Core values for ideal civil servants: Service‐oriented, responsive and dedicated.

What do citizens want? How do citizens think public servants should behave? Although such questions seem straightforward, little is known about the values citizens expect public servants to uphold. This paper therefore identifies such values through extensive coding of qualitative data from represen...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Public Administration Review Vol. 83; no. 4; pp. 838 - 863
Main Authors: Neo, Sheeling, Grimmelikhuijsen, Stephan, Tummers, Lars
Format: Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell Jul2023
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
fields @attributes:
  recordID: 1
pdfLink:
plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=164587756&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: ssf
    uiTerm: 164587756
    longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson)
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        00333352
        PBA
      jtl: Public Administration Review
      issn: 00333352
      maglogo: Y
    pubinfo:
      dt: Jul2023
      vid: 83
      iid: 4
      pid: 480
      pub: Wiley-Blackwell
    artinfo:
      ui:
        164587756
        10.1111/puar.13583
      ppf: 838
      ppct: 25
      formats:
        fmt:
          – @attributes:
              type: T
          – @attributes:
              type: C
          – @attributes:
              type: P
              size: 2MB
      tig:
        atl: Core values for ideal civil servants: Service‐oriented, responsive and dedicated.
      aug:
        au:
          Neo, Sheeling
          Grimmelikhuijsen, Stephan
          Tummers, Lars
        affil: Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
      su:
        United States
        Civil service
        Public officers
        Citizen satisfaction
      sug:
        subj:
          Civil service
          Public officers
          Citizen satisfaction
          United States
          Other General Government Support
      keyword:
        administrative traditions
        normative expectations
        public values
        administrative traditions
        normative expectations
        public values
      ab: What do citizens want? How do citizens think public servants should behave? Although such questions seem straightforward, little is known about the values citizens expect public servants to uphold. This paper therefore identifies such values through extensive coding of qualitative data from representative samples of United States (n = 395), Dutch (n = 369), and South Korean (n = 379) citizens. Surprisingly, and contrasting to assumptions in the literature on citizen satisfaction, citizens hardly value effectiveness, efficiency, and accountability. In contrast, we found that the top three universal values that citizens desire from public servants are serviceability, responsiveness, and dedication. These values are generic across countries, age, gender, and education level. However, some values are more important in some countries than in others. These differences show the influence of a country's longstanding public administrative tradition and its current situation. Our findings challenge scholars and government officials to rethink what citizens want from their civil servants.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
    refInfo:
    copyright:
      @attributes:
        flag: N
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N