dagger, 1997): it is a
basis for interactions and social practice. In order for an individual to
become concerned with organizational or community interests, he or
she must identify with others through a sense of justice, active partici-
pation in public discourse, care and compassion, and respect toward
others ( Jun, 1999 pp. 224–25).
The virtues of public administrators can include other characteris-
tics that underlie broader responsibilities, such as concern for the pub-
lic good, praxis-oriented action, searching for alternative solutions,
facilitating interactions, listening, and dialogue. Unlike conventional
politics and administration, the new virtues of public administrators are
necessary in order to promote better connections between citizens and
administrators. It is also the responsibility of public administrators to
cultivate citizen virtues so that citizens exhibit a true concern for other
people and for their community. Raising citizens’ consciousness regard-
ing sustainable development, world hunger, human rights, disadvan-
taged people, and community problem solving is particularly important.
CONCLUSION
As a result of the growth of strong government and the bureaucratiza-

tion of institutions in the twentieth century, the sense of ethical
responsibility on the part of individuals in organizations has greatly
declined, as has their sense of the importance of caring about and com-
passion toward other human beings. Because of its emphasis on effi-
ciency, costs, and performance measurement, the promotion of ethics
and effectiveness has been replaced by more quantitative and results-
oriented management and by an efficient enforcement of procedures.
Despite the emphasis on economy and management in public admin-
istration, however, most public administrators have a deep sense of
ethics about “what is right”; this sense of ethics is further shaped
through their interactions. Individuals reflexively modify their sense of
being in the world as they gain new knowledge and experience. Thus a
transformation from the individual level to the group and organiza-
tional levels presents the most promising possibility of making public
institutions ethically responsible.
The social constructionist view of ethical responsibility assumes
that a dialectic of ethics is possible as individuals share their interests
with and learn from others as well as debate the importance of estab-
lished laws and regulations and the code of ethics (Wolfe, 1989; Win-
ter, 1966; Allan, 1998; May, 1996). Understanding the ethical process
from the micro level to the macro level is a more efficient way to
enhance individual responsibility than the other way around. The
macro level of ensuring responsibility by emphasizing people’s compli-
ance with laws and procedures may influence people’s ethical behavior,
but the process of carrying out responsible conduct presents a high
degree of uncertainty. Because we are concerned with ambiguity in
making ethical decisions, external criteria, such as ethical codes and
laws, are ineffective. Good judgment may emerge only because of the
“conscience of the moral self,” which can enable the actor to construct
an ethical view by critically reflecting on others’ viewpoints.
The issue of individual autonomy and civic virtues has a long his-
tory in both Eastern and Western philosophy, and thus it has greatly
influenced society and institutions as well as notions about the ethical
responsibilities of citizens in a civil society. Eastern philosophy, partic-
ularly Confucianism and Taoism, has influenced the Far East Asian
countries in terms of teaching the virtues of the good citizen. For the
past several decades, Asian countries have been concerned with the
development of the Platonic good society, with the elite and Western-
trained technocrats playing the major role in directing citizens in
accomplishing the developmental goals of the state. As these countries
become economically affluent and experience many social problems,
they become aware of the civic responsibilities of citizens in governing
their own community. Civic responsibilities have also gained the atten-
tion of politicians, academics, and civic leaders in Western societies,
particularly the United States (Seligman, 1992). Both liberals and
communitarians are concerned with the different emphasis on the
rights and responsibility of individuals and their community.
Unless public administrators continue to cultivate civic-minded
virtues, they cannot be truly effective in establishing trusting and con-
fident relationships with citizens in the community. The exercise of
those virtues is simply part of what it means to be engaged in collabo-
rative activities with citizens. Administrators should be willing to
admit and confront social imperfections through a public appeal to col-
lective convictions (Galston, 1991, p. 227). If they are to be effective
administrators of civil society, they need to possess certain virtues or be
forced to act as though they had the capability to work with citizens.
It is ultimately the responsibility of the individual administrator to
actively acquire civic-minded virtues. Further, an administrator who
engages in meaningful administrative praxis while working with citi-
zens finds that critical reflexivity is an important part of individual
autonomy. Civic-minded administrators can facilitate public discourse;
both personal wishes and the good of the community can be discussed.
CHAPTER 9
Civil Society, Governance,

and Its Potential
Public administration exists in the context of the social world: it is not

an isolated entity in society. Government develops policies and admin-
istration to meet the challenges of society, but its activities are also
greatly influenced by global politics and issues. As new issues emerge
in the societal and global environment, policy makers and administra-
tors interpret them according to their perception, knowledge, and
experience. By interacting with other actors, they construct the mean-
ing of the social situation and develop a course of action. As Donald
Kettl points out, a transformation of governance presents “substantial
challenges for public institutions, how we manage them, how we study
them, and how we prepare the nation’s future public servants” (Kettl,
2002, p. 150).
In this chapter, I discuss the transformation of society and of pub-
lic administration, particularly the transformation of the governing
process in the broad contexts of globalization and civil society. I explore
the current idea of civil society and the role of nongovernmental orga-
nizations (NGOs) as an important force for democratizing the rela-
tionships among government, business, and civil society. Several cases
illustrate the problems and possibilities of improving the governance
process in the local community as well as the fallacy of modern devel-
opment projects that are the result of central planning or pluralistic
politics.
THE CIVIL SOCIETY TRIANGLE:

A NEW FORM OF GOVERNANCE
The revival of interest in civil society has profound implications for the
transformation of the dominant mode of governing administration and
society. Globalization has become a strong force in promoting the
207
value of civil society internationally. Although this movement has

emerged in various forms, perhaps the most significant change has
been the transformation from vertical governing and managing the
public to horizontal governance; this involves less hierarchical and
more democratic relationships among the government, business, and
civil society. Among the significant developments that are changing
the nature of governing are self-governance processes that involve rela-
tionships among NGOs, various nonprofit associations, and voluntary
organizations.
Civil society is as old as humankind itself. Society began when
people started to live together by mutual consent in order to debate,
determine, and act jointly to further some common purpose and a
common political community. Civil society is “those human networks
that exist independently of, if not anterior to, the political state” (Isaac,
1993, p. 356). Political parties, business associations, labor unions,
cooperatives, women’s groups, professional associations, religious orga-
nizations, membership-serving organizations, community groups,
social clubs, and advocacy networks are all forms of civil society orga-
nizations. In recent years, the spread of nongovernmental, and, in par-
ticular, voluntary organizations has renewed people’s interest in the
concept of civil society, because civil society and the public sphere not
only offer the potential for exploring new ideas and possibilities for
social innovation through citizen empowerment but also can form a
social force to oppose or support the policies of government and big
corporations. An example of this is the recent protests by the farmers
against agricultural policies in South Korea, Japan, France, and the
United States.
When citizens are engaged, civil society is revitalized; through dia-
logue and discourse in the public sphere, community problems are dis-
cussed, and goals are formulated. Jürgen Habermas views the public
sphere as “a network for communicating information and points of
view (i.e., opinions expressing affirmative or negative attitudes); the
streams of communication are, in the process, filtered and synthesized
in such a way that they coalesce into bundles of topically specified pub-
lic opinions.” The public sphere is the social space in communicative
action that involves interpersonal relationships among potential dia-
logue partners (Habermas, 1995, pp. 360–61). Civil society is of basic
importance to the functioning of democracy. Both civil society and
governance are unique to the West and to the Western route to moder-
Civil Society, Governance, and Its Potential 209
nity. However, these combined ideas provide a useful perspective in

understanding social, administrative, and political relationships, partic-
ularly in a democratic society. We may call this a “civil society triangle”
among government, business, and civil society. The interdependence
and the continuously transforming relationships contribute to the
development of a viable democratic society. When one of these sectors
is too strong or too weak, a society is likely to experience serious prob-
lems with social injustice, economic inequality, corruption, and politi-
cal turmoil. The Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s attests to a
severe imbalance between the global economy and domestic gover-
nance. The banking crisis in Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia,
and Indonesia has its origins in a poorly regulated banking system, a
lack of responsibility among high-level business and government offi-
cials, and ineffective governing of public institutions in a pluralistic
democracy.
In recent years, industrialized and industrializing countries in
Asia have focused on the need for developing civic capacity. For exam-
ple, after neglecting the importance of civic engagement at the
expense of rapid economic development, the Japanese government
has, since the early 1980s, begun to facilitate the development of civil
society; South Korea began this process in the late 1990s. In 1998, the
Japanese government passed the Law to Promote Specified Nonprofit
Activities (the NPO Law), the first law to recognize the legal status
of hundreds of nonprofit organizations (NPOs). In the same year, the
South Korean government passed the law prescribing the guideline
for providing government financial support to NGOs. Today a major-
ity of NPOs and NGOs in both countries receive a great deal of gov-
ernment support.
Most Asian countries, including Japan, have inefficient and low-
functioning democratic governance, although South Korea and Japan
practice representative democracy. Local officials are unable to solve
local problems without the support or the approval of the central gov-
ernment. They have never been given a real opportunity for local
autonomy or self-governance because of the lack of financial indepen-
dence and lack of taxing authority. Since the enactment of the Law for
Promoting Decentralization of 1995 and the Omnibus Law of Decen-
tralization of 1999, the relationship between the central and local gov-
ernments in Japan has been incrementally improving, with more power
being accorded to local governments (Shigeru, 2003, p.162).
Another interesting phenomenon in a civil society triangle is the

decreasing role of government: as the influence of the business and the
market economy expands, the role of government tends to decline. In
the face of global trade agreements that supersede national and local
laws, nation-states are no longer able to claim self-determination.
Many contemporary problems, such as the environment, economy, and
trade, are of a global nature, requiring both a global and a local
approach. Policy makers in different countries, however, find that their
ability to control such problems is limited by a more pervasive influ-
ence of international politics and policy, such as the rules of free trade
imposed by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the economic
power of multinational corporations. In general, national governments
today are incapable of dealing with unanticipated consequences of eco-
nomic globalization. As David Korten (1995) states, “It is a crisis of
governance born of a convergence of ideological, political, and techno-
logical forces behind a process of economic globalization that is shift-
ing power away from governments responsible for the public good and
toward a handful of corporations and financial institutions driven by a
single imperative—the quest for short-term financial gain” (p. 12).
People who support the promotion of civil society and grassroots
development tend to distrust and disparage the motives and the capa-
bilities of governments and of profit-seeking private enterprise, which
exploit people in similar ways. Instead, these people tout the potential
of grassroots communities and voluntary associations to empower their
members and solve their problems through their own collective initia-
tive. The public sphere is an arena where people can debate myriad
social problems as well as explore new alternatives and the relation-
ships among them.
Another impetus for developing civil society and relationships in
the public sphere is related to the ineffective governing of public orga-
nizations in a liberal democracy in solving complex social problems.
First, as governmental interventions in managing public programs as
well as regulating society become ever more complex, large bureaucra-
cies become less efficient and less responsive to the needs of citizens
and the community. These unwieldy bureaucracies are more concerned
with legitimating a centralized and bureaucratic government at a time
when the need for decentralization and devolution of authority is
increasing. This phenomenon is particularly conspicuous in govern-
mental efforts to achieve administrative reform. Another common
problem is that decision making in a liberal democracy is heavily influ-

enced by the interest-group politics played by big corporations. Those
groups with few resources have little influence on the decisions that
affect their interests. Disadvantaged groups and citizens have few ways
to participate in the policy-making process, except in elections. Last,
the world is becoming more multicultural in terms of political, social,
economic, and cultural interactions among people, social groups, and
organizations. Because of fragmentation and localized growth in
diverse communities, government agencies are no longer the centers of
decision making.
The relationships among these three sectors can also explain the
effects of social networks, social capital, trust and mutuality, and the
participation of local citizens in the strengthening of democracy. The
argument for effective governance in civil society stems from the belief
that pluralistic politics largely involving the state-business relationship
limit the development of a strong democracy (Barber, 1984; Rawls,
1993; Sandel, 1996; Bohman and Rehg, 1997).
Thus the most important goal of a democratic society is to build a
participatory process in the public sphere, where citizens freely and
openly communicate values and goals, with a view to defining the pub-
lic good. The term the public is not necessarily synonymous with the
term the state. What the state decides is for the public good differs from
the way that it is formulated through the participation of citizens and
civic organizations. A civil society triangle that includes the participa-
tion of NGOs, associations, and voluntary organizations provides an
opportunity for a creative partnership to respond to public needs, often
more efficiently and effectively than government agencies do. Gover-
nance involving civil society is a new form of cooperation between the
government and the public.
FROM HIERARCHICAL GOVERNING

TO DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE
In managing a complex society, the processes of both governing and

governance inevitably play a vital role. The instrumental and rational-
istic emphasis of twentieth-century public administration legitimized
expanding administrative activities by establishing a hierarchical
structure, authority relationships, and rules and regulations and by
TABLE 9.1
A Comparison of Hierarchical Governing with Democratic Governance
Hierarchical Governing Democratic Governance
Centralization: national Decentralization: devolution

government controls of programs and authority
programs and funds to local governments
Uniformity and hierarchical Fragmentation and autonomy
autocracy in decision making
Implementing agency goals Implementing shared goals
Vertical relationships Horizontal relationships
Control and command Networking and collaboration
Pluralistic and interestgroup Negotiating through
politics dialogue and discourse
Formal authority and Joint partnership and
policing power shared responsibility
Agency as the center of Multiple temporary
coordination arrangements regarding
coordination
Enforcing laws and regulations Local initiatives
Information control and Information sharing and
secrecy transparency
Limited participation and Open participation and
consultation public deliberation
Tendency toward antidemocratic Discursive democracy and
and instrumental rationality communicative rationality
professionalizing public services. Since the 1990s, however, we have

seen that the administrative practice of the past is not adequate to
meet the challenges of the present or the coming decades as we deal
with the diverse and fragmented nature of politics and administration
nationally and globally.
A comparison between governing and governance is briefly pre-
sented in table 9.1. The words governing and governance are often used
interchangeably; many people use ‘governance’ to signify the changing
characteristics of politics and institutional relationships, although their

meaning is not much different from that of governing. The integration
or coexistence of the governance processes into the traditional frame-
work of governing, however, has become a global trend.
There are a number of reasons for transforming relationships in a
civil society and the governing role of government into the governance
process so that relationships are less hierarchical (or nonhierarchical)
and collaborative. First, in the United States, the management and
implementation of federal programs for such issues as welfare, health,
and housing have become “neither hierarchical nor authority-driven” as
federal officials and politicians realize the importance of local strategies
for dealing with enduring social problems (Kettl, 2002, pp. 123–30).
For example, with the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work
Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, the management of welfare
programs has shifted to the state and local levels.
Another trend is to understand the changing relationships among the
three sectors—government, business, and civil society—in the public
sphere; we need to transform the traditional, hierarchical mode of gov-
erning into participatory governance ( Jun, 2002, pp. 289–92). The con-
ventional way that government relates to business and civil society is ver-
tical governing. Not only does the government control economic and
political activities in society, but it also maintains functions, order, and
tensions, imposing rules and obligations. Thus governing is based on for-
mal authority and policing power in implementing legally established
policies, even if the process emphasizes participatory and consultative
interactions. In governing, public authorities exercise policing powers to
overcome defiance and attain citizen compliance (Rosenau, 1992, p. 4).
When the government is viewed as the center of coordination and gov-
erning of economic, political, regulatory, and organizational activities, the
communicative and cultural influence of people in the public sphere is
greatly underestimated (Peters, 1996; Kooiman, 1993; March and Olsen,
1995; Osborne and Gaebler, 1992). Public administration literature tends
to emphasize the efficient role of public institutions in relation to busi-
ness, the market economy, and pluralistic politics. Governing is necessary
in order to oversee public services and equitable distribution of govern-
ment resources, but it has its limits. Too great an emphasis on governing
slows the possibility of social innovation and self-governance in localities.
As the capacity of civil society, networking, and communication
structures has expanded, the hierarchical notion of governing has
gradually changed into multiple interactions in the public sphere in

which processes are nonhierarchical, horizontal, collaborative, and
discourse oriented. When government works jointly with the private
sector and nongovernmental organizations, public administrators can
act as facilitators in fostering the development and renewal of civil
society. Anthony Giddens points out the role of government in
renewing civil society. This includes government and civil society in
partnership, community renewal through harnessing local initiative,
involvement of the third sector [the civil society], protection of the
local public sphere, community-based crime prevention, and the
democratic family (Giddens, 1998, pp. 69–98).
Governance in the context of civil society refers to activities backed
by shared values and goals among citizens and organizations in which
coordinating responsibilities may or may not be legally and formally
based in order to foster cooperation and resolve disagreements among
people and organizations (Rosenau, 1992). Governance promotes joint
partnership among public, private, and nonprofit organizations in
order to enhance the effectiveness of the implementation of public pro-
grams as well as to reflect the diverse values of citizens and groups in
the process of policy making and problem solving.
As opposed to the hierarchical and autocratic nature of govern-
ment, the concept of “governance” is grounded in the constructionist
view that reality is socially constructed by citizens in the community
and specifically by the stakeholders in the social situation. Thus the
concept of local governance is an outgrowth of an increasing awareness
on the part of citizens and NGOs that currently they have little to say
about the political processes that determine the interests and shape the
decisions that are a product of the community in which they live. Thus
the governance approach essentially focuses on the process of con-
cerned citizens, groups, and organizations constructing an intersubjec-
tive reality by sharing their experience and concerns. Government
agency no longer plays the major role in coordinating their activities.
The relationships among government, business, and civil society are
temporary, because their interactions are largely based on each one’s
need to meet the challenges of the community and the market. As
actors participate in the deliberative process involving dialogue and
discourse, they may or should be able to form a sense of public reason
for collective action toward the common good (Habermas, 1998;
Dewey, 1963; Gouinlock, 1978; Bohman, 1996; Christiano, 1997).
Finally, public bureaucracies operate under the assumption of

