Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Public Administration and the Educational System have been sharly affected by changes in values concerning the role of government in administrative concepts (including renewed calls for privatization and the use of nongovernmental orgainzations for government activities) and in general, social values and public demands. On the one hand, modern bureaucracy is the result of past evolution in theory and practice. In general institutional change tends to be cumulative: as patterns of behavior come and go, they leave behind carryover effects, which then mingle with and become indistinguishable from the patterns that replace them. With the change of behavioral patterns comes a change in basic values. Today many basic values are changing, such as those relating to marriage and family life, gender roles, respect for authority, job security, entitlements, material possessions, the environment, and human rights. For traditional institutions to respond to such social upheaval is a large order, and much recent criticism of bureaucracy focuses on its apparent failure to do so. As greater numbers of intersts espouse different and often conflicting values, it becomes less likely that all groups in society will share a common set of values.