ADMINISTRATIVE CULTURE A Comparative Analysis between Bangladesh and USA

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ADMINISTRATIVE CULTURE A Comparative Analysis between Bangladesh and USA

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Helal Uddin Muhammad Al-Helal BSS (Hons) MSS Dept. of Public Administration University of Dhaka.

June 5, 2014.

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Table of Contents 1. Preface: ...................................................................................................................... 2 Culture:.......................................................................................................................... 4 Administrative Culture: ............................................................................................... 5 2. Differences between Bangladesh and USA ............................................................ 6 2.1-Bangladesh ............................................................................................................ 6 2.2-The United States .................................................................................................. 6 3. Differences of Administrative Culture between Bangladesh and USA ............... 8 3.1-Individualism-Collectivism ................................................................................ 8 3.2-Power Distance:................................................................................................... 9 3.3-Uncertainty Avoidance: ...................................................................................... 9 3.4-Masculinity-Femininity .................................................................................... 10 4. Reasons behind these Differences ............................................................................ 12 4.1-Reasons behind Low Individualism: .................................................................. 12 4.2-Reasons behind Power Distance: ........................................................................ 12 4.3-Reasons behind Uncertainty Avoidance: ............................................................ 13 4.4- Reasons behind Moderate Masculinity: ............................................................. 13 5. Will these Differences Persist? or not:.................................................................. 14 6. Conclusion: .............................................................................................................. 15 Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 16

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1. Preface: The concept of culture has become a significant tool in the study of organizations. With the acknowledgment of organization activities as derivatives also of values, norms, symbols, rituals and ceremonies, that go beyond the clarifications based on rational or calculative measures. The concept of culture has been borrowed from anthropology has numerous connotations and meaning. Despite some differences of emphasis, anthropologists agree that a culture is the way of life of a given society. In the context of organization, culture is used to explain organization events and human behavior that are beyond the explanation based on rational and economic theories (Jamil, 2007). It is necessary to be clear about what culture is prior to defining administrative culture. Hofstede (1997) noted that culture distinguishes the members of one group from members of another through a collective programming of the mind. This programming continues throughout group members‟ life times, from family and school to workplace. Culture is encompassed the basic assumptions and beliefs that have been conceived, developed, and learned by a given group while they discourse external and internal problems. Keith Henderson sees administrative culture as „the general characteristics of public officials, i.e., shared values, attitudes and beliefs‟ (Henderson, 2005). Administrative culture is the shared values, beliefs, norms, traditions and practices of public officials. As, culture is the reflection (mirror) of a society or organization, so administrative culture refers to the reflection of the administrative system of a country or region. This notion of culture varies at the civilization level, at the country level, and within the country level (Dangal, 2005). And it is slowly become clear that national even regional cultures do matter for management. The national and regional differences are not disappearing; they are here to stay. In fact, these differences may become one of the most crucial problems for management, whether public or private. This Study attempts to explore the cultural variation of administrative system between Bangladesh and United States of America (USA). With exploring the variations of administrative culture, objectives of this study requires analyzing the reasons behind these variations and also to discuss the differences in administrative forms, procedures, rules and practices between two countries. This assignment is prepared basically on the basis of secondary data collected by content analysis and review of literature such as books, journals, periodicals, newspapers, publications and especially articles from different online sources. In this study, a comparative

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discussion on administrative culture of Bangladesh and USA based on the four cultural dimensions referred by Hofstede. For this research, general idea about administrative culture has been gathered from former research.