instrumental-technical rationality as depicted by Max Weber. As agen-
cies engage in the enforcement of rules and procedures, the potential
of individuals is not realized. Since they focus mainly on the economic
needs and goal accomplishment of bureaucracy, instrumental rational-
ity is essentially antidemocratic (Dryzek, 1990, pp. 1–7). Recognizing
that Weber’s idea of instrumental rationality is incomplete, Habermas
emphasizes communicative rationality: the meaning of rationality can
only be adequate when people understand how they construct institu-
tional order through the social practice of communication (1984);
through communicative action they form intersubjective meanings
that provide the foundation for a sense of rationality and legitimacy.
I agree with Dryzek’s position that instrumental rationality and
communicative rationality are not “separate and incompatible” (1990, p.
20). Instead, they are dialectical: each can complement the other in
order to facilitate the process of democratic governance. As democratic
administration demands both efficiency and effectiveness, institutional
solutions should not be rejected as long as they are intended to improve
human processes and public interest. Structural and functional alterna-
tives that are less hierarchical and help to facilitate interaction and col-
laboration cannot be ignored if they can help to improve organizational
performance, individual happiness, and citizen appreciation; partici-
pants should critically examine whether alternatives reflect discursive
and deliberative governance. Furthermore, reflexive knowledge is valu-
able only when democratic governance can deal with it productively.
NGOs AS A FORCE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
In recent years, NGOs have become an active force in societies that

seek democratization. They are crucial for effective citizen participa-
tion in civic and social life and make an important contribution to par-
ticipatory democracy. They perform many services and provide public
goods that government and business organizations either cannot or
will not provide. The role of NGOs in successfully implementing
development projects has been discussed in various studies (Carroll,
1992; Clark, 1991; Howell and Pearce, 2001; Korten, 1990; Livernash,
1992; de Oliveira and Tandon, 1994). Furthermore, many NGOs are
also engaged in activities that force political change in many countries
(I cite only a few studies here: Ndegwa, 1996; Fisher, 1998; Foweraker
and Craig, 1990; Schwedler, 1995; Kiss, 1992).
The question today is how do we foster NGOs in societies that
have a short history of voluntary, participatory, and charitable activity,
such as in the case of non-Western countries? How do we develop a
civic capacity so that citizens take the responsibility of self-governance,
free from government control and less dependent on large business
organizations? How can we encourage people to become good citizens,
that is, critical and civic-minded citizens? NGOs and nonprofit orga-
nizations around the world seek ways to address these questions.
Although economic globalization has helped certain groups of people
in many countries, market forces alone cannot deal with various social
problems, such as poverty, social exclusion, unemployment, housing,
and homelessness. Economic globalization and the market are about
the exchange of goods and economic values, not ethics or social justice.
One of the important tasks of NGOs in civil society is promoting the
public good.
In a globalizing world, NGOs respond to both domestic and
global issues because “many local problems have global origins and
need solutions that are both local and global” (Krut, 1997, p. 3). When
the state cannot take an active role in confronting social problems, due
to, perhaps, lack of effective executive leadership or resources, these
issues receive the attention of NGOs. Today, NGOs—because they are
organized by citizen coalitions—are often seen as a panacea that will
spread democracy around the world (Heyzer, 1995; Tandon, 1987;
Boulding, 1990). Hazel Henderson speaks glowingly of NGOs “creat-
ing a new force in world affairs, the independent civil society, which
challenges both nation states and global corporations” (1996, p. 30).
Worldwide, NGOs are proliferating at an unprecedented rate. In a
broader context, the term NGO means all nongovernmental and non-
profit organizations throughout the world.
In Western Europe, it generally means nonprofit organizations that
are active internationally. In the transitional countries of Europe and
the former Soviet Union, it tends to mean all charitable and non-
profit organizations. [In developing countries], the term NGO gen-
erally refers to organizations involved in development, broadly
defined. Hospitals, charitable organizations, and universities are usu-
ally called voluntary or nonprofit organizations rather than NGOs.
(Fisher, 1998, p. 5)
In the United States, the most common NGOs are grassroots, volun-
tary, and community-based organizations.
Although many NGOs attempt to secure legal status, they are also
subject to compliance with domestic regulations. The activities of
NGOs are numerous, and it is impossible to list them all here. NGOs
have three broad areas of activities. Many NGOs focus on encouraging
government to act in what they see as a moral way or on challenging
what they see as a government’s illegitimate conduct. Demonstrations
organized by students, labor unions, and citizen coalitions to demand
administrative reform are examples of NGOs voicing their views to a
government or a corporation. Other NGOs deliver services, either for
the benefit of their members (economic and professional associations)
or for various groups, such as homeless people, women, refugees, the
elderly, the mentally ill, or illegal immigrants. In recent years, while
NPOs in Japan are active in social services areas, NGOs in South
Korea are politically active in voicing their opinions, by campaigning
against corrupt and ineffective politicians and preventing their reelec-
tion to the National Assembly.
Still other NGOs participate in development projects, such as
community development, microenterprises, or a sustainable environ-
ment. Since the 1990s, the official contributions to development pro-
jects on the part of the World Bank, the United Nations Development
Program (UNDP), the European Community (EC), the Organization
of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and all OECD countries
have dramatically increased. Development projects are also concerned
with issues of sustainable development, land use, growth versus no-
growth policy, clean water policy, community planning.
The number of NGOs increased during the Cold War
(1945–1990) especially with the rise of peace, human rights, antinu-
clear, and environmental movements. NGOs are doing much of the
ongoing work toward sustainable development; the National Research
Council calls them the most recent conceptual focus linking the col-
lective aspirations of the world’s peoples for peace, freedom, improved
living conditions, and a healthy environment (Henderson, 1996, pp.
22–38). Civil society organizations (CSOs)1 and NGOs are now form-
ing networks of organizations whose sole function is to link different
groups for support, training, research, evaluation, and fundraising.
Because CSOs and NGOs are intermediary organizations between
citizens and the state, political development depends upon how effective
this relationship is. The relationship “can evolve and reshape political
context” (Carroll, 1992; Fisher, 1998). Although relationships vary from
country to country, the democratic nature of civil society is greatly related
to the degree to which NGOs interact with government as well as citi-
zens’grassroots participation (Heyzer, 1995; Tandon, 1987). Fisher
points out that “autonomous NGOs with such attributes as technical
skills and a mass base, however, probably have more impact on policy and
political context than do other NGOs. Although NGOs have signifi-
cantly impacted local spaces, subnational government policies, and some
national policies, they are only beginning, through networking, to use
advocacy and collaboration with government to acquire a major ability to
promote sustainable development and responsive government” (Fisher,
1998, p. 159).
In developing countries, centralized governing by the state has pre-
vented local governments from developing the capacity to self-govern.
Often a military or civilian elite leads the task of political and eco-
nomic development. Perhaps the most conspicuous result of the strong
state among newly industrializing countries in Asia in the past several
decades has been to maintain a high level of stability in society. Policy
makers, including higher-level bureaucrats and military leaders, pro-
moted solidarity and citizen responsibility for achieving national goals.
For example, during the second half of the twentieth century, the
industrializing countries in Asia focused on ways of maintaining citi-
zen solidarity in order to promote national economic prosperity. In
addition to the goals of economic development and modernization,
South Korea and Taiwan also emphasized national solidarity to fight
against Communism between the 1950s and 1980s. Today, citizens are
in a state of confusion because South Korea no longer portrays North
Korea as an enemy, nor does Taiwan portray China as an enemy. It
seems clear that people cannot use old ideologies to resolve new
socioeconomic and political problems. Furthermore, people cannot
develop civil society by following old Confucian beliefs.
Civil society today has to reflect the changing conditions of the
world and people’s values. In industrialized Asian countries, with the
exception of China, Vietnam, and North Korea, the people at the top
can no longer control the process of developing civil society. These
powerful people could facilitate the development and involvement of
NGOs by providing information, a public forum, and financial
resources. The emerging process has to stem from voluntary and par-
ticipatory actions of citizens and civic organizations. Thus new soli-

darity has to come forth from citizens’ interactions with other citizens
through dialogue and discourse.
The idea of civil society can be described in relationship to the
degree of social capital and economic development in a country
(Fukuyama, 1995; Putnam, 1993). In his essay “Development and Civil
Society in Latin America,” William Ratliff states that “human capital
is a critical factor for launching and sustaining shared economic
growth” (1999, p. 94). Neace (1999) states that in his research on four
former Soviet republics (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukrane), he
has found that “social capital and trust among entrepreneurs, employ-
ees, suppliers, and customers are a vital underpinning resource neces-
sary for creating business networks that lead to sustainable economic
growth” (1999, pp. 148–61). These authors insist that social capital and
civil society are vital for economic growth. There is little mention of
social capital or civil society as concepts that can or should exist except
in the context of perpetuating economic growth. Any value system or
belief system that does not result in a more productive economic soci-
ety is seen as insignificant. These authors also assume that civil society
and social capital are contingent on the promotion of economic growth
and the indicators of increased cooperation among individuals. Many
argue, however, that human cooperation for perpetuating an economic
system is inherently unjust and damaging to society as a whole and that
the presence of social capital and civil society is not necessarily an asset
to society but the means used by the ruling elite to assure that a mate-
rialistic, socioeconomic system is created and sustained.
In his book Between Facts and Norms (1998), Habermas questions
the very development of norms in society. If the level of social capital
and civil society in the public sphere is determined by the level of eco-
nomic growth, then we must explore norms and other these belief sys-
tems are rooted. The role of civil society should not be one of perpet-
uating the economic globalization of a consumer-based value system.
Civil society must be more than a market and consumer-based society.
A healthy, functioning civil society is based in a value system that does
not use economic standing as the sole determinant of success. This
society is not manipulated by the agenda of the market system but
rather acts as an agent that derives its mandate from the community
that it serves and advocates for change. It is this kind of civil society
that is a truly functioning society.
A CASE OF LOCAL GOVERNANCE:

RESOLVING THE SOUP KITCHEN CONTROVERSY
The city of San Rafael is located in the center of Marin County’s east-
ern corridor, about seventeen miles north of San Francisco.2 It is an
affluent community nestled in valleys surrounded by wooded, grassy
hillsides. The business district is a mixture of Victorian buildings, eth-
nic restaurants, retail stores, and financial institutions, which sustain
the city’s hometown flavor. Representatives of the St. Vincent de Paul
Society’s soup kitchen and the city worked for years to resolve issues
regarding the soup kitchen’s negative impact on downtown merchants,
who complained about food lines and homeless people in a commer-
cial district. The limitations of the existing facility combined with esca-
lating operational and criminal problems were such that the city and
St. Vincent’s jointly resolved to move the soup kitchen to a different
location in the city. Throughout the years, numerous discussions were
held, and limited cooperative agreements were reached on several
issues, yet significant operational problems remained for the soup
kitchen, and the relocation issue had not been resolved. Since 1982, the
soup kitchen has fed hungry people, but its operation has been an eye-
sore. Downtown businesses, shoppers, and nearby residents com-
plained about diners’ panhandling, public drunkenness, reported drug
dealing, verbal abuse, litter, and public urination.
On February 23, 1998, the issue of relocation came to a head. An
emergency meeting of the city council had been called after a ran-
corous city council meeting the week before. The room, built for two
hundred, was packed with double that number spilling out into the
hallways and outdoors through the side exits. Three well-organized
groups representing different sides of the issue had come two hours
early to ensure that they would get on the public speakers’ list and to
secure clustered seating for group cheerleading and booing. In a mili-
tary manner, they set up numerous boards displaying statistics, facts,
and photos, showing sacred turf lines not to be crossed and the oppo-
sition’s positions and targets (lines of threatened advance). The atmos-
phere inside the city council chamber was warlike: the mind-set of
many was to hold their ground at all costs and to take no prisoners.
Two major groups opposed each other on this issue. The opposi-
tion group was made up of the Downtown Business Improvement
group, the city’s Redevelopment Agency, the Chamber of Commerce,
the residents of the surrounding neighborhoods, and the employees

and parents at nearby public and private schools. The group in support
of the soup kitchen in the core of the downtown retail-shopping dis-
trict run by St. Vincent de Paul included the “kitchen’s” board of advis-
ers, its director, and the not-so-huddled masses of the unkempt, dis-
abled, mentally ill, homeless, and elderly. This latter group filled the
city council chamber seats, put up posters, and briefed the members of
the newspaper and TV media. They were under direct attack, with
nowhere to go and nothing to lose by standing and fighting back for
their place of refuge. Joining them, in a surprise stroke of political and
symbolic genius, were the priests, ministers, and rabbis of virtually
every church and temple in the community. This alliance between a
stubborn and independent soup kitchen and the local upper-class reli-
gious community suddenly shifted the balance of power in the strug-
gle for the soup kitchen to stay in its downtown location. Until this
point, the downtown business community and most voters had encour-
aged the city council to wage a fight against the drug dealers, child
molesters, crazies, litterers, doorway “pissers,” and other homeless and
suspicious characters of the streets, who were drawn to the downtown
shopping area by the kitchen.
The public debate lasted for five hours, from 7 P.M. to 12 A.M., and
involved mostly disagreements about relocation. The city manager,
Rod Gould, was caught in a bind. He had acted aggressively and made
minimum concessions in negotiations, as per the city council’s strongly
worded public and private direction. Now he could be the head offered
up to quiet the uproar if he did not act quickly and carefully. His avail-
able options seemed nonviable. If the soup kitchen were to stay at its
current site, it would infuriate the business community and embarrass
the city council. If he were to force the soup kitchen to move, he would
face the wrath of the soup kitchen, the neighborhood to which he
moved it, and the entire religious community and still leave the city
council with a politically awkward situation. He had to buy time to
find a new approach. He suggested that the soup kitchen discussion be
tabled and dealt with at a special meeting between the city council and
the Redevelopment Agency. This would give him a few days to find a
new solution.
At the next city council meeting, the city council members had no
choice but to back away from their insistence that the soup kitchen
move. The city council decided instead that the soup kitchen could
move to the Ritter Street area, a downtown neighborhood that, ironi-

cally, the soup kitchen’s operators had wanted to explore a year earlier;
at the time, the city council had rejected this location. So the city coun-
cil compromised, and the soup kitchen agreed to operate under a user
permit in an attempt to move beyond this conflict. The city council
appointed a seventeen-member committee, consisting of business lead-
ers, residents, diners, religious leaders, members of neighborhood asso-
ciations, representatives of community charity organizations, officials
from the St. Vincent de Paul Society, and the city staff. This Ad Hoc
Dining Room Committee was responsible for locating an acceptable
site in the Ritter Street area, as well as for establishing conditions of
operation. The committee spent hours in meetings, consulted many
people, and designed a survey and plans for improving the soup
kitchen’s operation. On June 4, 1998, after researching and reviewing
eight sites for relocation and conducting numerous public dialogues,
the committee was informed that Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E)
had offered to sell the city a piece of property located in the Ritter
Street area and was also interested in redeveloping the entire three-acre
block in conjunction with the city. In late August 1999, PG&E
announced that Marriott International had been selected as the hotel
developer of the new site, and the city of San Rafael, the St. Vincent
de Paul Society, and Marriott International were supposed to com-
mence negotiations regarding the development of the new dining facil-
ity on sixteen thousand square feet of the three-acre Third Street par-
cel. Unfortunately, due to the bad California State economy and the
decline in hotel business, Marriott decided to abandon the project.
Now the Century Theater group plans to build a downtown multi-
screen movie theater (or cineplex) at the former hotel site, considering
the relocation of the dining room to be included in the construction
project. The city government has determined to facilitate the relocation
and development of a new dinning facility as the future development
project unfolds.
The anticipated result will be a new, improved facility for St. Vin-
cent’s, enabling it to continue its mission to feed and serve the needy
of the community. The Neighborhood Advisory Committee is con-
vinced that services to the poor will be more efficient through the coor-
dination among the twenty-one nonprofit social services organizations
in the community, including Ritter House, Goodwill Industries, Marin
Jobs Connection, and the St. Vincent de Paul Society. This case
demonstrates that a constructive resolution can emerge from citizens’

sense of purpose in building a community-based soup kitchen, one
supported by, and accepted by, the surrounding businesses and neigh-
borhood. The process was conducted outside the conventional politics
controlled by the city government and powerful interest groups.
This case study suggests some important implications about the
responsibility of public officials and administrators in working with
local citizens, groups, and organizations. First, in order to explore
unknown possibilities in dealing with complex community problems,
the democratic process must be continuously exercised through public
participation, dialogue, discourse, and deliberation. In this case, peo-
ple’s understanding of one another underwent a major shift. The soup
kitchen had a weak organization with no political influence in the
community, no rules, and constant problems with its clients who
fought, panhandled, drink in public, and committed petty crimes. Even
so, these poor and needy residents had as much voice in the city’s future
as merchants and officials with grand visions for urban renewal. The
change came about when it became clear that many believed that no
one should be denied food regardless of his or her behavior. After long
public deliberation, the city council was persuaded by the religious
community.
Another important lesson of this case is that a community can
govern itself without hierarchical intervention by government author-
ity. Political and administrative authority played a significant role in
the process by providing a public forum so that citizens could disclose
their views on the issue at hand. The city manager worked as a facili-
tator. In civil society, nonhierarchical networking is most effective
when citizens, politicians, and administrators volunteer to promote the
public good and are willing to be facilitative leaders, to work with cit-
izens’ values, listen to citizens’ voices, learn from others, and question
their own assumptions in a reflexive manner.
Other numerous applications of the governance approach in civil
society can be found in the areas of sustainable economic development,
environmental protection, community policing, human rights, and
community-based social programs, such as those involving education,
health, and social welfare. The surge of NGOs worldwide is an exam-
ple of a governance movement working through networking by citi-
zens, groups, and organizations dealing with various issues, both
domestically and internationally.
DESIGNING MODERN DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
In the process of modernization and industrialization, governments in

many countries have played a major role in designing and implement-
ing public policies. The assumption is that the state could and should
be the prime mover in economic and national development. The lead-
ers of the rapidly industrializing countries share this perspective. The
central government establishes the policy framework for development,
designs and enforces development priorities, controls abuses through
regulation, and operates major enterprises. In this process, government
bureaucrats are the major actors in mobilizing people in business and
the local community to participate in the implementation of govern-
ment policies. As a consequence, these countries have largely neglected
the development of civil society. In the following sections, two large
development projects are introduced; the Chinese case demonstrates
the role of strong government in the absence of business or civil soci-
ety, and the South Korean case shows the consequences of ineffective
pluralistic politics at an early stage of project development and the
emerging role of NGOs in the middle of the project.
The Three Gorges Dam: China’s Most

