Research Instruments
Comparative research and scholarship have to make hard choices in selecting research strategies and methods. These are some basic ones: Collaboration. Scholars from various regions of the world, utilizing their competitive advantages and motivated by the desire to rationalize their own systems, can produce a better understanding of the transcendental administrative characteristics. Richard Still man, along with five European colleagues, for example, provides insights into “changing European states” and “changing public administration” (Kickert et al. 1996). Monte Palmer and his associates from the Arab world collaborated on several studies
of administration development in Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and other countries (Palmer, Leila, and Yassin 1988; Palmer et al. 1989). Incremental, cooperative group research processes, therefore, offer excellent opportunities for developing analytic frameworks of greater reliability,which may provide better convergence and synthesis of perspectives.
Cases. A methodology of comparative administration,extended to the examination of a small number of cases instead of single-case analysis, produces more dependable results, better evaluation of hypotheses, and better verification of conclusions. By comparing a manageable number of administrative variables, researchers are able to have greater focus and provide an improved description
and sharper definition of elements to be investigated. Information generated through case studies offers students and practitioners better evidence and more credible analysis of the causes and effects of administrative actions and behaviors. Early contributions were largely single-case studies, such as Braibanti (1966) on Pakistan, Riggs (1966) on Thailand, Daland (1967) on Brazil, Esman (1972) on Malaysia,
and so forth. Many foundation concepts and practical insights have been derived from such international experiences. Invariably, these scholars agreed that contextual
or environmental constraints do influence organizational capacity to act effectively.4 Certainly, the significance of these early case studies is compelling. But at this time,
comparing a few cases instead of a single case is necessary to proceed to the next phase of knowledge consolidation and to achieve a true reflection of current societal and global conditions. At the same time, one has to recognize that a key factor for the advancement of future research is access to information and applications from a variety of sources and places.
Governance. The end of colonialism and the emergence of many independent countries after World War II brought forward issues and problems of management and nation building that previously had been ignored or were unfamiliar to Western comparative politics and administration. today, the view is that “administration is only one aspect of the operation of the political system” (Heady 2001, 7). This expanded conception underscores the relations between administrative attributes and political authority. Governance is a convenient concept, focusing on the big picture and encompassing entire structures and processes of public policy making. Its interrelation with the administrative structure is so crucial that, as Consider and
Lewis (2003, 132) conclude, in practice, any one of many administrative models or ideals of organization they identify “would represent a significant change to the architecture of governance.” Although there is little agreement on what exactly governance means, comparative administration has to be mindful of the extensive web that connects administrative institutions to processes and activities of governance, however it is conceived (Hyden 2002; Heady 2001). Invariably, critical issues such as participation, transparency, accountability, ethics, and equity, as well as effectiveness and efficiency in public organizations, turn out to be inseparable from the overall governance process. Researchers of comparative administration have to look more closely at these links with the wider landscape of governance for a more realistic understanding of administrative characteristics.
Culture. Attempts by comparative national studies sought to determine how much of the variation in organizational management is caused by attributes of national
culture. Findings of such research are often conveyed in terms of the impact of culture on managerial attitudes, beliefs, and behavior (Graves 1972; Hofstede 1980), with the other organizational variables either implied or neglected. The notion of “civic culture” has been popularized by Almond and Verba (1965, 1989) in describing the levels of diffusion of democratic values in Germany, Italy, Mexico, Britain, and the United States. The civic culture is portrayed as a political culture that is participant and pluralistic, based on communication and persuasion, a culture of consensus and diversity, a culture that permits change but moderates it (Almond and Verba 1965). Comparative cultural studies of management are replete with variations on the importance and the method of measurement of cultural influences on administration. Practically, results have often been contradictory. One approach argues that culture
determines managerial practices because culture is “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another” (Hofstede 1980, 25). A different perspective concludes that organizational variance is less dependent on culture than on other contingencies such as technological development, interdependence with other organizations, market considerations
(Child and Tayeb 1983), or the type of political authority (Sorensen 1990). Yet, a “number of cross-national comparative analysis studies have been done … several of which show that structure differs across cultures regardless of technology” (Roberts and Grabowski 1996, 415). Still, we do not even have an adequate explanation of why people behave in one way with members of their own culture and differently with members of foreign cultures, as in international negotiation (Graham 1985). A basic premise of the comparative perspective is that functional patterns of administration are determinable and transferable from one system to another. Research promoting
multicultural experiences emerging from “institutional ethnicities” set off internationalization processes of far-reaching consequences. Defining common patterns of administration from multicultural experiences would improve applicability and temper the archaic “institutional ethnicities.”
Conclusion
Today’s public administration functions in a different time and faces different challenges, requiring new concepts and methods. Realizing the massive influence of unfolding globalism, comparative public administration opens the door for effective adjustment and transition from traditional, ethnocentric perspectives to a wider scope that integrates knowledge from various places and cultures. There is no one way to get to the place where public administration ought to be. However, clear objectives, refined application of theoretical perspectives, and updated research instruments would give the comparative approach a better chance of constructing frameworks and contributing to scholarship that enriches public administration and ensures its adaptability to current global conditions.