Geert Hofstede in his study “The cultural relativity of organizational practice and theories” assessed the differences in people's work-related values among 50 countries. In view of these differences, ethnocentric management theories (those based on the value system of one particular country) have become untenable. This concept is illustrated for the fields of leadership, organization, and motivation. Ishtiaq Jamil in his book, “Administrative Culture in Bangladesh” he has tried to map Administrative Culture in Bangladeshi public administration. This Book is a collection of six articles. The major inspiration of this Book derives from cultural theories. An interest in a cultural explanation of the working norms and values of Bangladeshi bureaucracy is pursued in this Book. Keith M. Henderson, “Comparing Administrative Cultures: United States and the European Union” This paper uses Administrative Culture as an explanatory construct to understand differences and similarities between two sets of partners, U.S. Federal officials and counterparts in the E.U. E. B. Bergiel, B. J. Bergiel and J. W. Upson, “Revisiting Hofstede’s Dimensions: Examining the Cultural Convergence of the United States and Japan”. In this Study, utilizing Cultural Convergence Theory they suggest that increased similarities can be observed in cultures with strong international linkages. Specifically, this study utilized the new Value Survey Module 08 to test theoretically justified hypotheses examining the cultural convergence of the United States and Japan. Results suggest interesting changes have occurred in these cultures, to include a strong trend towards convergence. Implications as well as directions for future research are discussed. Nasir Islam, “Sifarish, Sycophants, Power and Collectivism: Administrative Culture in Pakistan”. This article analyses some of the major attributes of Pakistan‟s contemporary administrative culture. The article uses Hofstede‟s famous four dimensional model of national cultures as an analytical framework. Hofstede‟s fourfold typology – power distance,

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individualism/collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity/femininity – is used as a point of departure for a more elaborate description and analysis of the traditions, values and norms that characterize Pakistan‟s governing system.

Before going to the discussion of comparative administrative culture we can go through the conceptual understanding of culture as well as administrative culture.

Culture: Culture is the learned and shared ways of thinking and acting among a group of people or a society. The many definition and concepts of culture have arises confusion and controversy among scholars to the precise meaning of culture. According to Geert Hofstede, “culture is “the collective programming of mind which distinguishes on group of people from another1. M.H Tayeb defines culture as “a set of historically evolved learned values, attitudes and meanings shared by member of a given community2. Robertson says that “Humans are not born with a culture but rather born into a society that teaches us the collective way of life we call culture”3 However, what is significant about most of the above definitions is that they see culture as: a) holistic, referring to a whole as more than the sum of its parts, b) historically determined, reflecting the history of the organization, c) involving symbols and rituals, d) socially constructed, created and preserved by the group of people who together form the organization, and e) difficult to change.

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Hofstede, G. (1991). Cultures and Organisations: Software ofIntercultural cooperation and its importance for survival. London: McGraw-Hill. 2 Tayeb, M.H., (1998). “Organizations and National Culture: A Comparative Analysis”. Sage Publication, London. 3 Robertson, I. “Sociology” New York, Worth pg:59-60, (Cited in Kabir, S L: 2013)

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Administrative Culture: No institution can be properly comprehended without considering its wider social and cultural context. So what are the specific roles of culture in administration? (Kabir, S.L, 2013). Administrative culture is understood as a pattern of beliefs, attitudes, and role understandings that prevail among members of the public service. R.D Sharma defines the administrative culture as the culture of public employees whose behaviors are limited to only the administrative environment4.

Ishtiaq Jamil says that, “Administrative culture refers to norms and values that shape and influence bureaucratic attitude, interpersonal relationship and performance5.

According to Richardson & Baldwin (1976), administrative culture is the combination of beliefs, attitudes, values, and systems which affect the operation of government agencies6.

According to Dwivedi, in order to understand the administrative culture of any bureaucracy we must realize that a) the government administration is larger and more complex than any particular organization; it is composed of many organizations, departments and agencies, and b) policies are implemented through the state apparatus and the entire society is affected in many ways by the attending administrative culture. Moreover, administrative culture is more influenced by political culture than the wider societal culture because its political values modulate the behavior of state employees7

Based on the discussion above, administrative culture can be defined as the scope of public employees‟ values and point of views, which can differ among different government agencies and work environments.