Ambitious Project since the Great Wall
The Yangtze (Changjiang) is the longest river in China and the third
longest in the world. It is 6,300 kilometers in length and empties itself
into the East China Sea near Shanghai. The three gorges—the
Qutang, the Wuxia, and the Xiling—extend a total of 193 kilometers.
The Yangtze River has been plagued with many floods, inundating
thousands of square miles and killing more than 300,000 people in the
twentieth century alone. In order to put an end to the natural disasters,
the Chinese government decided to build a dam east of the three
gorges. This water conservation project is known as the Three Gorges
Project. When I took a Yangtze River cruise in 1998, I saw firsthand
the natural landscapes along the river, including dramatic cliffs and a
plethora of cultural and historical relics in the Three Gorges area. Once
the dam is complete, many beautiful temples, archaeological sites, and
ancient towns will disappear under a vast lake.
The first phase of water storage was completed in June 2003, and
everything below 135 meters above sea level, in a 400–kilometer-long
section west of the dam along the banks of the Yangtze, was sub-
merged. When the dam is completed in 2009, the water level will reach
175 meters. The inhabitants of 1,400 largely rural towns and villages
will be resettled on land either near the reservoir or elsewhere in China
at sites chosen by the government. About 2 million people will be dis-
placed as a huge reservoir fills behind the new dam (National Geo-
graphic, September 1997).
Despite opposition from some Chinese citizens as well as interna-
tional lending and environmental organizations, the government has
launched the project, which will cost at least $17 billion. In November
1997, the dam builders began to pour concrete for the 607–foot-high
dam itself, which will run 1.3 miles from the foreground to the far shore
and harbor twenty-six of the world’s largest turbines, about 400 tons
each. The dam will generate 18,200 megawatts of electricity (20 percent
of China’s electrical power), equivalent to the output of eighteen nuclear
power plants, and will also eliminate the burning of some 50 million
tons of coal a year. This dam will be the most powerful dam ever built
and certainly the biggest project that China has undertaken since the
first embankment surrounding the Great Wall went up 2,000 years ago.
From the beginning of the project design, opponents of the dam
challenged every aspect of the government’s plans. Some of the major
criticisms, published in National Geographic, follow:
1. The region would be better served by a series of smaller dams on
Yangtze tributaries.
2. Sedimentation will make the river’s deep-draft harbor unusable
and impede the generation of electricity.
3. An annual flow of one quarter trillion gallons of raw sewage,
together with effluents flushed from abandoned factories sub-
merged underwater, will kill aquatic species and turn the reservoir
into an open sewer.
4. Incalculably valuable relics in unexplored archaeological sites will
be forever lost.
5. More than 2 million people will be forced from ancestral homes
and farms and relocated elsewhere.
6. Project costs could run as high as $75 million.
7. Some 240,000 acres of cropland will be lost to the dam’s 370–mile-
long reservoir. (National Geographic, p. 8)
In summary, the Chinese government intends to finish the dam

regardless of the cost. The people seem to have enthusiasm for and
pride in working on a monumental project. Western newspapers and
magazines, however, report the various problems of corruption in man-
aging the project funds, the inadequate compensation for the people
who are forced to relocate, the shortage of new housing, and the loss of
the relics in the region, including many Stone Age ruins. The farmers
who move to cities will have to learn new skills and adjust to a new way
of life. If this project had been initiated in a democratic country, such
as South Korea, Japan, or the United States or a European country, the
dam could never have gotten started because of strong opposition on
the part of NGOs.
The Fallacy of Changing the Landscape:

Building a Sea Dike in South Korea
During an election campaign, politicians make empty promises that

they have problems keeping after they are elected. The construction of
a 33 kilometer-long (19.8 mile) sea dike, connecting two harbor cities
in the midwestern part of South Korea, began with a political promise.
In December 1987, presidential candidate Roh Tae-Woo announced
that if elected, he would build a sea dike in order to create new land for
agriculture and a large lake to provide a drinking water source. After he
became president, his administration did not pursue the project, due to
a lack of funds and a lack of urgency: the country was enjoying surplus
rice production. The Economic Planning Board, which was then a
powerful agency that oversaw the budgetary and planning matters of
the central government, recommended not implementing the plan. In
1991, the leaders of the two opposing political parties, Kim Young-
Sam (who went on to hold the office of president from 1993 to 1998)
and Kim Dae-Jung (who went on to hold the office of president from
1998 to 2003), pressured President Roh to implement the sea dike pro-
ject. Because of their political pressure, the Roh administration began
the project, known as the Saemangum Project, in November 1991.
The main goals of the project are (1) to create 23,300 hectares
(6,105,841 acres) of agricultural land; (2) to create a freshwater lake of
11,800 hectares (29,157,800 acres) and provide a source for drinking
water of 1 billion cubic meters (approximately the same size as the San
Francisco-Oakland Bay); and (3) to construct a sea dike to block the
tide and provide complete relief from frequent flooding caused by the
seawater in the upper stream of two rivers (the Mangyung King River
and the Tongjin Kang River basins), to use a new dike as a road to con-
nect the two harbor cities (Gunsan city and Booan city), and to pro-
vide employment opportunities for 13,390 people a year during the
construction of the project. The traditionally ineffective and corrupt
National Assembly supported the president’s project without any crit-
ical debate, disregarding what would happen to the environment. No
strong environmental groups existed to oppose the government policy.
Because the Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for executing the
project, the bureaucrats in this agency have a vested interest in com-
pleting the projects no matter what its cost.
Since 1996, environmental groups and religious organizations have
emerged as a critical voice, questioning the environmental impacts of
the Saemangum project; they claim that the project was not designed
to protect the marshland. They say that it will keep away migratory
birds and destroy nature preserves and ecological parks. Furthermore,
the dislocation of the inhabitants in the local communities will cause
numerous problems, including the disintegration of human relation-
ships and the loss of fishermen’s income. These problems would be
addressed only inadequately by the government’s monetary compensa-
tion. By the end of 2002, more than $1.5 billion had been spent. The
dike was 73 percent complete. An additional $1 billion was scheduled
to be spent on inland development programs related to a new lake and
land. In June 2003, three NGOs—the United Environmental Move-
ment, Green Alliance, and the Lawyers Association for a Democratic
Society—filed a civil suit against the Ministry of Agriculture and sub-
mitted a petition to the Seoul Administrative Court, requesting the
immediate stoppage of the dike project until the civil suit was over. On
July 15, 2003, to the astonishment of President Roh Moo-Hyun and
the Ministry of Agriculture, the court ordered the immediate halt of
the project before it could cause further damage to the environment.
Because of a joint protest made by the governor of the provincial gov-
ernment where the project was located and the bureaucrats of the Min-
istry of Agriculture, and because of pressure brought to bear by the
president’s office, the court has permitted some part of the project to
be finished.
The court has heard various environmental reports argued by the
Ministry of Agriculture, the Environmental Agency, and the experts
representing environmental groups. The Ministry of Agriculture

invited an expert witness from the Netherlands to testify about the rea-
sons for completing the dike project, and the environmental groups
recruited an environmental advocate from Germany, who advocated
converting the Saemangum area into a national park. On February 4,
2005, the court ruled that the project has to be either modified or can-
celled. The court, however, allowed the Ministry of Agriculture to con-
tinue working on the building of the dike. At this point, nearly 92 per-
cent of the dike project (only 2.7 kilometers left) was completed.
Because the dike is likely to be completed in less than two years, the
environmental groups have filed another suit to stop the project imme-
diately. Since the dike is likely to be built, the environmental groups
will lose in the end. Their defeat, however, could bring the strengthen-
ing of their voice and solidarity against any future projects that dam-
age the environment. Furthermore, government’s unilateral action
would face strong resistance. The political dynamic of this case is dif-
ferent from those of the Chinese case in that NGOs were an influen-
tial force in critiquing government policy and protecting the environ-
ment. The civic engagement by NGOs in the political and policy
process is a truly remarkable change in South Korean politics.
GLOBALIZATION AND DEMOCRATIZATION:

A CONTRADICTION
Particularly as a means for the international economic integration of

markets for goods, services, and capital, globalization has generated
serious unanticipated consequences. As globalization connects coun-
tries and markets it tends to create a monoculture. Global marketing
strategies attempt to convince people to drink cola, eat fast food, listen
to Western rock music, and adopt Western fashions. Many critics argue
that a country’s distinct political and economic culture is more impor-
tant than any promised rapid economic growth. Furthermore, these
critics do not believe that things will get better if governments can
keep improving international trade competition and attract foreign
investments that supposedly provide more economic growth and effi-
ciency. Many critics argue that globalization is threatening people’s
jobs and communities, diminishing democracy, increasing economic
anxiety, and stimulating social disintegration, while devouring the last
remnants of resources and wilderness. The only beneficiaries seem to

be global corporations, which advocate free trade and globalization
(Mander and Goldsmith, 1996; Brecher, Costello, and Smith 2000;
Cavanagh et al., 2002).
The most common complaints raised by critics of economic glob-
alization are as follows:
• Increased economic globalization greatly contributes to the
breakdown of the ecosystem’s regenerative capacities and the social
fabric that sustains human community.
• The integrated market economy has negatively affected tradi-
tional civil society, leading to the destruction of many civic organizations
and the minimizing of personal bonds, because of its emphasis on eco-
nomic relationships. Thus feelings of ethical and moral responsibility
have been allowed to decay (Burbach, Nunez, and Kagarlitsky, 1997).
• As U.S. corporations have expanded their global reach, they
are better able to put the U.S. workforce in direct competition with for-
eign workers, thus increasing corporate profits while driving down
workers’ wages and the general standard of living (Danaher, 1996).
• Global corporations are better able to use technology to down-
size their workforce, thus creating anxiety among working people, who
no longer feel secure about the future of their jobs.
• As global corporations become less dependent on any particu-
lar nation, they have less interest in supporting any government with
taxes. This results in a shrinking tax base and what is referred to as a
“fiscal crisis of the state” (the tendency for government expenses to
outpace revenues).
• Economic globalization has not achieved distributive equity.
The richest nations have increased their share of the world gross
national product (GNP), while the poorest nations have experienced a
decrease in their share of world GNP. The data produced by the UN
Development Programs indicate that, between 1960 and 1990, “the
richest fifth of all nations had its share of world income rise from 70
per cent to 85 percent, while the poorest fifth of all nations had its
share fall from 2.3 per cent to 1.4 percent” (Sandler, 1997, pp. 182–83).
• By using the rationale that maintaining global competition is
of the utmost importance, despite driving down the living standards of
the majority, the corporate class has shifted more and more wealth
from ordinary workers to themselves. This growing inequality is pro-

ducing resentment and rebellion here and abroad. European countries,
who have traditionally placed a high tax burden on their populations,
experience difficulty in increasing taxes on corporations, due to the
competition and stateless characteristics of globalization and informa-
tion technology. The Economist (1997, p. 15) reports that “over the past
decade or so, taxes on capital have already fallen sharply while those on
labor have risen. In the future, it will be harder to tax firms or high-
earners at high rates because they are the most mobile. The implication
is that unskilled labor will have to bear a greater burden.”
In his 1996 book Has Globalization Gone Too Far? Rodrik argues
that economic globalization has produced various side effects in
domestic arenas. Globalization has made it easier for firms to move
production facilities overseas, substituting low-wage foreign workers
for local ones. Thus globalization has created job insecurity through
the erosion of nonwage benefits and the weakening of trade unions as
free trade conditions threaten workers’ rights. Imports to industrializ-
ing countries are causing social disruption, including high con-
sumerism, child labor, and a decrease in indigenous production capa-
bility. Rodrick suggests that the WTO’s rules regarding “safeguards”
should be broadened to include rules about sudden surges in imports
that create negative effects on society.
The Hunt for “Black Gold” in Ecuador
Texaco’s oil exploration in Ecuador between 1972 and 1992 resulted in

massive deforestation, oil contamination in the Amazon area, the dis-
location of the indigenous people, the destruction of local agriculture,
and health hazards for thousands of people. An ABC Nightline story
in the fall of 1998 also disclosed that, when the oil drilling agreement
was reached with Texaco, the weak Ecuadoran government “sold out”
the needs of citizens and the ecology of the Orient (the East), an
unspoiled land of tumbling brown rivers and humid jungle in the
Amazon, in favor of economic development. In 2003, the Los Angeles
Times reviewed documents, studies, and interviews with current and
former Texaco executives and Ecuadoran officials and reported on how
the search for oil had wreaked havoc on a remote place and its people.
During the oil-drilling operation, Texaco discharged drilling waste
into the surface water, which resulted in the destruction of once pro-
ductive agricultural fields, the death of animals and plants, and health
and ecological problems in the area. Because the government had many
problems—little money, a large international debt, poverty, and an
inability to provide services for its citizens—policy makers did not pay
attention to the long-term consequences of the oil exploration or the
joint venture with Texaco. Instead, they were eager to make a deal with
a well-resourced multinational corporation, counting on bringing in
billions of dollars. Because environmental programs had been cut, the
Ecuadoran government showed little concern about the impact of Tex-
aco’s drilling operations on the environment.
From 1972 to 1992, Texaco pumped 1.5 billion barrels of oil from
Ecuador—most of it bound for California markets. Environmentalists
estimate that by the time the company pulled out, Texaco had dumped
more than 19 billion gallons of waste and spilled 16.8 million gallons
of crude oil, one and one-half times the amount spilled by the oil
tanker Exxon Valdez in Alaska. Within a decade, Texaco had trans-
formed Ecuador. Working with its partner, Gulf Oil, and with the
Ecuadoran government, it built a 312–mile-long pipeline traversing
the Andes, crisscrossed the jungle with roads, and drilled hundreds of
wells. By the time Texaco left, there were more than 600 waste pits
pockmarking the region (Los Angeles Times, November 30, 2003).
At present, neither the Ecuadoran government nor Texaco is will-
ing to take responsibility for cleaning up the hazardous waste and the
environment, and the powerless local people are merely struggling to
survive. A 1987 study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
found widespread environmental damage in cases in the United States
where oil producers poured waste directly into freshwater streams. The
study predicted that, in some cases, small wells that dumped no more
than one hundred barrels of wastewater a day into streams could
slightly increase the risk of cancer among local residents. In the Ama-
zon, Texaco was dumping up to one hundred thousand barrels of waste-
water a day—one thousand times more (ibid).
It is reasonable to conclude that Texaco knew that its Ecuador
operations would not have met standards in the United States and that
the company had a responsibility to do more than local laws required.
If Texaco had done in the United States what it did in Ecuador, Tex-
aco officials would have been charged with a crime. Former Texaco
officials acknowledged that the environment was not as important an
issue in the early 1970s as today, but environmentalists contended that

