The phenomenon of public administration requires a detailed strategy that allows for taking every single factor into account. At this point, numerous theories of public administration (PA) factor in. Riggs (1976) suggested a unique concept of PA ecology, which involves maintaining sustainability between the elements of PA (Riggs, 1976). According to Riggs, the framework in question facilitates sustainability in the field of PA, therefore, making it self-adapting to the cultural changes that the global economy requires (Riggs, 1976).
It can be assumed that the current situation concerning the threat of a culture clash and the assimilation of the UAE people to the European and American cultural standards represents the major hindrance to the improvement of the PA structure. The deleterious effects of bureaucracy, which the UAE PA suffers from, can be eliminated with the advocacy of the framework that is applied to the PA systems in Europe and the United States. As Riggs explains, the necessity to incorporate the worldwide standards to the UAE PA is also essential because of the threat that the latter is facing at present: “This can lead to a kind of a ‘catch-22’ or double bind, in which officials, called upon to take corrective actions against their abuse of power, can do so only at the price of personal sacrifices” (Riggs, 1976, p. 108).
Welch and Wong (1998), in their turn, view the phenomenon of PA from a global context and, therefore, suggest that the emphasis should lie on the necessity to adopt the approaches that could be globally applicable: “public administration scholars live in what is much more of a ‘global village’ conceptually” (Welch & Wong, 1998). The authors also mention the concept of ethnocentricity, claiming that the excessive focus on specifics of culture prevents from establishing the rules that could be universally applicable (Welch & Wong, 1998).
Applying the theory of nonethnocentric framework suggested by Welch and Wong to the UAE setting, one must admit that the traditional bureaucratic principles that the field of PA is navigated with, will most likely become a major obstacle The digression from the European and the American standards that the present-day UAE public sphere can be characterised by is a major problem: “This dimension will, therefore, involve some more intangible factors such as ideology and culture” (Welch & Wong, 1998, p. 47). While conformity with the standard norms is what cements the UAE culture in the global environment, it sets the state decades back in the past.
Another theory that has spawned a potentially beneficial approach to solving PA issues, the approach suggested by Koppel. According to the latter, the PA theories should be taken to the next level, i.e., the level of global administration. Herein the necessity to adopt transnational rules emerges; serving as the foundational principles for carrying out social, economic and financial interactions, these principles will supposedly resolve the problem of culture clash.
The current alterations in the PA of the UAE can be viewed from the tenets of the theory of quasi-government hybrid organisations (Koppel, 2010, p. S49). Once leveraging power between state authorities and entrepreneurs, one will be capable of overcoming the aforementioned cultural issues and compromise for the sake of improving relationships between public administration and private companies. The problem of maintaining the level of bureaucracy in the UAE public administration sector at the same unthreatening level can be explained by the lack of personal responsibility, as Koppel (2010) explains; in other words, the theory of administration allowing researchers to view the concept from the state perspective coexists with the rational choice theory. Indeed, the current levels of bureaucracy can be explained by the fact that people are afraid of the consequences of changing the system. At the same time, the ideology choice theory can be viewed as applicable to the UAE situation, as it displays the connection between the culture of the UAE people and the decisions that the UAE officials make when managing the PA environment (Koppel, 2010, p. S47).
In other words, the current UAE PA needs a major boost that will allow for the rejuvenation of the entire system. The PA strategy in the UAE needs to be steered towards universal standards; as a result, the PA issues that the state officials have been encountering so far is likely to vanish. The UAE officials, however, should also need to integrate the elements of the UAE culture into the specified PA so that the citizens should not assimilate to the norms and traditions of the European society, thus, retaining their integrity.
While seemingly impossible, the specified task only requires enough sagacity for determining the elements that are not going to be in sharp conflict with the European and American values. For instance, the gender issue in the UAE private and public entrepreneurship needs to be addressed so that further international communication should not face any hindrances caused by discrepancies in the public administration approaches. Moreover, it is essential to convince the UAE officials that the alteration of the system will not trigger the consequences that will affect them negatively.
Reference List
Koppel, J. G. S. (2010). Administration without borders. Public Administration Review, 70, S46–S55.
Riggs, F. W. (1976). Ecology and context of public administration: A comparative perspective. Public Administration Review, 36(6), 631–636.
Welch, E. & Wong, W. (1998). Public administration in a global context: Bridging the gaps of theory and practice between western and non-western nations. Public Administration Review, 58(1), 40–49.