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Sharma, R. D. 2002. Conceptual Foundations of Administrative Culture: An Attempt at Analysis of Some Variables, International Review of Sociology, vol. 12(1), pp. 65-75. 5 Jamil, I. 2007, ‘Administrative Culture in Bangladesh’, A H Development Publishing House, Dhaka, pp-2, 6 Richardson, I. L. & Sidney B. 1976. Public Administration: Government in Action, Merrill, Columbus, Ohio. 7 Dwivedi, O.P. 2005. "Administrative Culture and Values: Approaches." In Administrative Culture in a Global Context, ed. J. G. Jabbra and O. P. Dwivedi. Whit by: de Sitter Publications.

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2. Differences between Bangladesh and USA 2.1-Bangladesh With its 158,065,841 people Bangladesh is the 7th largest country in the world by population. It is the 94th largest country by area with 143,998 square kilometers. Europeans began to set up trading posts in the area of Bangladesh in the 16th century; eventually the British came to dominate the region and it became part of British India. In 1947, West Pakistan and East Bengal (both primarily Muslim) separated from India (largely Hindu) and jointly became the new country of Pakistan. East Bengal became East Pakistan in 1955, but the awkward arrangement of a two-part country with its territorial units separated by 1,600 km left the Bengalis marginalized and dissatisfied. East Pakistan seceded from its union with West Pakistan in 1971 and was renamed Bangladesh. A military-backed, emergency caretaker regime suspended parliamentary elections planned for January 2007 in an effort to reform the political system and root out corruption. In contrast to the strikes and violent street rallies that had marked Bangladeshi politics in previous years, the parliamentary elections finally held in late December 2008 were mostly peaceful and Sheikh HASINA Wajed was elected prime minister. And recently, in this year, through the January 5 So-called election she has been reelected as a prime minister. About a third of this extremely poor country floods annually during the monsoon rainy season, hampering economic development.

2.2-The United States With its 310,232,863 people The United States is the 3rd largest country in the world by population. It is the 3rd largest country by area with 9,826,675 square kilometers. Britain's American colonies broke with the mother country in 1776 and were recognized as the new nation of the United States of America following the Treaty of Paris in 1783. During the 19th and 20th centuries, 37 new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the North American continent and acquired a number of overseas possessions. The two most traumatic experiences in the nation's history were the Civil War (1861-65), in which a northern Union of states defeated a secessionist Confederacy of 11 southern slave states, and the Great Depression of the 1930s, an economic downturn during which about a quarter of the labor force lost its jobs. Buoyed by victories in World Wars I and II and the end of the Cold War in 1991, the US remains the world's most powerful nation state. Over a span of

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more than five decades, the economy has achieved steady growth, low unemployment and inflation, and rapid advances in technology.

Basic Difference between Bangladesh and The United States are provided in a table

Table-1: Basic Difference between Bangladesh and the United States of America SL

ISSUES

BANGLADESH

USA

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Area

143,998 km sq

9,826,675 km sq

02

Coastline

580 km

19,924 km

Tropical; mild winter (October to March); hot, humid summer (March to June); humid, warm rainy monsoon (June to October)

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Population

163,654,860

Mostly temperate, but tropical in Hawaii and Florida, arctic in Alaska, semiarid in the great plains west of the Mississippi River, and arid in the Great Basin of the southwest; low winter temperatures in the northwest are ameliorated occasionally in January and February by warm chinook winds from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains 316,668,567

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Life Expectancy

70.360 years

78.620 years

06

Human Development Index

0.524

0.95

07

GDP per capita

$1,190 US

$50,700 US

08

Literacy Rate

43.1%

99%

2.1

7.3

16.6%

18.6% ( Elected 6.3%)

parliamentary democracy

Constitution-based federal republic; strong democratic tradition 4 July 1776 (from Great Britain)

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Climate

09 10

Corruption Perception Index Percentage of Women in Parliament

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Political System

12

Independence date

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16 December 1971 (from West Pakistan); Muslim 83%, Hindu 16%, other 1% (1998)