Texaco did not keep up with changes in technology as environmental
practices improved. A multibillion-dollar lawsuit was filed on behalf of
thirty thousand citizens, and the trial began in Ecuador in 2003. Today,
U.S. companies such as Los Angles-based Occidental Petroleum are
still exploring the region, hoping for a second oil boom.
IMPLICATIONS
Effective democratic governance3 stems from the psychological com-

mitment of citizens and stakeholders in the community to meet their
collective needs, participate in politics, and develop expectations for
the future. As illustrated by the cases of China, South Korea, and
Ecuador, modern development projects and economic globalization are
often the goals of national government; government is doing things “to
people rather than by them” (Cavanagh, et al., 2002, p. 107). Most
development projects are driven by an economic ideology promoted by
a society’s policy makers and business elite. Strengthening civil society
is a way to limit the power of a strong government and the market.
The civil society movement is spreading throughout the world, and
it will most likely have major social, economic, and political conse-
quences in the twenty-first century. Civil society and democratic gov-
ernance will transcend the current mode of institutional governing,
which is characterized by centralized control, strong hierarchical rela-
tionships with citizens and civic organizations, and unethical behavior
on the part of big corporations and government. If the development of
civil society organizations is appreciated and promoted by political
leaders, then a viable civil society and democratic community will
emerge. The potential losers are countries that postpone opportunities
for developing democratic governance that facilitates civic engage-
ment. Furthermore, civil society organizations and NGOs could be an
important social force for socioeconomic and political change in non-
Western countries as well, in dealing with citizen needs; sustainable
development issues; and the problem of inequality, participation, and
people-oriented projects.
As Walter Truett Anderson says, “[G]overnance is not the exclu-
sive monopoly of governments, and it never has been” (Anderson,
1997, p. 18). To really understand the changing nature of governance,
we have to go beyond the governing aspect of government and seek not

only ways of enhancing civil society, but also ways of actively facilitat-
ing civic engagement. The responsibility of public administrators
toward NGOs is to understand their purpose and learn to live with the
emergence of all types of organizations, including a “citizen agenda for
global governance.” Public administrators must respect and facilitate
the advocacy role of citizen organizations. They must go beyond the
idea of establishing a strong central government; instead, they must
think of ways to develop a partnership with voluntary organizations
and NGOs without jeopardizing these organizations’ autonomy or
independence. A civil society triangle can also be strengthened by a
cooperative and transparent relationship with the business organiza-
tions. What is lacking in many countries, however, is a viable civil soci-
ety. Furthermore, to overcome the inadequacies of today’s pluralistic
democracy, a large, active, informed, and conscientious body of citizens
should participate in public discourse (Gouinlock, 1986, p. 4). Enhanc-
ing citizens’ capability of self-governance is essential so that in the long
run, people gradually raise their consciousness and sense of responsi-
bility for managing their own civic affairs without relying on the direc-
tions of the government. The growth of civil society will facilitate the
further development of democracy and offer unlimited possibilities for
social innovation, particularly through the deliberative process in the
public sphere.
CHAPTER 10
Concluding Thoughts
The past century has seen great changes in the development of the
governing capability of industrializing and postindustrial countries,
such as strong government, management capability, professionalization
of public service, scientific and rational ways of designing policies and
activities, and coping with diverse political and social conditions. These
changes have interacted with political, economic, social, cultural, and
technological factors to create the current situation in which we are
now keenly aware of the need for democratization, participation, glob-
alization, and an awareness of the interdependence of mutual interests.
Since the early 1970s in many Western countries, the United States in
particular, we have experienced a critical restructuring of policies and
administrative activities: public programs have been reduced; national
debts have risen; public finance has changed; agencies have been con-
solidated; and public entrepreneurship has been promoted. These
changes have been brought about by political and social pressures,
accompanied by taxpayer revolts, greater equality for people of color
and women, and changes in local politics and economies. While West-
ern countries have been restructuring (and reducing) their programs
and activities, many industrializing countries in Asia have been
expanding government programs and activities—by investing in edu-
cation and building infrastructures—in order to cope with the rising
demands of society.
In dealing with complex problems, policy makers and public
administrators tend to rely on instrumental and technical solutions.
These changes largely focus on policy revisions, structural and func-
tional adjustments, and procedural modifications. These changes are
top-down and management-driven efforts, coupled with various man-
agement techniques, such as Program Planning Budgeting System
(PPBS), Management by Objectives (MBO), Zero-Based Budgeting
(ZBB), Total Quality Management (TQM), Strategic Planning (SP),
cost-benefit analysis, performance measurement, and so on. At least
three unintended consequences have resulted from these techniques:
235
(1) an increase in the use of rational and instrumental solutions to

organizational problems, (2) an increase in centralized decision mak-
ing, and (3) a decrease in humanistic concerns and values. The solu-
tions that were implemented have led to more managerial power and
an increased use of technical tools to control the processes of organi-
zational activities ( Jun and Gross, 1996).
In his book The Technological Society, Jacques Ellul sees “tech-
niques” (technological or technical tools) as the inevitable product of
the rationalizing, order-loving and clarity-loving human conscious-
ness. His view of techniques relates not only to machine technology
but also to the standardization of procedures and behavior in order to
develop the one best method for the achievement of any result (1964,
pp. 3–22). In public administration and policy analysis, the desire of
administrators and analysts to achieve goals in the most efficient way
motivates them to adopt deterministic and positivistic techniques.
Once they adopt a particular technique, their activities become routine
and rigid. A technical framework is now reified by human conscious-
ness. The framework is dehumanizing in that it ignores ethical and
human implications.
Although a myriad of articles and books have been written about
the application of management techniques to promote economy, effi-
ciency, effectiveness, and participation in the public sector, there is lit-
tle evidence that these techniques have produced the sustained effect
of organizational democracy and effective problem solving. Although
management techniques and information technology, including the
Internet, have improved the management of routine activities and
made government activities more transparent, some caution should be
used against the abuse of rational-instrumental tools and the neglect of
human interaction. Many scholars advance theoretical arguments for
participatory management using management techniques. In practice,
however, democratic ideas and decentralization in the workplace have
produced little equivocal results.
Good techniques can, of course, improve organizational efficiency
and rational decision making. But it is equally true that techniques are
only as good as the people who use them. If management tools are designed
to help managers and experts make better decisions and help with
organizational performance, why, then, do tools produce only marginal
results in most situations, particularly in public organizations? In order
to use tools efficiently and effectively, those who are involved in the
Concluding Thoughts 237
tool application must have not only technical skills but also human
skills so that they are aware of their own biases and the values of oth-
ers. That is why this book explores the limitations of modern public
management and argues for the reconstruction of administrative the-
ory and practice through the perspective of the social construction of
reality. One of the ideas of social construction is to turn people’s diverse
social knowledge into action through people sharing their values and
experiences; it is also to go beyond the traditional role of management
and not place confidence in technical or functional tools for governing
human activities. The social constructionist approach is not a panacea
for all administrative problems but is a framework for democratizing
governance processes and helping public administrators to think in
terms of the broad human context.
RECAPITULATION
I present the concept, practice, and application of the social construc-

tionist perspective as a major theme in order to understand and criti-
cally synthesize seemingly disparate aspects of what public administra-
tors do and should do. Underlying the study of contemporary public
administration is the idea that democratic governance and collabora-
tive action are necessary if society and administration are to continue
to change, innovate, and sustain their vitality. Public administrators
and institutions must create opportunities for sharing and learning
among organizational members and must facilitate interactive
processes between public administrators and citizens so that the latter
can voice their problems and opinions. Thus the future role of public
administrators will be to transcend the limitations of the management
and governing of modern public administration and to explore ways of
constructing socially meaningful alternatives through communicative
action and the participation of citizens.
More important is to understand individuals in relation to organi-
zational, social, and cultural contexts; as the individual interacts with
others and with the diverse environment, the self is always in the
process of growth and change. Returning our attention to the problem
of individuals helps us explicate why the functionalist and positivistic
approaches to management, management-driven change, and the
objective requirements of ethics do not produce their intended results.
It also helps us to realize the role of the individual in relation to others

in constructing and reconstructing realities. This is one of the merits of
the social constructionist perspective on connecting the individual with
the organization and creating social settings for interdependence. To
understand the problems of the organization and society, we need to
use the interactive process, beginning with the individual and proceed-
ing to the group, the organization, society, and the globe. In the inter-
pretive perspective, phenomenology in particular, the individual is con-
ceived as a world-experiencing subject, with human praxis organized
around a commonly experienced life-world. It is foundational experi-
ence, and it is shared and accessible meaning that most postmodernists
reject. Without a reflexive consciousness, a person could not critically
examine or understand inner processes or the self (i.e., could not exam-
ine the ethical or moral consequences of actions). Thus, understanding
ethics through the subjective is more meaningful to individuals than
through the objective.
The subjective aspect of relationships is not a significant part of
the argument raised by deconstructive postmodernists. The social con-
structionist perspective explored in this book may be considered con-
structive postmodern thought (or critical-modernist thought) because
it seeks to overcome the limitations of modern public administration,
not by neglecting the merits of typified ideas of the administrative (or
management) tradition, but by constructing a postmodern public
administration that improves human activities. The constructive post-
modern view encompasses a critical (and dialectical) synthesis of
administration as an art and as a science by turning its attention to
people’s broadly shared values, interests, and experiences. It is more
useful to go beyond dualistic thinking as we study various opposing
issues, such as art versus science, administration versus the public,
quantitative versus qualitative knowledge, the organization versus the
individual, objective and subjective responsibility, governing versus
governance. The constructive postmodern view also helps us change
old assumptions and design new premises by critically examining the
inadequacies of administrative (and management) concepts, scientific
methods, and procedures of governing that are commonly espoused in
the functionalist and positivist perspectives. In this book, I try to
reconstruct public administration from the viewpoint of democratic
social construction and stress the importance of relationships that
enable organizations to promote the potential in people, rather than
devise ways to control and measure their performance. Thus the social
constructionist perspective introduced in this book may be interpreted
as critical pragmatism, in which administrative theory and praxis are
grounded in interpretation and understanding of human experiences in
relation to broad political, social, economic, and cultural contexts.
Social construction is a framework in which people together figure out
what is possible and what organizational learning needs to happen.
Another important aspect of the social constructionist perspective is
its commitment to change and problem solving through the democratic
process, engaging people in discussions of problems and in realizing their
values, ideas, and experiences. This process inevitably involves participa-
tion, deliberation, and communicative action. In chapters 4 and 5, I pro-
vided a critical review of the crisis, rational, and incremental modes of
public problem solving. The social design approach to change and prob-
lem solving must be practiced through dialogue and discourse in order to
understand differences among the participants and construct an inter-
subjective reality. When we come to an agreement, there is a sense of
shared reality, there is learning, and there is mutual respect. Because
democratic problem solving involves assent and dissent regarding issues
that are difficult to resolve, interactions and negotiations may not pro-
duce acceptable decisions among the actors. Even when people fail to
reach an agreement in spite of their contested dialogue, the level of inter-
subjective understanding has been raised. It is important for participants
to understand why they were not able to construct a desirable outcome
so that their experiences provide a new insight into the next engagement.
The process of social construction encourages people’s participa-
tion and contribution. When organizations encourage their members
to be critical and constructive, then the members find no threat to their
autonomy or identity; under these circumstances, most people are will-
ing to experience the process of changing reality. As people engage in
the process of sharing their ideas, they can find meaning in their
actions. In order to implement a policy or project, the actors involved
need to derive a sense of self-worth from and find intrinsic meaning in
them. How executives and managers interact with people below them
influences greatly the way they motivate them. The social construc-
tionist approach offers an opportunity for people’s voluntary participa-
tion by mobilizing from below, as opposed to organizational mobiliza-
tion from the top down in order to gain people’s obedience and
contributions (Friedmann, 1987, pp. 181–308).
Because democracy demands the participation of people in delib-

erating diverse viewpoints, social construction as a democratic process
is a very complicated activity that cannot be comprehended without
understanding how the individuals construct their self-concept in the
social (or organizational) world. One of the most common forms in
modern and postmodern societies is the structural arrangement of
bureaucracy. Although a bureaucratic form of government structures
seems to be universal at least in its appearance, the construction of
“bureaucratic experience” is quite different from one society to
another and from one administrative culture to another. Differences in
bureaucratic experience stem from the differences in the social con-
struction of organizational reality as experienced by the organizational
members; the construction of organizational elements such as rules
and procedures, individual existence, peer relationships, incentives,
and future possibilities varies depending on the nature of organiza-
tional governance.
In this book, I emphasize the positive aspects of human nature,
rather than looking at the negative image of organizational members.
Public administrators in general are interested in meaningful action
and want to perform good work as ethically and humanely as they can.
They are able to reflect on themselves, interpret their life-world, and
exercise critical consciousness. When an individual entertains doubts
about a choice, the person can discuss his or her ideas with others. In
this regard, social construction offers an opportunity for individual
self-empowerment as well as “collective self-empowerment” by the
actors in particular social settings unveiling or testing individual con-
cerns and knowledge. Michael Barber describes Alfred Schutz’s idea of
typification and relevance thus: “[O]ur own [original] experiences, as
well as any kind of socially derived knowledge, receive additional
weight if they are also embraced by other members of our in-group. I
tend to believe my own experiences to be correct beyond doubt if oth-
ers whom my social group considers competent corroborate them”
(1988, p. 59).
The changing relationships among government, civil society, and
business are also discussed from the social constructionist viewpoint.
Globalization has served to bring nations and people closer together:
people network, sharing cultural, economic, political, and technologi-
cal interests. When government and the global market economy
obstruct broad human interests and the public good, nongovernmental
or civil society organizations act as a counterbalance to government

and businesses. Because of the pressing need for economic moderniza-
tion, governance and development—including global policy making—
must go beyond the top-down approach of policymakers and man-
agers. Instead, they must promote the process of bottom-up policy
making, involving citizens who will be affected by such global deci-
sions as trade negotiations, economic development projects, and for-
eign investments. Strengthening civil society by questioning policies
and activities is an important way to limit the power of a strong gov-
ernment and the market. As citizens and NGOs improve their com-
munities through discursive practice, they learn how to self-govern.
Although a strong civil society is conspicuous in Western countries,
many non-Western democratic countries also realize the role that civil
society plays in democratizing the governance process.
In the following section, I explore ways to make the process of
social construction effective. How can the democratic process be sus-
tained? In what ways can democratic social construction be a signifi-
cant force for enhancing the potential of individuals as well as involv-
ing the public? The answers to these questions require change and
innovation in structure, power relationships, and dialogical practice;
they also require enhancing trust in people’s action skills.
MAKING SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION EFFECTIVE
Democratic social construction provides a framework for developing

“collective reasoning,” a process in which people work together, seek-
ing collective aims (or public reason) for deciding important activities,
policies, or projects (Rawls, 1993; Bohman, 1996; Christiano, 1997;
Richardson, 2002; Dryzek, 2000; Hajer and Wagenaar, 2003), such as
transportation policy, health care, community planning, economic
development, environmental protection, and crime prevention. The
democratic social construction of public administration is based on two
important assumptions: (1) the value of deliberative democracy, which
emphasizes participation in decision making through the process of
contested dialogue and discourse, and (2) the value of preventing
bureaucratic domination by minimizing hierarchical control.
Although the ideas of democracy and bureaucracy are difficult to
reconcile, as long as we are concerned with the publicness of public
administration, the study of public administration must explore ways

to promote a “democratic public” by reconstructing organizational gov-
ernance and the role of management.1 This, of course, requires changes
in the current practice of public administration. Among many possi-
bilities, I discuss several areas that directly affect process, participation,
and interaction.
Decentralization and Power Sharing
Democratic governance and participation mean little if the distribution

of governmental power remains undisturbed. This means that govern-
ment agencies must find ways to share their decision-making power
with the public. With a highly centralized government structure, deci-
sion-making power resides at the top level of the central government.
Japan’s first step, as well as South Korea’s first step, should be an ongo-
ing effort to decentralize local governments. The next logical step
would be for local governments to consider how decentralized author-
ity granted by the central government could be applied to local condi-
tions and how local people could be involved in the democratic process.
As the professionalization of local administration increases, there is a
tendency to rely on technical skills and rational analysis to solve com-
plex social problems. At the same time, as the informal relationships
between government officials and businesses develop, economic and
business development projects are initiated without informing citizens,
in spite of the environmental damage that could be caused by those
projects. If local autonomy is to have public support, then public delib-
eration and transparency in public meetings are necessary so that citi-
zens can argue for or against development projects and have their
words carry weight.
The political and institutional arrangements practiced in West-
ern countries are not readily applicable to other countries, particu-
larly non-Western countries, where politics and administration are
highly centralized, the level of professionalization is low, and
democracy is new. In those countries, governmental reforms must
consider how to develop citizens’ capacity for self-governance, as
well as how to improve the management capability of local public
institutions first, before experimenting with political or administra-
tive decentralization. For example, in many African countries where
decentralization programs were introduced, the outcomes were cor-
ruption and wasted resources—due largely to a lack of local govern-

ment capability or civic culture.
Decentralization without power sharing between the higher and
lower levels of an institution is simply a structural rearrangement that
could create inefficiency if local bureaucrats are passive. When the cen-
tral authority delegates functions to the local authority without pro-
viding sufficient resources, the local authorities are at the mercy of cen-
tral bureaucrats. Structural change alone does not empower people at
the lower echelon of an organization. Democratic governance calls not
only for active citizens but also for less hierarchical and more flexible
organizations. In Eastern and Western countries, those with adminis-
trative responsibilities should act as the facilitators, coordinators, or
representatives of agencies. Organizational members should also play
an active and deliberative role in the governance process.
Enhancing Discursive Practice
Most change programs initiated by government agencies are the exter-

nal elements that provide nondiscursive experiences for the participants;
they may affect the nature of interactions, participation, and human col-
laboration. However, resistance to administrative reforms imposed by
top management generally comes from nondiscursive aspects of man-
agement-driven changes. When management initiates institutional
(and structural) improvements of organizational activities, organiza-
tional members and citizens may resist these changes. Nondiscursive
factors, such as decentralization, changing authority relationships, hor-
izontal networks, and rules of communication, are essential for democ-
ratic governance and social construction; external features provide peo-
ple with nondiscursive experience.2 Although these nondiscursive
aspects can condition the dialogical process, they are not sufficient for
facilitating authentic communication. For example, changing authority
relationships does not require reciprocal communication—listening,
understanding, and feedback—between the management and employ-
ees. Management, however, could empower employees by providing
them with more autonomy, discretion, and participation and by sharing
information. Nondiscursive elements can have a significant influence
only if participants see them as intrinsically meaningful to themselves.
Democratic social construction, however, can be effective only
when organizational members and citizens demonstrate a psychological
commitment, expressing their interest in discursive practice by engag-

ing in open dialogue, discussing issues with others, and interpreting
issues collectively. Through a deliberative process, they question hierar-
chical governing as well as the quality of interactions and participation
in a social context. Discursive experience results from communicative
action, dialogue and discourse, deliberations that involve contested
arguments, and consensus building through understanding, persuasion,
learning, and negotiation. People develop mutual respect and intersub-
jective meaning as they engage in the discursive process by exchanging
points of view (Gutmann and Thompson, 1996).
Democratic social construction (i.e., democratic governance, or
“discursive democracy”) depends on a process that promotes ongoing
interactions and continuing relationships, critical and reflexive action,
and authentic dialogue and discourse that tolerates opposing voices. As
discursive actors (i.e., citizens and administrators) become self-reflex-
ive in their communication, they learn from others, modify their posi-
tions, become open to negotiation, and construct new possibilities
(Chambers, 1996, pp. 207–08). As Dryzek points out, Habermas
emphasizes the procedural requirements of deliberative democracy in
reaching public consensus but understates contested elements of dis-
cursive democracy (Dryzek, 2000; 1990; also see Chambers, 1996). I
agree with his assertion because the dominant influence of the struc-
tural and functional elements in public administration, both nondis-
cursive and discursive experiences, need to be considered as we attempt
to democratize the governance process: they are complementary and
offer the possibility of democratization. Governance through social
construction can be democratic while embracing some important
aspects of governing. Public administrators will likely always face orga-
nizational and political constraints, such as hierarchical authority,
power, and rules. One way of overcoming these constraints is to reflex-
ively critique them through discursive social practice.
The discursive process works better at the community level,
because it involves active stakeholders and citizens who are interested
in sharing different viewpoints face-to-face; in this situation, there is a
greater chance of reaching consensus. However, when large-scale issues
are addressed through deliberation and discourse, communication is
limited even though it involves debates through various forums and
media and among citizens. As John Dryzek points out, “Discursive
democracy can embrace difference as well as consensus, the public
sphere as well as the state, transnational as well as domestic politics,

