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Uncertainty avoidance and public bureaucracy

Uncertainty avoidance (UA) is the cultural tendency to feel uncomfortable with uncertainty and risk in everyday life. It reflects the degree to which people in a country prefer a structured over an unstructured situation. From an organizational perspective, it reflects the degree to which people are likely to prefer structured or unstructured organizational situations. It also reflects the propensity to take risks and the attitude toward change and innovation. Cultures, which rank relatively low on UA, feel much more comfortable with the unknown. High UA cultures prefer formal rules and structured organizations and any uncertainty can express itself in higher anxiety than those from low uncertainty avoidance cultures can. The degree of uncertainty avoidance will impact management preferences, decision-making, and the relationship between management and employees Pakistan ranks fairly high on Hofstedes Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) with a rank of 21 among 52 countries. Its average score on the index is 70, while the highest-scoring country was Greece with a score of 112. Pakistans high UA manifests itself in many of its administrative institutions and practices. Its highly hierarchic structures with centralized power discussed earlier are used as the principal means to coordinate and resolve conflicts. Hierarchy is used to reduce uncertainty. Perhaps the most significant aspect is the emphasis given to formal rules and regulations. Every department is saddled with a plethora of rules, regulations and procedures that lead to unnecessary delays in making decisions and the delivery of services. Ironically, the propensity to avoid uncertainty and the collectivist orientation (discussed earlier) results in a paradoxical situation. As more and more rules are created to avoid uncertainty, more ingenious ways of circumventing the rules are found simultaneously. Rules are selectively enforced and bent to favour relatives or friends. Often when the rules are enforced, they are used deliberately to stall a decision to give time to the favourite clients or solicit a bribe.

Masculinityfemininity dimension in Pakistans administrative system

The masculinityfemininity dimension refers to the degree to which the gender roles in a society are differentiated or diffused. A masculine culture emphasizes assertiveness, task orientation, performance, success and competition. A feminine society, in contrast, espouses such values as the quality of life, maintaining warm personal relationships, service, caring and solidarity.43 See Table 4. Work goals that satisfy needs such as advancement and earnings are important to masculine cultures in which the work ethos is to live in order to work. Conflicts are resolved through combat. It is important to be aware of the impacts of a masculine approach to conflict when dealing with a feminine culture. Motivations relate to goals and achievement. Heroes are seen as assertive/decisive, which suggests that a fit between a masculine culture and a high use of authority by the manager are related. In a feminine managerial organization, interpersonal goals, such as a friendly atmosphere and cooperation, satisfy the social ego. A feminine work culture has an ethos that promotes working in order to live. Conflicts are resolved through compromise, meaning that masculine managers working in a feminine culture must realize the importance of compromise in negotiations, work assignments and motivational systems are welfare and socially orientated. Heroes in a feminine culture tend to be intuitive and consensus-seeking. This suggests that greater degrees of involvement of subordinates in decision-making will fit best with a feminine culture. Pakistan scores moderately high on masculinity. Its score in the index is 50, as compared to Sweden, the most feminine, and Japan, the most masculine, which score 5 and 95 respectively. This means that in Pakistan the gender roles are more differentiated. The prevailing pattern of gender-based division of labor in Pakistan supports Hofstedes findings three decades ago. Womens participation in the labor force remains low at 27 percent (1997). This is the lowest among the major South Asian countries. Womens participation rate, however, has risen at a greater rate than the mens rate since 1980.44 Pakistan ranks 115 according to the Gender-related Development Index (GDI) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) among the 173 countries included in the ranking. Women account for 25.1 percent of professional and technical workers and 8.0 percent of administrators and managers.45 Female literacy (28.9 percent) as well as the gross enrollment (28 percent) accounts for half that of the men. There is a high degree of gender imbalance in the Pakistani public service. With the exception of the Ministry of Education (51 percent women at middle levels) and the Ministry of Health (30 percent women at the middle levels), the proportion of women at the middle levels remains very small. Compared to some 800 men serving in BPS 20 and above, there are only 19 women holding posts in these grades. The current military regime has appointed seven female ministers and many women to senior positions including the Cabinet Secretary, Ambassador to Washington and the Secretary to the Womens and Social Welfare Division. Under the governments devolutionary reform, 33 per cent of the seats in local bodies have been reserved for women.46 Some 36,000 women councillors have been elected to various local bodies. Cultural norms continue to inhibit womens access to education, in general, and higher education, in particular. Gender differentiation of roles assigns women to the domestic sphere, i.e. to early marriage, taking care of children and domestic work. It also leads to ghettoization of the workplace. A large number of women work as elementary school-teachers, nurses, other para-professionals and secretaries. In Pakistan, the institution of purdah is responsible for the exclusion and segregation of women. It restricts the interaction of women with non-kin males and, in some regions, restricts their movements outside the family compound, thus limiting womens roles to the domestic and segregated spheres. The large-scale presence of women in local bodies is likely to change the culture of the workplace. It will initially create a lot of friction and present teething trouble. Women are already having problems in claiming their office space and separate toilets.

