Power-influence in decision making, competence utilization, and organizational culture in public organizations: the Arab world in comparative perspective.

INTRODUCTION

Much of the research on bureaucracy and organizational performance in developing countries in general, and in the Arab states in particular, identifies problems of over centralization of power and control (Al-Awaji 1971; Palmer, El Sayeed, and Leila 1985), ineffectiveness of decision making (Ali 1993; Alshalan 1991; Al-Tweam 1995), low productivity (Abualjadail 1990), unpredictability of bureaucratic decisions, and lack of sustainable and meaningful modes of empowerment and representation in most state institutions (Al-Yahya and Vengroff 2004; UNDP 2002, 2003). In most Arab states, capacity development in the form of investments in human resources and education has long been the most common, if not the sole, approach to institutional development and improved performance. However, the literature continues to report that this expansion of human capital development does not seem to have had any effect on organization-level performance, reporting patterns of unaffected performance and development in work organizations (Abualjadail 1990; Al-Abdullatif 1995; Alkahtani 2000; Al-Meth'heb, 1998; Al-Yahya 2004; Benhabib and Spiegel 1994; Hakim 1989; Kassim 1994; Pritchett 1999). This article argues that the approaches to organizational development (OD) and performance improvement have been one sided and largely divorced from the broader enabling "institutional" environment within which strengthened capabilities and empowered individuals must operate. The role of public administration is, according to Jreisat (2005, 235), "to restructure and reshape societies from within." A key element of that reshaping involves modifying the modes of decision making and empowerment and utilization of human capital resources. Here, I use both terms "power-influence sharing" and "participation" interchangeably.

Participation and empowerment can be realized through arrangements associated with three factors: structure, systems, and culture (Zamanou and Glaser 1994). First, participation programs involve flattening organizational structure to enhance information sharing and communication, as well as creating autonomous, empowered units such as self-managed work teams. Second, organizations undertaking participative programs also readjust their systems by adopting new policies and procedures that support influence sharing and interactions, linking financial rewards and other incentives with participation (Pasmore and Fagans 1992), and by designing programs and opportunities that increase an individual's skills and abilities (Vroom 1964).

Finally, culture-specific theories emphasize the role of cultural values and norms and matching the internal characteristics of organization (strategy, structure, systems, and practices) to the key external characteristics (national culture, history, and political institutions) (Al-Yahya et al. 2008, forthcoming). Organizational culture theorists suggest that culture change is invariably necessary for participatory management to have any success in implementing functional change (Lundberg 1985; Schein 1985). This is because a participation strategy entails changing the shared values and perceptions of organizational members created through mission, hierarchal structure, communication, and social interaction (Drennan 1992; Rousseau 1990; Schneider 1990).

In this article I use the case of Saudi Arabia to delineate and test an integrative, multivariate model of participation and its correlates, as summarized in figure 1. First, I examine the extent of influence-power sharing (IPC) in decision making and its effects on perceptions of work-related outcomes (WRO) including competence utilization (CU), quality of decisions, predictability and acceptance of authorized decisions, information sharing, job satisfaction, and motivation. Second, I am interested in examining whether organizational culture has any significant effect on decision making. Finally, in light of previous research, the present study evaluates the effect of certain demographic and organizational characteristics on these relationships. These include factors such as respondent's education level, hierarchal/managerial rank, experience, age, gender, and group size (number of workers belonging to the same work unit/team). To adequately capture these hypothesized, multiple associations in the proposed model, I use a structural equation modeling (SEM). SEM is particularly appropriate because it allows estimation of multiple associations by simultaneously incorporating observed, indicator factors (power-influence sharing, CU, age, group size, managerial rank, experience, education, and gender) with latent factors (organizational culture and perceived WRO).

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Little research has been done to examine these associations in the public sector. Participation and its correlates have been largely unexplored and sometimes avoided due to difficulties associated with accountability and conflict, as well as availability of reliable measures and data (Nutt 2006; Perry and Rainey 1988). In comparative public administration and development management, research on hierarchy and decision making faces even greater conceptual and empirical challenges. For instance, the influence of cultural values and norms on decision behavior and organizational outcomes has been highly debated. This debate is attributed mainly to a group of researchers who subscribe to the universality hypothesis as opposed to culture-based theories. The universalist hypothesis is based on the idea that at some basic level, managers in organizations think and act similarly (aiming toward best practices) regardless of the organization's cultural settings and that these similarities can be the basis for a generic theory of management and organization development (Al-Yahya et al. 2008, forthcoming; Vengroff, Lubatkin, and Ndiaye 1997). Among the universalists, there is a subgroup of convergence theorists who, while accepting the proposition that culture has an important but limited impact on management, suggest that the impact varies inversely with the level of economic and institutional development. Hyden (1983), for instance, states that cultural differences in management will disappear progressively as countries develop. In other words, with increasing international integration and the accumulation and diffusion of knowledge, the influence of economic and technological factors will become stronger than the impact of culture.