and nature as well as humanity” (Dryzek, 2000, p. 175). Dryzek further
argues that in a pluralistic society, consensus is “unattainable, unneces-
sary, and undesirable,” but participants may agree on a course of action
for different reasons.
Promoting Trust and Confidence
Trust is essential to the development of reliable (and authentic) rela-

tionships among organizational members and between organizational
members and citizens. In recent years, some scholars, however, argue
that mutually beneficial cooperative relationships can take place with-
out trust (Cook, Hardin, and Levi, 2005). Although cooperation may
be maintained, the development of trusting relationships, however,
advances our understanding of what makes people willing or unwilling
to take the risks involved in building such relationships and why
(Ostrom and Walker, 2005; Kramer and Cook, 2004). Defining the
concept of ‘trust,’ however, is difficult because trust is so nebulous and
so inherently tied to so many other concepts that no one definition
does justice to its complex nature ( Jun and Kim, 2002). When people
assign a particular meaning to the notion of trust in institutions or
interpersonal relations, the word trust is often defined with various
synonyms, such as confidence, faith, trustworthiness, reliance, or anticipa-
tion of goodwill. These words convey the “affective attitude” ( Jones,
1996) that goes along with an expectation of competence in another
person or an institution. Trust is more than confidence, because the lat-
ter is more calculating and based more on expectation than the former.
If the community faces many unsolved problems, services are delayed,
and officials engage in unethical conduct, then citizens’ confidence in
the government erodes. It is possible for citizens to have confidence in
the work of public employees without having full confidence in the
government, its institutions, or public service (Warren, 1999).
Trust has an intrinsic application to an analysis of people’s interac-
tions with public institutions and vice versa; this includes the interac-
tions of citizens and administration, individuals and bureaucracy, and
members of the public and the community. Social interactions may be
explained in terms of the exchange between people and institutions
with different normative roles in society. These exchanges may involve
business contracts, or they may involve some other tool that facilitates
trust. So trust is an important element in any exchange involving social

interaction, ranging from a calculative and rational exchange to a value
exchange. The two broad types of exchanges are “generalized” and
“restricted”: each is based on some expectations of “trust and solidar-
ity.” Janoski points out that restricted exchanges are generally short
term because of extensive social mobility of people; generalized
exchange works better in a strong community. He also argues that
restricted exchange generates little trust because it is based on an indi-
vidual’s cost-benefit calculations to gain personal goods from the mar-
ket. Whereas restricted exchange does little to further trust in the
process of bargaining, “generalized exchange preserves [the] realm of
political and economic equality. It requires patience, an ability to look
for the larger group or societal results, and the general building of
social trust.” (1998, p. 91).
An analysis of trust may be applied to individual and institutional
levels. Luhmann considers trust in people as distinguished from confi-
dence in institutions (1979). Trust, Luhmann says, is found only in
interpersonal relations. Moreover, people may have confidence in insti-
tutions, but this is based on their role performance. At the interper-
sonal level, trust begins with my self-concept. When I trust my ability
to learn and change, I am capable of becoming. When I trust another
person, I am able to accept him or her into my life experience. How-
ever, when I fear someone, I am defensive and do not accept him or her
into my life experience. The importance of trust in interpersonal rela-
tions is stressed by many humanistic psychologists, such as Carl
Rogers, James Bugental, Jack Gibb, and Hubert Otto. They stress that
trust and distrust are key to understanding interpersonal relations and
human organizations. When trust is high, people collaborate well, and
organizations function effectively. When distrust is high, the collabo-
ration and functioning break down. The defensive posture, therefore,
becomes one where trust is correspondingly conditioned on the princi-
ple of verification.
Interpersonal exchanges between human beings begin with a sub-
jective point of view and are transformed into an intersubjective experi-
ence as individuals interact with or take into consideration the experi-
ences of others. Luhmann, a neosystems theorist, also acknowledges the
intersubjective construction of meaning and social experience: “A tran-
scendental phenomenological account of the world and its complexity
has to take cognizance of the intersubjective nature of such constitution
of meaning and world” (1979, p. 18). The limits of empiricism and

functionalism in explaining trust are evident from the increase in
human science, phenomenology, and hermeneutics. A phenomenologi-
cal analysis of trust is essential in order to give primacy to the interpre-
tation of meanings and symbolic forms implicit in social relationships.
Interpersonal relationships present the potential for developing
solidarity and mutuality that have corresponding values of trust for the
individuals involved. The level of solidarity and mutuality is directly
tied to this assigned value. People move between roles during these
interpersonal exchanges, and this causes a constant redefinition of the
relationship and the corresponding levels of trust that they are willing
to invest in the process. This can be assessed through the amount of
interpersonal competence that people assign to others in their current
roles. Regardless of what other factors contribute to confidence in
institutions, it is this factor of interpersonal competence that defines
interpersonal relationships and differentiates them from interactions
associated with institutions.
Trust at the institutional level entails a different meaning. The
ideas of trust in interpersonal relations are often difficult to apply to an
institutional setting, particularly when people perceive an institution as
an objective reality that is separate from their subjective world. As peo-
ple attempt to understand institutions (and organizations) as objecti-
fied reality that they constructed and that always present a possibility
for being reconstructed, the issue of trust and distrust may surface as
an important subject for discourse. When people view institutions as
networks of people with different values and experiences who are
engaged in social interactions, transforming low-trust institutions into
high-trust ones is possible. However, as long as people engage in
instrumental interactions involving technical-functional work relation-
ships and rational exchanges to gain organizational and personal inter-
est, trust will be difficult to develop. Most social relationships at the
institutional and political levels tend to be based on instrumental and
business interactions. Therefore applying the concepts of ‘confidence’
and ‘reliability’ seem to be more appropriate than applying the concept
of trust. When members of the public trust a particular institution,
they tend to have good interpersonal relationships with the people
working in or representing that institution.
The structural relationship with or within the institution is the
most difficult to build and in which to sustain trust. This is due not
only to role ambiguity of different actors and institutions involved in

the interaction process but also to the interactions between actors and
institutions, which tend to be political, instrumental-rational, and
restricted exchange, if not superficial. Role ambiguity increases the
sense of risk; this, in turn, increases fear in predicting the outcome of
dependence. This fear can be debilitating, limiting the amount of trust
that citizens are willing to invest in the exchange process. Another
problem with trust at the institutional level is the source of solidarity.
At the interpersonal level, solidarity (and mutuality) is a direct by-
product of trust and intimate dialogue. At the institutional level a
number of external variables affect the level of solidarity. Institutional
solidarity is maintained as people assume a clear sense of organiza-
tional obligation and loyalty, commitment, shared interest, pride, roles,
and the necessity for survival, growth, or change.
Trust and confidence are more likely to occur when leaders, man-
agers, employees, and institutions demonstrate that they are ethically
and morally reliable and confident in carrying out their assumed
responsibility. Trust cannot be demanded of people. Although trust
and trustworthiness accompanied by ethical responsibility are difficult
to promote, they may be the human elements that are the most impor-
tant to the governance of a democratic society (Hardin, 1998, p. 24;
Warren, 1999). As organizations become more confident—and more
reliable—in meeting societal needs, organizational members will have
a heightened awareness of social trust and display greater interpersonal
competence. When government organizations face financial difficul-
ties, executives and managers tend to focus on “urgent things that are
really unimportant” that may result in “the disempowerment and alien-
ation of workers” (Covey, 1997). As organizations promote trust and
empowerment, organizational members are likely to be committed and
take risk in innovation and improvement.
Education for Action Skills
Because of the need to maintain organizational efficiency and produc-

tivity, public administration has largely emphasized the technical skills
of people working in government organizations. Accordingly, educa-
tional programs in public administration in both the East and West
focus on the utilization of technical (and functional) and behavioral
skills of public employees as the determinant of human resources. Pub-
lic administration curriculums in Asian countries are largely modeled

on Western educational programs, which reflect a functionalist and
positivistic approach to the management of public institutions.
Technical skills, such as the functional managerial skills of control,
coordination, budgeting, personnel, accounting, planning, scientific
research methods, and statistical knowledge, are important in bringing
about efficiency in the workplace. Moreover, technical skills and func-
tional skills lend themselves to industrializing societies, which use a
wide range of scientific and rational techniques to produce and dis-
tribute goods, services, and information. Particularly in the early stages
of industrialization, the rational approach works well with regard to
centralized planning, control, and functional coordination. Policy mak-
ers and planners believe that technical rationality is easy to apply in a
hierarchical administration; this, in turn, encourages the continuous
improvement of hierarchy and functional coordination. It therefore
reinforces itself so that it seems like the only way to accomplish orga-
nizational activities rationally. As discussed earlier, the recent empha-
sis on public management on efficiency, productivity, and performance
measurement has focused on instrumental and technical skills and has
neglected the intrinsic educational and training values many organiza-
tional psychologists and trainers have advocated for years.
Educating new public administrators to go into an environment
that is changing rapidly and demands innovative and creative solutions
must begin with a new curriculum design. Public administration edu-
cation needs not only to restructure the traditional courses in public
management but also to introduce new courses designed to teach stu-
dents action skills along with a program to teach them the ethical and
democratic dimensions of public administration. Robert Denhardt
points out that “action skills are those capabilities that both orient and
enable intentional action, those that allow us to act with integrity and
consistency in any given situation. Action skills are those that allow us
to translate norms and ideas into action” (1986, p. 127). If democratic
social construction is to become increasingly meaningful and practiced
widely, rather than marginalized, education for action skills must be
realized as an essential part of public administration education.
The differences between technical skills and action skills may be
explained in terms of how we approach change in public administra-
tion. As discussed in other chapters, technical skills are grounded in the
concept of instrumental and technical rationality. The process of
change is according to the previous experience, rules and procedures,

and analytical framework used in technical analysis. Reality can be
objectively and empirically measured and evaluated. Change is essen-
tially deterministic, because the application of a particular technical
skill is supposed to produce the intended outcome or solve the prob-
lem. For example, in the policy science approach, analytical methods
are used to determine an optimal solution, based on the rational analy-
sis of alternatives.
Action skills are grounded in interpretive epistemology, which
emphasizes understanding the reality of subjects and the hidden
aspects of local conditions by paying attention to language, symbols,
stories, and values that are unique to a particular culture. Interpretation
requires understanding the shared norms, rules, meanings, and expec-
tations that make up our social reality. Interpretation must be used
when we encounter something out of the ordinary, something contrary
to our beliefs regarding truth or goodness, or something we just do not
understand. In terms of organizational change, an important assump-
tion is that actions derived from subjective and intersubjective com-
mitments could present various possibilities for better understanding,
problem solving, and change.
The action skills introduced thus far are essentially process driven,
as they are applied to the enhancement of interactions between actors.
They include reflexive skill, interpersonal and dialogical skills, persua-
sive skills, therapeutic (listening) skills, and skills in action research.
Self-reflexivity is a core skill for an action-oriented administrator. In
order for the public administrator to question and, if necessary, change
habitual ways of doing things, he or she must assess the appropriate-
ness of his or her own actions. If administrators continually examine
their actions, they are likely to engage in responsible actions. As the
individual reveals the self to others, he or she engages in an unending
process of transcending (and becoming). In order to construct the self
and work with others, the individual exercises skills in interpersonal
and group interactions. Interactions between people entail “dialogic
reverberations” that take place between the different voices (Bakhtin,
1981; Baxter and Montgomery, 1996; Strasser, 1969).
A public administrator also needs persuasive skills in working in
the political environment with clients, special interest groups, com-
peting agencies, elected officials, and so on. He or she must overcome
resistance to change from conservative peers and be able to advocate
innovative ideas through the use of persuasion. A public administra-

tor must also develop the action skills that a group therapist uses. In
this regard, the role of the administrator is to not only help to shape
the tone of the group process but also to facilitate the process of open
dialogue by inviting and listening to different voices. While acting as
a therapist, an administrator interacts with the various group mem-
bers, including minorities, women, the elderly, and the disadvantaged,
and also provides a positive setting where people feel free to express
their opinions and where support is mutual, both vertically and hori-
zontally. An administrator as a social constructionist and a therapist is
one of collaboration and creative relationships with citizens. This
viewpoint veers away from the traditionalist’s approach of relation-
ships being one of the knower and the ignorant (Gergen, 1999, pp.
167–75). In an era of democratization and globalization, administra-
tors cannot continue to act as experts, the holders of technical knowl-
edge, assuming that citizens must simply follow their decisions.
Finally, a public administrator needs to know how to act collectively
in dealing with complex problems or project design without giving up
his or her identity. In this regard, action research can be a framework
of organizational learning in which individual learning is communi-
cated in ways that allow the group to examine problems, goals,
actions, and implementation issues. In action research activity, every-
one acts as leader, learner, and contributor.
THE TAO OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Because I completed my higher education in the United States, my

understanding of Eastern thought and Western thought is unequal. I do
not have rigorous training in Asian philosophy, but I do have a limited
knowledge of Confucianism and Taoism and have found that these two
philosophies have made a significant contribution to public administra-
tion in China, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. A creative tension
between the two makes up the character of Asian thought that will con-
tinue to influence people’s relationships and ways of governing society
and administration. As discussed previously, in spite of some negative
interpretations of Confucian thought with regard to human relation-
ships and virtues today, its impact on people’s conduct in Asia is
immeasurable. One of the most important concepts is “dialectic” in
Taoism. The concept of dialectic is important to many Western

philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, Hegel, Marx, phenomenolo-
gists, and critical theorists. An exploration of different views of dialec-
tic is beyond the scope of this book. Dialectical thinking is a concep-
tual guide for an individual’s reflexive vision for constructing more
“sane and contended living” in organization and society. Dialectics is a
process of understanding “how things swing together from one pole to
another” (Cohen, 1981)—for example, how individualism is connected
to communitarianism or how autonomy is connected to virtue. The
most important intervening element in moving from one stream to
another and relating the self to others is an act of self-construction
(Kiros, 1998).
In order to compare and contrast Eastern and Western views of
dialectic, I next discuss Hegel’s idea of reconciling opposites and Lao
Tze’s view of polarity. Hegel introduced the dialectical method of
understanding the process of history by identifying a thesis, its antithe-
sis, and a synthesis. One idea is presented as “the thesis.” This calls
forth the opposing idea, the antithesis. Eventually, these two give rise
to a third idea, the synthesis, which develops out of the relationship of
the first two ideas to each other. Furthermore, in the Hegelian sense,
the dialectic is a process of searching for a critical synthesis among con-
tradictions, conflicts, and discontinuities in the administrative world.
This Western idea of synthesis may be compared with Watts’
explanation of the Eastern dialectic:
At the very root of Chinese thinking and feeling there lies the
principle of polarity, which is not to be confused with the ideas of
opposition or conflict. In the metaphors of other cultures, light is at
war with darkness, life with death, good with evil, and the positive
with the negative, and thus an idealism to cultivate the former and
be rid of the latter flourishes throughout much of the world. To the
traditional way of Chinese thinking, this is as incomprehensible as an
electric current without both positive and negative poles, for polarity
is the principle that plus (+) and minus (–), north and south, are dif-
ferent aspects of one and the same system, and that the disappear-
ance of either one of them would be the disappearance of the system.
(1975, pp. 19–20)
One of the most fundamental polarities in Taoism is yin and yang, as
discussed in chapter 7. Yin and yang represent not a dualism, but rather
“an explicit duality expressing an implicit unity” (Watt, 1975, p. 26).
Eastern mysticism emphasizes a “basic oneness,” but this does not mean
that all things are the same. And the individuality of a thing is impor-
tant, but “all differences and contrasts are relative within an all-embrac-
ing unity” (Capra, 1975, p. 145). Western synthesis happens when two
opposing things combine to make a third. The Eastern perspective sees
the two sides as already connected. What these two views have in com-
mon is the principle of mutual arising: the thesis calls its antithesis into
being; the foreground and the background are distinguished simultane-
ously. They also share the qualities of nonsummativity and wholeness.
Nonsummativity is described in the phrase The whole is greater
than the sum of its parts. If we can quantify or process the elements of
the thesis and the antithesis, their value to us when they are creatively
synthesized is greater than their value as unrelated forces taken
together. The principle of nonsummativity can be observed when indi-
viduals relate to each other dialectically, for example, when they engage
in collaborative conflict-resolution or decision-making processes.
These processes are characterized by an outcome that could not be pre-
dicted by simply examining the information that each person brings to
the conversation. The conversation itself is what is important, and a
successful conversation can produce outcomes that take care of each
member and simultaneously enable each member to take care of the
others. What is agreed or disagreed upon emerges after much commu-
nication and discussion, and therefore the solution proposed tends to
be accepted by the parties involved. Moreover, even if the participants
do not agree on anything, from the interpretive perspective, they are
likely to gain a new understanding of one another.
According to tai chi chuan instructor Elizabeth Jensen, the princi-
ple of nonsummativity appears in Taoism.3 In the martial art of tai chi
chuan, you blend your movements with the opponent’s movements in
order to maintain your equilibrium and unbalance the other. The two-
person practice, peng lu chi ahn, begins as a choreographed form in
which the practitioners aim to first yield, and then follow, and finally
gain the superior position. The outcome of the contest is more than the
sum of its parts. One of the pair is able to channel the kinetic energy
of both practitioners’ movements and use this force against the other.
The movements alone would not produce any result, but the move-
ments together cause one of them to fly across the floor.
Another quality of the dialectical process that the East and the
West share is wholeness. In a sense, wholeness is nonsummativity
looked at from the other direction. It is the principle that things can-
not be reduced to their component parts. In administrative theory, as I
discussed in chapter 6, both the functionalist and the interpretive per-
spectives are reductionistic: each has a one-sided view of human action
and social reality. Public administration is too complex to be reduced
to mechanical subsystems as assumed in systems theory. At the same
time, we cannot focus just on the interpretive problems of studying
administrative phenomena. The dialectic deals with this by focusing on
the complexity of administrative reality, comprehending it as a whole.
For example, when people that make up the parts of an organization
think dialectically, they critically reflect on their relationship to the
whole (Benson, 1977). As Watts points out, our conception of some-
thing is distinct from the thing itself and is only an abstract represen-
tation of it. Any model or theory can only partially represent reality, so
it tends to violate the principle of wholeness (Watts, 1975, pp. 43–44).
We can see the holistic nature of Taoism in the Taoist’s inclusive
perspective. For example, an individual studies tai chi chuan with a
teacher from a Taoist lineage. That person receives instruction on how
to balance every element of his or her life. This includes the individ-
ual’s body: posture, diet, and the rhythm of daily activities. It also
includes the student’s relationship with spouse, family, friends, rela-
tionships with work, play, practice, and the rest of society. Taoists rec-
ognize that for optimum health and long life, we need to consider the
whole human being and not sacrifice any part of the person for the sake
of any other part. Each element is granted a right to be and a right to
be nurtured. The integrity of the whole is more important than any of
its parts.
There are other important conceptual comparisons between Taoist
and Western philosophy as applied to an understanding of the human
mind in the administrative world, such as action and nonaction, ratio-
nal mind and nonintellectual intelligence, linear thinking and nonlin-
ear thinking, and continuity and discontinuity. Dialectic turns from
one issue to the next, making connections between them and bringing
everything together in a way that transforms consciousness and gener-
ates possibility. Dialectical thinking includes challenging assumptions,
allowing theories to act as critiques of one another, acknowledging the
reality of contradictions and conflicts, and using these as points of
inquiry instead of ignoring them. A dialectically inclined person (and
a theorist) does not try to solve these problems by simply applying a
theory, method, or technique with more force or greater precision but