Religions

14

15 16

Languages

garments, jute and jute goods, leather, frozen fish and seafood

External Debt

$28,070,000,000 US

Location

Southern Asia, bordering the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and India

Protestant 51.3%, Roman Catholic 23.9%, Mormon 1.7%, other Christian 1.6%, Jewish 1.7%, Buddhist 0.7%, Muslim 0.6%, other or unspecified 2.5%, unaffiliated 12.1%, none 4% (2007 est.) English 82.1%, Spanish 10.7%, other Indo-European 3.8%, Asian and Pacific island 2.7%, other 0.7% (2000 1census) $15,930,000,000,000 $ North America, bordering both the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Pacific Ocean, between Canada and Mexico

Source: Combination of information from different sources.

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3. Differences of Administrative Culture between Bangladesh and USA This study will explore how the administrative culture of USA is different than that of Bangladesh. In this comparative explanation I have use fourfold dimension of culture given by Geert Hofstede. And these dimensions are basically … i.

Individualism-Collectivism

ii.

Power Distance

iii.

Uncertainty Avoidance.

iv.

Masculinity-Femininity

Comparative Administrative Culture of Bangladesh and USA will be discussed following through the four dimension mentioned above.

3.1-Individualism-Collectivism The first dimension is individualism – collectivism. According to Hofstede (1984), it reflects the degree to which a society views its members as individuals or as group members8. In individualistic societies, individuals are primarily concerned with their own interests and the interests of their immediate family. In highly collectivistic societies, individuals are not defined by their own actions but rather the groups‟ actions.

In Bangladesh, from a sociological point of view, the civil officials are the true representatives of the middle class of the country. This tends to maintain strong family ties and thus reflects low level of individualism. Average civil officers in Bangladesh are closely attached to his family and rural based extended relatives. In such Collectivist society, there is no need to make specific friendships: who one‟s friends are is predetermined by one‟s family or group membership.

The U.S.A. has historically been a very individualistic society focused on entrepreneurial effort and individual success, but there has been a shift away from the “self-made man” image that America grew up on. Now U.S. culture depends heavily on communal assistance such as social security and welfare. Also, it‟s more prevalent to see U.S. students and 8

Hofstede, G. 1984, “ (Hofstede, the Cultural Relativity of the quality of life conce, 1984)pt”, Academy of Management Review, 9, 389-398.

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employees in teams and groups (Townsend, 1998). The U.S. had a value score of 91 and Bangladesh had a value score of 41 in regards to the individualism –collectivism dimension in Hofstede‟s original study.9 Where Bangladesh had a value score of 20.

3.2-Power Distance: The second dimension is power distance. Power distance is the extent to which the less powerful individuals in a society accept inequality in power and consider it as normal. In high power distance cultures, individuals respect their superiors and avoid criticizing them. In low power distance countries, it is very acceptable to challenge superiors, albeit with respect (Hofstede, 1984).

Bangladeshi administration is characterized as an institution of high power distance. The dominant Bengali culture doesn‟t allow disagreement with the senior. Seniors by age and position more or less hold unquestioned authority in family, society and organization. Basic Cultural value “rule of elders” (Murabbism) is Dominant (Aminuzzaman, 1993). Thus, because of the given traditional value of respect for the elders it is quite natural that Bangladeshi managers would feel uncomfortable to express their disagreement with senior colleagues. Any disagreement may be considered as „insubordination‟.

On the other hand, the study of Hofstede (1983) among 50 countries shows that USA scored very low power distance. In the original data from IBM in the 1970‟s the USA had a value score of 40 where Bangladesh had a value score of 80. There is more of a contractual relationship between subordinates and supervisors and less dependence on supervisor. Organizational structure of this country is more decentralized. A low power distance country like USA leads to employee demand for participative leadership and this style of leadership tends to be more effective in low power distance country such as in USA.