Corruption and the public service

It is almost impossible to talk about Pakistans administrative culture without mentioning corruption. It has become a way of life. Among other variables, the predominant cultural norms and values provide an environment conducive to corruption to flourish in Pakistans administrative system. Tolerance of inequality and high power distance, obligations created by collectivist social structure, high uncertainty avoidance and masculinity provide reasons and incentives for corrupt behaviour. Corruption did not emerge suddenly with the creation of Pakistan. Pre-Independence India already had a somewhat institutionalized system of corruption, particularly at the lower levels of field administration. Citizens paid small amounts of money for services (legal) rendered by the public servants. Nobody usually complained unless the charges exceeded the normal rates.47 This institutionalized system of paying speed money to process documents, move files, clear customs and receive services continued in post-colonial Pakistan.48 Over the last five decades, corruption has become part and parcel of the administrative culture in Pakistan. It became pervasive at all levels of administration from the highest echelons of government to the lowest levels of the bicycle bureaucracy in the field. During the early years of Pakistans existence, Rishwat Khor or Rashi (one who accepts bribes), the Urdu words for corrupt officials, were used in a pejorative sense, with hushed tones and a wink. They indicated strong disapproval. Over time, these words have practically disappeared from the social lexicon. During the 1950s and 1960s, the preferred choice of most candidates in the Central Superior Services Examinations used to be the lite Civil Service of Pakistan (CSP) and the Foreign Service. During the 1980s and 1990s, the Customs and Income Tax Services became the premium choice, because they offered a greater chance of getting rich through bribes. Bribery and corruption have become a way of life in Pakistan. In many government departments, corruption became institutionalized. In the Public Works Department (PWD), a percentage of the total value of the project was to be paid to various levels of officials for moving the file up the hierarchical line of command. WAPDA (the Water and Power Development Authority) became so notoriously corrupt that the Army had to be called in to administer the agency. Transfers and postings to certain police stations that offered lucrative opportunities to extract money were made by auction to the highest bidder. The Customs Service became so corrupt that a Swiss agency had to be engaged to assess customs at departure points abroad. Ironically, the agency had to pay a hefty bribe to the First Husband for winning the contract. The parent agency of the Customs Department, the Central Board of Revenue (CBR), was labeled in the press as holding a unique place in Pakistans corruption-infested bureaucracy and rotten to the core.49 The CBR has never met its target in revenue collection. According to the press reports, the CBR chairman, Riaz Hussain Naqvi, had reported to General Musharraf that only onetenth of the CBR staff was honest and that he would like to sack the remaining 90 percent.50 The collectorates of the CBR in major industrial cities have paid back billions of rupees in fraudulent refunds. In 19992000, for example, Rs 4.19 billion was paid out against a gross collection of Rs 4.89 billion in Karachi West. In Lahore and Faisalabad, Rs 5.1 billion and Rs 3.96 billion were similarly paid out against a gross collection of Rs 10.5 billion and Rs 4.9 billion respectively.51 Bribery at the service delivery point is routine and commonplace. Clearing customs, obtaining a drivers license, getting a passport, an identity card, an electricity connection, a telephone connection, registering a police report (FIR) and any government permit could all be obtained expeditiously through a bribe. Pakistans decade of democracy turned out to be a decade of grand corruption. Every elected government during this period was dismissed for corruption charges. The governments under Prime Ministers Bhutto and Sharif set records for corruption. Both these leaders were charged with siphoning hundreds of millions of dollars into dummy corporations and pricey real estate abroad. The stories of their legendary corruption have been published in the national and international press.52 In a recent survey, 88 per cent of respondents felt that political leaders had become more corrupt during the last five years and 33 per cent admitted to giving bribes.53 In another survey, over 95 per cent believe that bureaucrats and politicians were corrupt and 76 per cent thought that the generals were more corrupt now than 15 years ago.54 The Human Development Report in South Asia 1999 noted: The moral foundations of the state have been eroded by electoral fraud, the advent of money politics, the criminalization of the political system and increasing corruption in public life.