recognizes that each solution works for only a specific range of prob-
lems and that each solution is another set of variables, that may well be
problems in themselves. The dialectician allows all parts of the organi-
zation and its environment to be, recognizing that any theory or model
necessarily distorts reality because it cannot represent the full com-
plexity of social reality.
The Taoist spins the spiral in the other direction, beginning with
the assumption that there never was a division in the first place, that
you can never wander from the path or deviate from the Tao: any
appearance of that is only another facet of the Tao. In practical appli-
cation, the Taoist finds the balance in each apparent dichotomy that
she encounters, beginning in the center with herself, and gradually
expanding this principle to include everything in her world. We need
to enhance dialectical thinking to discover the limits of each adminis-
trative dimension, and we need to develop strategies for overcoming
those limits. We can do this through dialectical discourse among par-
ticipants and by creating new possibilities. If we do this, we can trans-
form the stagnant situation that our current level of functionalist and
positivistic thinking got us into. This process needs to begin within the
individual and expand outward to the interpersonal, group, organiza-
tion, societal, and global levels.
To conclude the Taoist view of contemporary public administra-
tion and society, once again we turn to the idea of mutual learning and
respect through communication and participation. This allows us to go
beyond the explicit notion of duality, such as the administration and
the public, the self and the organization, the scientific methods and
human science, explanation and understanding, globalization and
antiglobalization, and East and West. Public administration in each
country needs to find ways to build better governance and to make
organizations more innovative, more oriented to change. The role of
government is not only to improve public services to citizens but also
to create a context for “value creation” through effective politics (Kir-
lin, 1996) and human interaction. At the same time, each country has
unlimited possibilities when it comes to learning from others concern-
ing new policy design, such as delivery of services, health care policy,
distribution of wealth, organizational reform, improving the quality of
working life, and ways of enhancing citizen participation. In the past,
countries in the East looked to the West, emulating the Western model
of modernization and industrialization. Since the 1980s, however,

globalization has created not only the reverse transaction but also the
exchange of mutual interests, despite radical criticisms of the rich
nations controlling the dominant economic forces. We are not likely to
halt the forces of globalization. If globalization is to promote economic
prosperity and democracy throughout the world, policy makers and
administrators must exercise a critical consciousness, examining poli-
cies and their implications in light of human consequences.
In cross-cultural learning, interpreting the cultural dynamics of the
East and the West means understanding the hidden dimensions of the
administrative culture of each country. Each administrative culture has
an organizational norm (or a certain value) that constitutes reality to its
members. These norms define the larger context for people’s organiza-
tional lives, giving meaning and providing a guide for behavior and
ethical conduct. For example, Confucianism influences the behavior of
administrators in Far East Asian countries, just as the Protestant ethic
influences the behavior of administrators in many Western countries.
However, as people become more self-reflexive, learn to participate in
the organizational process, and interact with the external world, they
begin to reinterpret the meaning of the old culture in light of a new
emerging culture and a new work ethic. Korean, Japanese, and Singa-
porian administrative cultures can be carried to the extreme of denying
selfhood. As young people bring their new values, learned largely from
the West, to organizations, they seek a new identity, demanding recog-
nition as individuals with critical voices. New workers demand rewards
for individual performance, as opposed to the traditional recognition of
group performance.
With regard to the Confucian ethic among the Far East Asian
countries, the attitude of public administrators is changing. The tradi-
tional virtues of loyalty, diligence, and commitment were long viewed
as a countervailing influence to Western materialism. But the thou-
sands of students who return home after studying in the West question
old values, thinking more of their private realm than their responsibil-
ity for the public realm. Moreover, the traditional cultural value of
maintaining social order, with each person understanding his or her
roles and responsibilities in society, has already been transforming.
Likewise, we may also scrutinize the Western orientation of indi-
vidual rights as opposed to societal responsibility: a dynamic civil soci-
ety demands an ongoing balance between individualism and commu-
nitarianism. To Americans, Asian administrators may say that because

of our emphasis on individual rights, we run the risk of breaking the
bonds that hold organizations and communities together. American
administrators may say to Asian administrators that they run the risk
of hampering individual development, which is the strength of any
innovative organization and society.
The strength of American culture is, however, multiculturalism:
the attitudes, values, experiences, and differences of diverse groups of
people in the workplace and society contribute to the vitality of Amer-
ican society. To value diversity is to recognize and understand individ-
ual differences “so that we can take one another’s perspective into
account when making moral judgments” (Young, 1997, p. 52). As other
countries become multicultural because of changes in demography
(e.g., due to the migration of workers), they can also learn ways of
appreciating and coping with changing cultural contexts from the
United States and other Western countries.
Theories regarding administrative phenomena must be reflexively
grounded in the concept of the social construction of administration
and democratic governance. In the everyday life of an organization,
both the functionalist perspective and the interpretive perspective of
public administration are valid and useful: the first explains the impor-
tance of structure, policy, and management from a macro viewpoint;
and the second looks at the meanings of people’s experiences, language,
and culture from a micro viewpoint. The functionalist perspective is
that these two views of the administrative world are unrelated: the
organization and the individual (object and subject) are treated as sep-
arate and independent of each other. The interpretive perspective—
and the subjective view of phenomenology in particular—emphasizes
that action in an organization must be understood in terms of the indi-
vidual’s meanings and intentions. How individuals engage in their
activities in constructing reality (e.g., role and function) is important.
The critical perspective helps us explore alternatives by critically
reflecting on opposing views and conflicts in relation to broad human,
cultural, and political contexts, and sharing diverse knowledge and
experiences.
The Tao of public administration (as well as the social construction
of public administration) rejects the duality of administrative phenom-
ena. Instead, it considers both sides of a problem, such as the objective
view and the subjective view. Shunning duality, it embraces relationships,
interdependence, reciprocity, and dialectic. These ideas can be seen in

both the Eastern view and the Western view of social reality. The East-
ern perspective emphasizes harmony, coexistence, unity, and wholeness;
the Western perspective emphasizes participation, deliberation, critical
reflexivity, and communication. To renew our effort to construct (and
reconstruct) a societal vision and democratic organizations, we need both
perspectives. Moreover, both Eastern and Western public administration
must find ways to improve democratic governance without sacrificing
the unique individuality or autonomy of each person. Public administra-
tors must facilitate the process of changing organizations by relating the
organization and the individual, the administration and citizens, and
objectivity and subjectivity, rather than separating them. They must learn
the problems and learn the values of organizational members and citi-
zens if they are to comprehend their responses to changes that originate
with the administration.
NOTES
CHAPTER 1
1. The concept of the positivistic and functionalist epistemology is discussed
in chapter 3. Epistemology is a theory of knowledge that is concerned with the
investigation of the origin, structure, methods, and validity of knowledge.
2. On the critique of the role of experts, see also G. Benveniste, The Pol-
itics of Expertise (Berkeley, Calif.: Glendessary, 1972); L. May, The Socially
Responsive Self: Social Theory and Professional Ethics (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1996); J. A. Rhor, Public Service, Ethics and Constitutional Prac-
tice (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998).
3. According to James Bohman, hyperrationality is “an excessive rational-
ism to the extent that it ignores conditions that could make a satisfactory out-
come of deliberation impossible, such as uncertainty and lack of information.
[It] is thus an inability to recognize failures of rationality, as when deliberators
ignore uncertainty, ambiguity and lack of full information and yet demand
uniquely rational decisions” ( J. Bohman, Public Deliberation: Pluralism, Com-
plexity, and Democracy [Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1996], p. 157).
4. Ontology is concerned with the theory of being insofar as being. It
concerns the issue of whether social reality is given to the individual or the
product of the individual. (G. Burrel and G. Morgan, Sociological Paradigms
and Organizational Analysis, 1979, p. 1). Social construction focuses on how
the individual constructs reality with others.
5. “Subjectivity” refers to the experiences, cogitations, motives, and intu-
itions of an individual. Subjective meaning inherent in action is always the
meaning that the acting person ascribes to his or her action.
6. Objectivity is the character of a real object existing independently of
the knowing mind in contrast to subjectivity. Everything apprehended is inde-
pendent of his or her interpretation.
5. According to Husserl, bracketing is a methodological device of phe-
nomenological inquiry, consisting in a deliberate effort to set all ontological
judgments about the “nature” and “essence” of things, events, and so on.
Thereby, the “reality” of things and events is not denied but “put into brack-
ets.” This procedure is called “phenomenological reduction.” Through brack-
eting of all judgments about the ontological nature of the perceived objects,
Husserl wanted to reduce the observed phenomenon to its own features with-
out preconceived interpretation.
259
260 NOTES
CHAPTER 2
1. For Max Weber, functional rationality, or instrumental rationality, is

attained by the elaboration (on the basis of scientific knowledge) of rules that
try to direct, from the top, all behavior toward maximum efficiency. Weber’s
rationalization is the product of the scientific specialization and technical dif-
ferentiation peculiar to Western culture, and Weber sometimes associates it
with the notion of intellectualization.
2. In Paths of Change: Strategic Choices for Organizations and Society (1992),
Will McWhinney illustrates that the process of conventionalization is the
tendency toward centralization of knowledge in order to bring about change.
3. Although deconstruction as argued by some postmodernists, such as
Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault, emphasizes “negative critical capacity,”
reinterpretation as discussed here implies a positive reconstruction of mean-
ing.
CHAPTER 3
1. G. Burrel and G. Morgan (1979) consider the interpretive approach to

be a separate paradigm, one that is in opposition to the functional paradigm.
2. Although the terms social constructionism and social constructivism are
often used interchangeably, their meanings are different. Kenneth Gergen
describes the difference: “For constructivists the process of world construction
is psychological; it takes place ‘in the head.’ In contrast, for social construc-
tionists what we take to be real is an outcome of social relationships.” (See K.
Gergen, An Introduction to Social Construction [Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage,
1999], pp. 236–37.)
3. The life-world is the concrete reality of an individual’s lived experience,
in contrast to the interpretation of that reality made by the scientist (Husserl
and Schutz).
4. As P. L. Berger and T. Luckmann describe, we are born into an objec-
tified world, a society created and maintained by people as they live their lives
and interpret subjectively their surroundings. This objectified world is often
taken for granted as being “real” when it is maintained and modified by a com-
mon language and social practices.
CHAPTER 4
This chapter is a revised version of a book chapter “Public Administra-

tion as Social Design,” in J. S. Jun, Public Administration: Design and Problem
Solving (New York: Macmillan, 1985).
Notes 261
1. In their book Reframing Organizations (1997), L. Bolman and T. Deal

introduce four frames as metaphors for explaining the organizations. In Images
of Organization (1997), G. Morgan discusses eight metaphors, exploring their
implications for thinking about the nature of organization.
2. The idea of change making and design is emphasized by Allan Cahoon
and C. H. Levin, “Designed Change: A Post Minnowbrook Perspective for
the ‘New’ Public Administration,” a paper presented at the National Confer-
ence of the American Society for Public Administration, Syracuse, N.Y., May
6, 1976.
3. On using a system of relationships in achieving an organizational goal,
also see C. W. Churchman. 1968. The Systems Approach. New York: Dell.
4. Proposition 13 was intended to
1. limit property taxes to 1 percent of the full cash value of the prop-
erty;
2. require counties to levy the 1 percent tax and apportion it accord-
ing to law to the districts within the counties;
3. establish as a basis for full cash value of a property the county
assessor’s appraised value as of March 1, 1975 (property subse-
quently sold or improved would be reappraised);
4. limit increases in fair market value to 2 percent per annum; and
5. require an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the qualified electors
of any respective taxing entity to raise city, county, or special-dis-
trict taxes.
For a detailed discussion of the background and implications of Proposi-
tion 13, see J. S. Jun, Public Administration: Design and Problem Solving, pp.
202–05.
The rational-economic model generally involves seven steps for the ratio-
nal actors to take:
1. define the problem to be solved;
2. define goals and objectives to be achieved;
3. search for all information relevant to the goals and objectives
sought;
4. analyze and organize information into meaningful categories;
5. find the alternative courses of action that are most economical and
and efficient;
6. evaluate and compare perceived consequences of each alternative;
and
7. select the best or preferred choice, given the goals and objectives.
For similar steps in rational design, see H. Simon, Administrative Behavior, 2d
ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1961); E. S. Quade, Analysis for Public Decisions,
262 NOTES
2nd ed. (New York: Elsevier, 1982); G. T. Allison, Essence of Decision (Boston:
Little, Brown, 1971).
6. Considering these and other criticisms, C. Lindblom formulated
“disjointed incrementalism” (see: “The Science of Muddling Through,”
Public Administration Review, vol. 19 (Spring 1959): 79–88). He considers
incrementalism a strategy used for problem solving, decision making, pol-
icy design, and analysis. The essence of the incremental strategy is as fol-
lows:
1. Emphasis is on small changes within already existing structures.
Such changes may be repetitive, something that has been done
again and again; or nonrepretitive, small steps in a sequence that is
indefinite.
2. Analysis of policies involves minor adjustments to the status quo.
The only alternatives compared and considered are those similar
to existing policy.
3. Alternative and their expected results differ from each other only
Incrementally.
4. Means and ends are not separable. The ends/means dichotomy in
rational problem solving is considered limited or unjustifiable.
5. Incremental policies or decisions are reactive, subjective, and give
a strong consideration to values.
6. The future is thought to be an extension of past policies and Expe-
riences, to be approached slowly and cautiously.
CHAPTER 5
1. Robert Peel, a wealthy member of Britain’s Parliament in 1829, was

influential in passing the Metropolitan Police Act. He emphasized this prin-
ciple: “The police are the public, and the public are the police.” His belief was
that police were, first and foremost, members of the larger society.
2. Because meeting participants came from different cities, the meeting
was shorter than the two-and-one-half-day conference that is the usual length
of future search conferences.
3. See The Economist (August 23, 2003): pp. 19–20.
4. U.S. Conference of Mayors,—1998 (December 1998).
5. See Catherine Burke. Innovation and Public Policy (Lexington, Mass.:
Lexington Books, 1979), especially chapters 2, 4, and 11. Burke’s chapters
illustrate the social design process of the transit system.
6. The summary discussion of the Clinton health care plan and its demise
was largely derived from issues of the New York Times between August 29,
1994, and September 27, 1994.
Notes 263
CHAPTER 6
1. Talcott Parsons states the following: “A social system is only one of

three aspects of the structuring of a completely concrete system of social
action. The other two are the personality systems of the individual actors and
the cultural system which is built into their action. Each of the three must be
considered to be an independent focus of the organization of the elements of
the action system in the sense that no one of them is theoretically reducible to
terms of one or a combination of the other two” (The Social System [New York:
Free Press, 1951], p. 6).
2. Alasdair MacIntyre in his book After Virtue (1984) discusses the two
competing grounds for making moral judgments: rational, or principled, ver-
sus emotive arguments. Although the former emphasizes the universality of
principles, the latter is based on the premise of subjective and individual pref-
erences in making a moral judgment.
3. The discussion of praxis and change is based on my previous publica-
tions: J. S. Jun. 1994. “On Administrative Praxis” Administrative Theory and
Praxis, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 201–07; J. S. Jun and R. VrMeer. “Aesthetics and
Changing Human Organizations” in J. S. Jun. Philosophy of Administration
(Seoul: Daeyoungmoonhwa International, 1994), pp. 206–25.
4. Many articles published in the journal of Administrative Theory and
Praxis deal with the problems and concepts of human relationships, actions,
discourse, reflexivity, and governance, relating to the interpretive and critical
theory perspectives.
5. The idea of sensemaking is developed by K. E. Weick. Sensemaking in
Organizations (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 1995); Barbara Czarniawska dis-
cusses the appeal of functionalism (or a functionalist device) to engineers in
her book A Tale of Three Cities (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
6. To learn about the future search conference method, see: M. Emery,
The Search Conference: A Powerful Method for Planning Organizational Change
and Community Action (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996); M. R. Weisbord
and S. Janoff, Future Search (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 1995).
CHAPTER 7
1. To understand institutions, society, and the world, people need to

change their minds (human consciousness). I recommend two stimulating
books: H. Smith, Beyond the Post-Modern Mind (New York: Crossroad, 1982);
W. Harman, Gobal Mind Change (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 1998).
2. On the social contract theory of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, see:
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651; reprint, London: Penguin, 1968); John
264 NOTES
Locke, An Essay concerning Human Understanding (1690; reprint. Oxford:

Clarendon, 1957).
3. Samuel Huntington states, “The West, and especially the United States,
which has always been a missionary nation, believe that the non-Western peo-
ples should commit themselves to the Western values of democracy, free mar-
kets, limited government, human rights, individualism, the rule of law, and
should embody these values in their institutions.” As a result, the United States
is likely to continue to have “difficulties in defending its interest against those
of non-Western societies.” Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations
and the Remaking of World Order (New York: Touchtone Book, 1996), p. 184.
4. Although Islam has influenced many regions in the East, I am not able
to discuss it here largely because of my lack of knowledge. Islam as a religion
focuses more on a “personal submission to God as Islam” than submission to
rituals, beliefs, and customs (Turner, 1994).
5. Virtues for self-cultivation include jen (benevolence) and li (propriety).
Jen is a personal quality that comes from a person’s inwardness: it is not a
product of biological, social, or political forces. It is linked with “the self-reviv-
ing, self-perfecting, and self-fulfilling process of an individual.” Li is propri-
ety, good manners, politeness, ceremony, worship, the external exemplification
of eternal principles, the feeling of respect and reverence. According to Tu
Wei-ming, the function of li is to act as the externalization of jen in a specific
social context and to actualize jen so that the person can be of use to society
in the real world. See Wei-ming Tu, Confucian Thought: Selfhood as Creative
Transformation (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985).
6. I did not go into the discussion of the self and sociality in the East
because Eastern thought, such as Confucianism, Taoism, Hinduism, and
Buddhism, does not put much emphasis on dialogue but puts a high value on
relationships, selflessness, no boundaries, compassion, humility, restraints, and
virtue. Moreover, Western views of sociality stress the importance of commu-
nication, dialogue, sharing, and learning.
7. For further readings on interpersonal relationships, see Chris Argyris’s
books Interpersonal Competence and Organizational Effectiveness (Homewood,
Ill.: Dorsey, 1962) and Integrating the Individual and the Organization (New
York: Wiley, 1964); Carl R. Rogers, On Becoming a Person: A Therapist’s View
of Psychotherapy (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1961) and Carl Rogers on Personal
Power (New York: Dell, 1977). Argyris is much more directive in integrating
the individual and organization, but Rogers as a humanistic psychologist is
more nondirective in his approach to interpersonal relationships.
8. I deliberately avoid a discussion of the self in the transcendental tradi-
tion, as argued by Immanuel Kant and Edmund Husserl, because their philo-
sophical positions relate more closely to the problem of consciousness and the
critique of science.
Notes 265
CHAPTER 8
1. Examples from Irving Janis’s Victims of Groupthink and from the

Richard Nixon presidential administration between 1969 and 1974 indicate
the negative consequences of unquestioned loyalty.
2. I am not implying that laws are easier to implement than a code of
ethics. Because of the broad content and ambiguity in legalistic text, laws also
invite different interpretations. Many professional associations have a code of
ethics, but codes of ethics are guidelines for professional conduct.
3. In Responsibility as Paradox, Michael Harmon critically reviews the
decision of Horatio Hornblower, commander of H.M. Sloop Hotspur, a
British ship, in handling his steward, Doughty, who was charged with mutiny
and striking a superior officer. Harmon says that by making his irresponsible
sentimental decision to let Doughty escape, “Hornblower failed at genuine
self-reflexive understanding, but he succeeded in spite of himself in acting on
humane instinct.”
4. There have been a number of criticisms of the Confucians emphasis on
family structure and authority relationships, particularly how it is extended to
the relationship between the ruler and the ruled. Paternalistic relationships are
emphasized by autocratic leaders in Asia, who demand loyalty and social
obligations to the government. In his book The Country Can Survive When
Confucius Dies, K. I. Kim forcefully argues that many of Korea’s social and
political problems originate in Confucian tradition. For other discussions, see
A. C. Graham, Disputers of the Tao (LaSalle, Ill.: Open Court, 1989).
CHAPTER 9
1. The term civil society organizations (CSO)s) is used by the UN Public

Administration Development Program.
2. This case study is a revised article published by J. S. Jun, “New Gover-
nance in Civil Society: Changing Responsibility of Public Administration,” in
Rethinking Administrative Theory: The Challenge of the New Century, ed. J. S.
Jun (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2002), pp. 295–98.
3. The strategies for making governance and social construction effective
are discussed in chapter 10.
CHAPTER 10
1. Because bureaucracy is designed to promote organizational efficiency,

it appears inevitably to be in an “antagonistic encounter” with the characteris-
tics of democracy. Dwight Waldo points out that “the principle of hierarchy
266 NOTES
stands against the principle of equality and the principle of liberty stands
against discipline, precision, and rules” (1978, p. 7).
2. For the philosophical argument of nondiscursive experience, see R.
Shusterman, Practicing Philosophy: Pragmatism and the Philosophical Life (New
York: Routledge, 1997), chapter 6.
3. Elizabeth Jensen, a martial arts instructor and a former student of
mine, provided insightful guidance regarding the application of Taoism to
martial arts and to the life perspective.
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INDEX
Abel, C. F., 50 Allan, D., 155, 198, 205

Accountability, 45, 186 Allan, K., 190–191
Ackoff, R., 23 Allison, G. T., 89, 261
Action research, 79, 139, 141–144, American administrators, 257
251 Anderson, W. T., 232
Action skills, 237, 248–251 Antiadministration, 54
Action theory, 124 Antiglobalization, 255
Action, xviii, 63, 75, 128–129, 133, Antirationalists, 53
138, 190, 193, 250; collaborative, Appreciation of values, 95
237; collective, 204; dialectic of, Appreciative inquiry, 80
124–125, 131–134; ethical, 132; Approach, critical, 18, 37, 50–52;
explanation of, 126; interpreta- descriptive dimension, 80–81,
tion of action 127–131; meaning 119; interpretive, 46–49; norma-
of, 168; understanding, 123–124, tive dimension, 80–81, 119; posi-
128 tivistic and functionalist, 44–45;
Actors, 11, 43, 120 postmodern, 52–55; social design,
Adams, G., 173, 198 120
Administration, xiv, 32–35 Arendt, H., 173, 190, 198,
Administrative action, 125, 191; art, 203–204
78–83; artistry, 91; context, xxiii; Argyris, C., 29, 65, 142, 144,
context in the East and West, 2, 160–161
19; culture, 18–19; organizations, Aristotle, 52, 135, 252
176; phenomena, 257; practicali- Asian administrators, 257
ty, 43; science, 78–83; state, 38, Asian countries, xxi, 181–182, 184,
40 206, 218, 235, 249, 256
Administrative theory, xxiii, 13, 35, Asian philosophy, 158
42, 52, 66, 64, 124, 239, 254; Autonomy, 178, 196–199, 252; pub-
one-dimensional, 51 lic conception of, 196–199
Administrator, 199, 206, 207;
responsibility of administrators, Bakhtin, M. M., 250
101 Balfour, D., 173, 198
Adorno, T., 50 Barber, B., 202, 211
African countries, 242 Barber, M. D., 240
Albrow, M., 67, 69 Baudrillard, J., 54
Alexander, J. C., 51, 132 Bauman, Z., 191, 195
293
294 INDEX
Baxter, L. A., 250 Change, xvii, 45, 51, 76, 82, 84, 196,
Becker, H. S., 130 239; long-term, 92; management-
Belarus, 219 driven, 243; proactive, 84; change
Bellah, R., 147 process, 167; reactive, 84; short-
Benne, K. D., 139 term, 92; socially grounded, 79
Benveniste, G., 259 Changing, xvii, xxiv; changing orga-
Berger, P., 48, 56–57 132, 192, 260 nizations, 137, 167, 176
Blumer, H., 130 Chin, R., 139
Bogason, P., 54 China, 28, 93, 154, 184, 192, 195,
Bohman, J., 56, 211, 214, 241, 259 224–226, 232, 251; the three
Bolman, L. G., 65, 261 gorges dam project, 224–226;
Bosserman, P., 133 people, 151
Boulding, E., 216 Chong, K. C., 153
Bourdieu, P., 170 Christianity, 158
Box, R., 8, 30, 102 Christiano, T., 214, 241
Boxill, B., 61 Christiano, T., 241
Brazil, 28 Churchman, W., 76
Buber, M., 61 Citizen, 72, 105–106, 119, 251; citi-
Buddhism, 18, 152–156 zen as customers, 9; citizen as
Bugental, J., 246 owners of government, 9; critical,
Bunting, H., 200 99; good, 199; disenchanted, 172;
Bureaucracy, 45, 170–175, 265; empowerment, 208; participa-
bureaucratization of institutions, tion, 8, 12, 55, 94, 102, 121; pla-
205; dehumanization of, 198; in cating, 8; values and perceptions
Japan, 127, 185; South Korea, of, 91
Taiwan, and Singapore, 127; Civic responsibility, 206
unwieldy, 210; Nazi Germany, Civic virtue, 199–201
203 Civic-minded administrator,
Bureaucratic experience, 240 203–206
Bureaucrats, 172–174; Nazi, 199 Civil Service Reform Act of 1979,
Burke, C., 262 the, 184
Bush, G. W., 133–134 Civil society, 37, 199, 201, 207–211,
218, 233, 240–241; promotion of,
Callinicos, A., 165 210; strengthening, 232; the
Cambodia, 154 capacity of, 213; value of, 208
Canovan, M., 198 Civil society organizations (CSOs),
Capra, F., 158, 252 217
Caputo, J., 53 Civil society triangle, the, 207–211
Carr, D., 168 Clark, J., 215
Carroll, T. F., 215, 218 Clinton health care reform plan, the,
Cartesian view of the self, 149 114–120
Catron, B. L., 4 Code of ethics, 177, 186
Chambers, S., 244 Collin, F., 48, 56
Index 295
Communicative action, 68, 77, 80, Critical reflexity, 53

161, 208, 212 Critical synthesis, 95
Communicative rationality, 212 Critical theory, 2, 46, 50–52, 68, 135
Communitarianism, 194, 198, 252 Critical thinking, 169, 195
Community policying, 102–105 Crocker, D. A., 137
Community, xiv, 175, 201, 223; Culture, 15, 19, 151; cross-cultural
coproduction, 102; multicultural, perspective, 15–18; culture-as-
204; paratransit programs, constituted, 45; culture-as-experi-
113–114; values, 199 enced, bureaucratic, 175;
Community-based organizations, Chinese, 152; cultural norms,
217 195; diverse, 60; local, 69; police
Community-based programs, organizational, 103; transforming,
101–114 145
Complexity, 3 Cunliffe, A., 170, 191
Concept of hierarchy, 178 Czarniawska-Joerges, B., 130, 263
Confidence, 245 Czempiel, E., 66
Conflict resolution, 84
Confucianism, 18, 152, 176, Dagger, R., 201, 204
196–199, 206, 251, 256; Dalai Lama, the, 155
Confucius, 198; ethic, 153, 256; De Oliveira, M. D., 215
morality, 197, 200; Confucian Deal, T. E., 65, 261
view of the self, 197 Decentralization, 210, 242–243
Connecting administrators and citi- Deconstruction, 54
zens, 201–205 Deetz, S. A., 61
Consensual decision-making, 81 Democracy, 240–241; deliberative
Consensus building, 80 democracy, 12, 36, 241; democra-
Consolidation, 171–172 tic process, xxii
Constructing ethics, 186–196 Democratic alternatives, 71
Construction of organizational reali- Democratic governance, 211–215,
ty, 170, 176 232, 237, 240–243, 258
Constructive postmodern thought, Democratic social construction, 241,
238 243
Cook, K. S., 245 Denhardt, R., 4, 31, 124
Cooper, T. L., 133, 177, 186, 189 Department of Homeland Security,
Corruption, 180–182; eradication of, xv, 3–4
187; in South Korea, 181 Derrida, .J, 53, 162–164
Covey, S. R., 248 Design, 75–99; concept of, 75–78;
Cox, T., Jr., 61 design, crisis, 85–88; incremental,
Craig, A. L., 215 91–95; policy, 119; public transit
Crisis, 29. See also crisis design system, 111–114; rational, 88–91;
Critical consciousness, 199, 205, social, 77, 95–98
256; raising, 205 Development projects, 224–232
Critical pragmaticism, xxiii, 239 Dewey, J., 138, 214
296 INDEX
Dialectial perspective, 52 Emery, M., 263

Dialectic of action, 124–125, Empowerment, 16
131–134 English, J., 156
Dialectic, 1, 13–16, 38–41, 52, 65, Epistemology, 259; epistemology,
133, 161, 164, 168–169, 192, positivistic and functionalist, 2,
254; dialectical approach, 124; 43, 125–127; interpretive,
Eastern and Western views of, 127–131
252; of ethics, 205; process, 140; Ethical choice, 178, 189, 193
dialectical process, 51, 63, 70, Ethical judgment, 186–187
253; dialectical thinking, 252, 254 Ethical relativism, 195
Dialogue, 12, 56, 61, 64, 69, 80, 108, Ethical responsibility, 177–206;
133, 136, 143, 160, 169, 172 meaning of, 178
Digital divide, 105–108; global, 106; Ethics, 177–206; dialectic of, 205;
social, 106; democratic, 106 ethical dilemma, 178–185;
Dilthey, W., 46–47 macrolevel approach to, 187;
Dimock, M., 39–40 mesolevel approach to, 194;
Dirty hands, 181–182 microlevel approach to, 191
Discourse, 37, 43, 61, 63, 69, 80 Ethnomethodology, 2, 129–130, 149
Discursive democracy, 212 Evolutionary approach, 82
Discursive practice, 243 Executives, xviii, 3
Distrust, 151 Existentialism, 135
Douglas, J. D., 48 Expert, 89–90, 94
Dryzek, J., 12, 56, 215, 241, 244, Explanation, 13, 80, 255
Durkheim, E., 125
Dualism, 158, 176; dualistic think- Facts and values, 81
ing, 9, 13, 39, 238; nondualistic Farmer, D., 4, 35
relationship, 159; problem of Federal bureaucracy, xiv
duality, 149 Federal Executive Institute, the,
xvi–xix
East Asian countries, 153–155 Feibleman, J. K., 152, 156
East and West, the, xxi, 15–18 Feng, G. F., 156
Eastern and Western countries, 182 Fischer, F., 12
Eastern and Western philosophy, Fisher, J., 215, 218
148, 175, 206 Forester, J., 12, 50, 121
Eastern mind-set, 148, 158 Foster, P. M., 142
Eastern philosophy, 166, 251, 258 Foucault, M., 54, 63, 162–163
Ecuador, the hunt for “black gold,” Foweraker, J., 215
230–232 Fox, C. 4, 53
Edwards, D., 63 Franck, T., 179–183
Effectiveness, xxiii Freire, P., 123
Efficiency, xxiii, 22, 88–89, 103, 177; Freud, S., 164
efficient administration, 38 Friedmann, J., 239
Ellul, J., 236 Fukuyama, F., 219
Index 297
Functionalist perspective, 44–45, Hardin, R., 245, 247

125–127, 254–257 Harman, W., 263
Future search conference, 79, Harmon, M., 49, 53, 124, 177, 191,
107–108, 145 265
Hassard, J., 53
Gadamer, H-G., 47 Hegel, G. W. H., 13, 165, 200–201,
Galston, W., 201. 206 252
Gardner, N., 143 Heidegger, M., 48, 169
Garfinkel, H., 48, 129 Heirich, M., 117
Gawthrop, L., 30, 102 Henderson, H., 216
Gergen, K., 23, 56, 260 Hermeneutics, 2, 47, 135, 247
Giacomazzi, A., 103 Heyzer, N., 216, 218
Gibb, J., 246 Hierarchical governing, xxiv,
Giddens, A., 214 211–215
Glazer, N., 61 Hierarchy
Glensor, R. W., 104 hierarchical organization, xvi; hierar-
Globalization, 27, 66–70, 207, 240, chical relationships, 153; top-
255–256; from above, 68; down systems, xv–xvi
antiglobalization, 255; from Hiley, D. I., 49
below, 68; economic, 67, 229–230 Hinduism, 18, 152, 155–156
Goldman, R., 162 Hirshman, A., 183
Goldstein, H., 103 Hobbes, T., 58, 150
Good judgment, 205 Homelessness, 108–101
Goodsell, C., 4 Hong Kong, 154, 187
Gouinlock J., 214, 233 Horizontal relationships, 35
Gouldner, A., 170 Horkheimer, M., 50
Governance, 8, 211–215, 244; hori- Howell, J., 215
zontal governance, 208; local, Hoy, D., 54
220; process, 102 Human nature, 45; complexity of,
Governing, 12, 208, 212, 244; capa- 188, 202
bility of, 235, 149, 211–215 Human praxis, 238
Greenwood, D. J., 142 Human science, 247
Group-think, 193 Humanistic psychology, 149
Gunnell, J., 47 Hummel, R., 4
Guttman, A., 12, 56, 201 Hungtington, S., 264
Hurricane Katrina, 87–88
Haber, H. F., 165 Husserl, E., 17, 47, 62, 128, 259,
Habermas, J., 2, 48, 50, 68, 81, 133, 264
136, 138, 147, 150, 170, 208,
214, 219, 244 Inclusion, 94, 101
Hacker, A., 150 Incremental designer, 78, 112
Hajer, M., 12, 241 Incrementalism, 262; incremental
Handy, 1 politics, 118
298 INDEX
India, 155 Jensen, E., 253, 266