3.3-Uncertainty Avoidance:

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E. B. Bergiel, B. J. Bergiel and J. W. Upson, “Revisiting Hofstede’s Dimensions: Examining the Cultural Convergence of the United States and Japan”. American journal of Management. Vol-12(1) pp-69.

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Uncertainty avoidance is the cultural tendency to feel uncomfortable with uncertainty and risk in everyday life. From an organizational perspective, it reflects the degree to which people are likely to prefer structured or unstructured organizational situation. The degree of uncertainty avoidance will impact on management and employees.

In Bangladesh the administrative decision making is highly centralized and based on “incremental approach”. There is a general tendency to avoid new and innovative decision. This is not because of lack of skill or technological know-how rather from a build in tendency to avoid risk. More over the general civil officials at the ministries very often get transferred from one position to another.

United States is the examples of countries with low uncertainty avoidance. The people in the country are more comfortable with ambiguity, more entrepreneurial, more likely to take risks, and less dependent on structure rules. Intrinsic motivation is more important especially in the public sector of USA. Intrinsic motivators include interesting, meaningful work that offers opportunities for personal growth and creativity. Individuals appear to choose jobs that maximize the type of rewards that they value most. Those who choose public-sector jobs tend to value intrinsic motivators more and extrinsic motivators less than those who prefer the private sector. Public service motivation, featuring a strong desire to serve society or the public interest, may draw people to government job in USA. (LEWIS, 1, March 2004)

3.4-Masculinity-Femininity The masculinity-femininity 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 (Hofstede, 1984). In Bangladesh Public Administration, managers on an average have also scored a moderate score of masculinity. This explains that average public sector managers, at least apparently, are not much assertive in acquisition of money and other material things. In USA, it is becoming much more acceptable for women and men to perform the same tasks. The U.S. experienced a large part of this change in the early 20th century, but it has just

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begun to surface in this culture. This may be part of a global cultural trend toward femininity that is affecting this culture. The results from the original sample show that the U.S. was less masculine with a value score of 62 while Asian country like Japan had a value score of 91 on the masculinity – femininity dimension. While women are three times more likely to work in administrative support jobs than men, relatively few women have construction, production, or transportation jobs. The proportion of women working in management, business, and finance jobs has increased from 9 percent to 14 percent since 198310. Graph:1- Cultural Difference between Bangladesh & USA

Cultural Difference between Bangladesh & USA Bangladesh 91

91

USA

Highest 112

104

95

80 60 40

46

55

62

20

The highest the Score the stronger the Dimension Source: Compiled from Hofstede (2005)11.

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See WOMEN IN AMERICA, Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being, March 2011, Prepared by U. S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration. 11 Hofstede, G. (2005). Culture and Organization: Software of the mind: Intellectual Cooperation and its Importance for Survaival. New York: McGraw-Hill.

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4. Reasons behind these Differences No two cultures are the same. The American and Bangladeshi cultures have very vast differentiation between them. While the culture of America is a mixture of different cultures, the Bangladesh culture is unique and has its own values. Major reasons behind these differences are described following.

4.1-Reasons behind Low Individualism: American society is fairly individualistic. Bengali society (including the Civil Service) has traditionally relied on a system of networks and personal contacts, implying a more collectivist system. In American culture, one can see that the individuals think of self-reliance and independent. On the other hand, Bangladeshis are more dependent on others. While the children in the US are brought up to live an independent life, the children in Bangladesh are not brought up in that way. In Bangladeshi culture, there is respect for the elders and it is they who make decisions. But in American culture, each individual makes his own decisions. From a sociological point of view, the civil officials of Bangladesh are the true representatives of the middle class of the country. This tends to maintain strong family ties and thus reflects low level of individualism. Average civil officers in Bangladesh are closely attached to his family and rural based extended relatives

4.2-Reasons behind Power Distance: The rigid hierarchical nature of Bangladeshi administration, and of its Civil Service the Bangladeshi employees would be more inclined towards a high power distance than that of USA. Here the boss is seen as a father figure; and certain rules apply only to bosses, whereas others only to subordinates. Paternalistic relationships between seniors and juniors often referred to as patron client relationship. Seniors give orders, juniors carry out. While interpersonal trust is high between seniors and juniors in USA. Seniors feel confidence in delegating responsibility to juniors. Besides these in Bangladesh, there is considerable dependence of subordinates on bosses. Subordinates respond by either preferring such dependence (in the form of an autocratic or paternalistic boss) or rejecting it entirely. Thus power distance between Bangladesh and the USA is high.