Individualism, 252 Joachim, H. H., 135
Indonesia, 208 Johnson, J. P., 158
Industrialization, 224 Joint Venture, 106
Institutional relationships, 213 Jonas, H., 190
Instrumental rationality, xiv–xv, Judaism, 158
xvi–xvii, 5–6, 52, 69, 211 Jun, J. S., 17, 22, 41, 49, 53, 61, 69,
Integrity, 196, 254 136, 185, 191, 213, 236, 245,
Interaction, 43, 48, 55, 64, 68, 102, 260, 265
168, 297; interaction, between an
“I” and a “me,” 160; network of, Kafka, F., 173
148; with people below, 239; with Kant, E., 53, 125, 198, 264
the public, 20, 32, 40 Kass, H., 4
Interdependence, 148 Kaufman, J., 4
Intergovernmental relations, 23, 110, Kazakhstan, 219
114 Kellner, D. M., 50
Interpersonal competence, 162 Kettl, D., 5, 207, 213
Interpretation, 186–187, 239; sub- Khademian, A., 142
jective, 190 Kim, T. Y., 245
Interpretive approach, 2, 14., 18, King, C., 30
46–49; interpretive perspective, Kiros, T., 174
127–131, 254, 257 Kiss, E., 215
Interpretive policy analysis. 14 Kooiman, J., 213
Intersubjective praxis, 82, 136, 160 Korten, D., 215
Intersubjective relationships, 175 Kramer, R. M., 245
Interpersonal relations, 245, 247 Krut, R., 216
Intersubjective relationships, 78; Kymlicka, W., 199, 201
understanding, 170
Intersubjectivity, 61–63, 129, 134, 165 Lacan, J., 163–165
Isaac, J. C., 208 Language, 56, 64, 74, 136, 163, 165,
Islam, 158 186, 192
Lao Tze, 18, 156–158, 176
Jacoby, N., 180 Lash, S., 168
James, W., 123, 147 Laudan, M., 51
Janis, I., 193, 265 Lawson, H., 169
Janoski, T., 246 Leadership skills, 73
Jantsch, E., 77, 82 Learning, 59, 141; capacity, xvii;
Japan, 24, 35, 127, 154, 173–174, cross-cultural, 256; double-loop
187, 192–193, 195, 209, 242, learning, 29; ethical responsibility,
251; Japanese public administra- 192; individual learning, xviii;
tion, 8; Japanese people, 173 organizational, 29–30; public
Jaspers, K., 154 learning, 59
Jefferson, T., 158 Levi, S., 245
Index 299
Levin, M., 142 Merleau-Ponty, M., 48–49, 60–61

Lewin, K., 142 Metaphor, 73–75, 83
Liberal democracy, 210–211 Mexico, 28
Lieberman, J., 5 Miller, H., 4, 53
Life-world, the, 260 Miyamoto, M., 185
Lindblom, C., 93, 95, 262 Modernization, 224
Livernash, R., 215 Montgomery, B. M., 250
Lobkowicz, N., 135 Morality, 63, 197–198; moral con-
Local autonomy, 242 science, 190; moral relativism,
Local governance, 220 200; moral responsibility, 195
Local knowledge, 42 Mosher, F., 5, 68
Locke, J., 150 Mulgan, G., 12
Loyalty, 179, 199 Multiculturalism, 61
Luard, E., 66 Multiple meanings, 165
Luckmann, T., 48, 46–57, 132, 192, Multiple realities, xxi, 60
260 Münch, R., 125
Luhmann, N., 246 Muramatsu, M., 8
Lynch, T., 158 Muto, H., 8, 18
Lyotard, J. F., 54, 68, 204 Mutuality, 157, 211
Myrdal, G., 151
Macann, C., 128, 169 Mythological approach, 82
Macedo, S., 201
MacIntyre, 153, 175, 263 Nader, R., 183
Mainstream public administration, Natanson, M., 47, 160
xxii, 2, 9–10, 15, 32–35, 41 Neace, M. B., 219
Malaysia, 208 Nepal, 154
Management by Objectives (MBO), Networking, 37, 110
235 New governance, 36–37
Management techniques, 236 Newly industrializing countries, 31
Mannheim, K., 138 NGOs, 8, 32–33, 36, 40, 70, 98,
March, J., 213 208, 211, 214–219, 223
Markovic, M., 135 Nondiscursive experience, 266
Marsh, J. L., 53 Nondiscursive practice 243
Marx, K., 252 Nonprofit organizations (NPO), 209
Marxist theory, 135 Nonsummativity, 253
May, L., 59, 198, 203, 205 Non-Western countries, xv, 2,
McCall, M. M., 130 20–21, 35, 81, 171, 21
McCarthy, T., 50 Norris, P., 106
McSwite, O. C., 4, 52 Novak, P., 154
McWhinney, W., 260
Mead, G. H., 147, , 160–161 O’Neil, J., 165
Meaning of text, 163 Objective responsibility, 149,
Melzer, A. M., 61 186–189; limitations of, 189
300 INDEX
Objectivity, 81, 162, 176, 259 Policy makers, 92, 94, 178, 207, 210,
Obligation, 186 235
Olsen, J., 213 Polkinghorne, D., 48
One-dimensional approach, 14, 73, Positivistic and functionalist per-
144 spective, 32, 43, 125–127
Ontology, 259 Postmodern ideas, 2, 46, 52–55;
Order, 58–59; organizational order, postmodern perspective, 52–55;
xxii, 3, 15 postmodernism, 149
Organization ethic, 178–179 Power, 4; power sharing, 242–243
Organizational culture, 131. See also Practical, 136–137; practical, man-
culture ager, 137; practice, 136
Organizational development (OD), Praxis, 123–124, 134–149; adminis-
123 trative praxis, 169; changing, 123,
Organizational learning, 29–30 139–141; intersubjective, 136;
Organizational praxis, 136 organizational, 136; praxis-ori-
Organizational reality, 56, 75 ented administrator, 136–139;
Ostrom, E., 245 social, 136
Otto, H., 246 President Clinton, Bill, 25
Preventing bureaucratic domination,
Papson, S., 162 241
Parker, M., 53 Problem solving, 73, 76, 84, 239;
Parsons, T., 124, 263 collective, 82; proactive, 84,
Participation, xxxi, 24, 36, 242; 88–91, 95–97; reactive, 84,
democratic, 70; of local citizens, 85–88, 91–95; process of, 143
211 Process, 63–64
Pateman, C., 56 Product, 63–64
Payton, S., 115–117 Professional dominance, 5
Peak, K., 104 Professionalization, 103, 242; pro-
Pearce, 215 fessionalization of management,
Performance evaluation, 17 27
Peters, G., 213 Professionals, 120, 148
Peterson, R., 54 Program Planning Budgeting
Phenomenology, 2, 17, 19, 47–49, System (PPBS), 235
54, 129, 135, 162, 164, 238, Proposition 13, 261; budget cuts, 86
246–247; existential, 161, Public, the, 33, 35–38, 211
168–169 Public administration, 1, 3–9,
Phillipson, M., 128 44–45, 50, 65, 71, 192, 254; as
Philosophy of administration, xxiv, art, 78–83, 92; as science, 78–81;
39, 44 in the East and the West, main-
Plato, 52, 150, 206, 252 stream, xxii, 2, 9–10, 15, 32–35,
Policy analysts, 91, 118, 236 41; Eastern and Western, 185,
Policy formulation, 24 258; education, 249; in Asia, 195;
Policy implementation, 24, 30–31 limitations of modern, 3–9; social
Index 301
construction of, 55; the failures Rehg, W., 211

of, 21; the publicness of, 241; Reich, C., 147
transformation of, 207 Rein, M., 77, 81
Public Administration Theory Relationships, 58; dialectical, 165
Network, the, xxiii Religion, 158
Public administrators, 233, 235, 237, Rhor, J. A., 259
244, 250–251; ethical responsibil- Richardson, H. S., 241
ity, 186; virtues of, 204; responsi- Richardson, W.D., 4
bility of, 144, 204 Ricoeur, P., 48
Public collaboration, 42 Rivera, M., 53
Public good, the, 199–201, 216, 240 Robertson, R., 67
Public management, 35, 41 Rodrik, D., 230
Public problem solving, 24, 52, 64 Roetz, H., 198
Public sphere, 133, 208, 210, 214, Rogers, C., 160–162, 246
233; as meaning-context, 130 Role of government, 255
Public, xiii–xiv, 32, 34–36, 38 Role of public administrators, 92,
Publicness, xv, 33, 41 111, 114, 178, 237
Publicness, the, 241 Roosevelt administration, the, 25
Putnam, R., 142, 219 Rorty, R., 68
Rosenbloom, D. H., 17
Quade, E. S., 89, 261 Rosenau, J. N., 66, 164, 213
Quah, J. S. T., 187 Roy, W. G., 56
Rudolph, S. H., 14
Ramos, G., 6 Russia, 219
Rational approach, 82; rational
choice, 89–90; rational-economic Sandel, M., 211
model, 261 Sartre, J-P., 48
Rationalism, 22 Sarup, M., 164
Ratliff, W., 219 Schachter, H. L., 9
Rawls, J., 178, 211, 241 Schon, 77
Reality 55, 131; changing, 136; Schön, D., 29, 59
Eastern and Western views, 176; Schutz, A., 2, 48, 62, 128–129, 147,
interpretation of, 81; objective 190, 240
reality, 80, 81, 162, 176, 259; sub- Schwedler, J., 215
jective, 46, 149, 162; intersubjec- Search conference, 79, 107–108. See
tive; 61–63, 129, 134, 165 also future search conference
Reciprocity of perspectives, 129 Searle, J. R., 56
Redford, E., 38 Self, xxii, 13; self-realization, 169,
Reflexivity, 137, 168–170; reflexive 197
activity, 196; reflexive conscious- Self, the, and sociality, 159–162;
ness, 238; reflexive judgment, Eastern views, 151–159; ego-ori-
132; reflexive person, 174; prac- ented, 156; in bureaucracy,
tice, 174; role-taking, 161 170–175; in social construction,
302 INDEX
Self, the (continued) Social praxis, 136; social relation-

147–176; no-self, 155; postmod- ships, 247
ern view, 162–166; real-self, 155; Social relationships, 82, 247
social construction of, 152; Sociality, 159–162
understanding, 149; Western Sokolowski. R., 128
concepts, 149–151, 197 Soup kitchen controversy, 220–223
Self-reflexivity, 136, 168–170, 191, South Korea, 17, 24, 28, 35, 127,
249 141, 154, 181, 192, 192, 195,
Sementelli, A. J., 50 209, 224, 232, 242; the sea dike
Sharp, E. B., 102 project, 226–228
Shigeru, T., 208 Stillman, 4
Shils, E., 151 Stivers, C., 30
Shotter, J., 170, 204 Stokey, E., 89
Shusterman, R., 266 Strategic Planning (SP), 235
Silicon Valley, 106 Strengthening of democracy, 211
Silverman, D, 49, 124 Stringer, E., 140
Silverman, H. J., 48 Ströker, E., 62
Simon, H., 89, 177, 261 Strong government, 205
Singapore, 127, 154, 187, 195, 251 Structuralism, 164
Smith, A., 150 Subject, 163
Smith, D. M., 142 Subjective judgment, 187, 189
Smith, H., 154, 158, 263 Subjective responsibility, 189–191,
Social capital, 211 196
Social constructionist approach, xxii, Subjectivity, 46, 149, 162, 164, 176,
9–12, 55–72; democratic, 241, 190, 259
244; globalization as, 66–70; in Sustainable development, 121, 223,
democratic context, 9–12, 102; 205
merits of, 237–238; process of, Symbolic interactionalism, 130, 149,
239 163
Social construction, of ethical
responsibility, 177–206; problem Taiwan, 154, 187
of, 194–196 Tandon, R., 215–216
Social context, 19; social design, 239 Tao of public administration, the,
Social design, 73–99, 120, 239; as a 251–258
framework, 78, 112; implications, Tao Te Ching, 156
97–98; in practice, 101–121; Taoism, 18, 156–159, 175, 206, 251,
strategies of, 101 253–254; Taoist, 255
Social designer, 79 Taylor, C., 2, 196, 195,
Social interaction, 48, 245, 247 Taylor, F., 89
Social knowledge, 56 Technical rationality, 80, 173, 215
Social learning, 59, 82 Technical skills, 237, 249
Social networks, 211 Thailand, 154, 209
Social order, 58, 156 Theorizing, 13, 55, 80, 99
Index 303
Thomason, B., 133 Watts, A., 252–253

Thompson, D., 12, 56 Ways of knowing, xxiv
Three Gorges Dam project, the, Weber, M., 5–6, 147, 128–129, 172,
224–226 215, 260
Thurman, W., 103 Weick, K. E., 263
Total Quality Management (TQM), Weinberger, J., 61
235 Weinstein, D., 180
Transcendence beyond self-bound- Weisbord, M., 142
ary, 158 We-relationship, 160
Trist, E., 142 Wesband, E., 179–183
Trust, 211, 245–248; institutional Western countries, 35, 151–152,
level, 247; interpersonal level, 235, 242
247; trustworthiness, 201, 245; Western mind-set, 148, 158
trusting relationships, 245 Western models, 16
Tu, W. M., 153 Western perspective, 258
Turner, B. S., 166, 264 Western thought, 165, 251
Westphal, M., 53
Ukrane, 219 Whistle-blowing, 182–185; in Asian
Understanding, 13, 43, 56–57, 80, countries, 184; in China, 184; in
85, 143, 155, 186, 209, 239 Japan, 184; strategies for, 183
Unethical behavior, 180 Whyte, W. H., 178–179
Unintended consequences, xxii, 1, 4, Whyte, Wm., 142
, 106, 151 Wilber, K., 158–159
Unreflexive action, 175 Wildavsky, A., 64
Williams, T. A., 60
Value appreciation, 84; value critical, Wilson, W., 44
11, 51, 71; value-laden, 18, 46, Winter, G., 205
96; value neutrality, 51; values, Wolfe, A., 178, 192, 205
plurality of, 59, 95; shared, 238 World Trade Organization (WTO),
Vazquez, A. S., 135 the, 210, 230
Vertical governing, 4–5, 57, Wright, D., 69
211–215 Wrong, D. H., 131
Vietnam, 154
Virtues, 198; civic-minded, 206; for Yanow, D., 48
self-cultivation, 264; of good citi- Yin and yang, 157, 252
zens, 203–205; of public adminis- Young, I. M., 56, 200, 257
trators, 202, 204; Western, 176
Zaner, R., 62
Wagenaar, H., 12, 241 Zanetti, L. A., 50
Waldo, D., 38, 245, 265 Zeckhauser, R., 89
Walzer, M., 182 Zero-Based Budgeting (ZBB), 235
Warren, M. E., 245, 248 Zhao, J., 103
Warren, R., 102 Zinman, M. R., 61

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The Social Construction

© 2006 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

For information, address State University of New York Press,

Production by Susan Geraghty

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

2 The Changing Context of Public Administration 21

3 The Social Constructionist Approach 43

4 Public Administration as Social Design 73

Administrative Science, Art, and Social Design 78

5 Social Design in Practice 101

6 Understanding Action, Praxis, and Change 123

7 The Self in Social Construction 147

8 The Social Construction of Ethical Responsibility 177

Connecting Administrators and Citizens 201

9 Civil Society, Governance, and Its Potential 207

10 Concluding Thoughts 235

The first priority in this introduction is to ensure that readers of this

Korea is simply immense. Japan has also received a considerable

not concerned with any type of administration. It is specifically about

icy analysis, information management, and positivistic research. It is

there is no simple set of goals to be pursued. Deciding what is most

hierarchies. People who do not trust themselves are highly unlikely to

and so on. They learn to find meaning in reconstructing organizational

diate concern transcends the idea of the strong administrative state,

We live in an “age of paradox,” in which our good intentions to

be—in order to alter the social and administrative structure and

management and professional capability. The bureaucratization of

THE LIMITATIONS OF MODERN

The characteristics of modern public administration are adequate

most difficult issues facing a complex organization such as Homeland

Public administration is vertically governed. That is to say, administra-

ually being transformed into the democratic process of horizontal gov-

When we attempt to understand a bureaucracy by means of Weber’s

concepts for analytical purposes. As time passes, we tend to forget the

The bigness and complexity of public bureaucracy have become

In a democratic society, citizen participation in the political process is

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION IN A DEMOCRATIC CONTEXT

In this book, I introduce a fresh perspective on the study and under-

into my interpretation in order to help students realize the value of

bilities of reconstructing public administration in the twenty-first cen-

that nation-states increasingly depend on one another economically,

accomplishes self-conscious activity. The social construction of public

relevant to understand the problems and processes of human and orga-

LEARNING FROM A CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

In the course of this exploration of change, other important themes

well as involve citizens in the policy process. Thus ongoing interaction

tion of any techniques or theories must be critically examined in the

are not obvious—we need to engage in the task of seeing, describing,

THE ORIENTATION OF THIS BOOK

In this book, reconstructing the grounds of the various beliefs and

social, historical, and cultural contexts. In this way, it is possible to eval-

are familiar with, or who are profoundly interested in learning about,

The Changing Context

The primary objective of this chapter is to briefly explore the success-

The twentieth century was a time of enormous progress in science and

Both industrial and postindustrial countries in the twentieth cen-

were many side effects of government intervention—but also through