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4.3-Reasons behind Uncertainty Avoidance: In UAS the bureaucrats are more accountable and autonomous, recruitment is based on merit, civil service attracts talented individuals, career path and promotion is secured, salaries and pension benefits are quite competitive. On the other hand, in Bangladesh, bureaucrats are less autonomous and unaccountable. Recruitment is based on majorly quota and minor on merit and failed to attract talented individuals. Here career path is uncertain, salaries and pension benefits are low and political influence in recruitment, posting and promotion increases the uncertainty in public service job.

4.4- Reasons behind Moderate Masculinity: In Bangladesh Public Administration, managers on an average have also scored a moderate score of masculinity. The reason behind this inadequate representation of women in BCS Cadres is multi-dimensional. Women officers in cadre services face multi-faceted problems which arise both at home and in the office. Women‟s marginalized position in the BCS could be seen as stemming from a complex interplay of factors historical, cultural, socio-economic, administrative and attitudinal. Apprehension of getting posted in remote areas and transferable nature of jobs, Family Responsibilities, Lack of child care facilities, Non-cooperation of male colleagues and family members, Absence of appropriate and supportive environment in the work place, Superiority complexes and negative attitudes of the male colleagues and Lack of Security Societal backwardness are the main reasons for moderate masculinity12.

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Jahan, M. (2007), Gender Mainstreaming in Bangladesh Civil Service: Prospect and Constraints, In Asian Affairs, 29 (i):41-72.

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5. Will these Differences Persist? or not: Nothing is constant, everything is changing. In the era of new globalization one part of the globe is affected by the other part. People are now more conscious about their rights. More recent research has shown that there is an increasing trend towards individualism amongst the middle classes of Bangladeshi society13.

Power distance is going to be low though the speed is very slow. Many initiatives in civil service indicate the path of low power distance such as performance based management, adequate incentives etc. Recently an office has set-up in Prime Minister‟s Office namely “Governance Innovation Unit”14 which could be a significant example for low power distance in Bangladesh civil service. The structural se-up of this office is helpful in minimizing the dominating power of boss of supervisor. Women participation in civil service is positively increasing. it will be clear if we see the following chart_ Graph 2: Increase of Women Participation in Ministries/Secretariat (%)

Increase of Women Participation in Ministries/Secretariat (%) 25 21.33

20 16.3

15

14.34 12.17

11.36

10

9.1

5 0 1994

1998

2001

2007

2010

2014

Source: Bashing the Glass Ceiling for the Women in Civil Service, by Syeda Lasna Kabir 15

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Wood, G. (1999). Prisoners and escapees: Towards political and administrative improvement. Paper presented at the UK-DSA Conference, University of Bath. 14 Governance Innovation Unit (GIU) is a newly formed office in PMO which basically work for simplification of public service delivery and making innovation in public service. 15 Bashing the Glass Ceiling for the Women in Civil Service: A Critical Overview of Bangladesh Civil Service- By Syeda Lasna Kabir, it is an unpublished paper, it Will be published soon as a book chapter from UPL.

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The Bangladesh Civil Service Women‟s Network, which has been set up under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Public Administration, currently has approximately 1,000 registered members. The project has also provided technical assistance to the Subcommittee on Gender Guidelines to frame the „gender guidelines‟ for ending „common hazards faced by female officers‟ in the civil service. Six divisional workshops have been held on the draft gender guidelines. The feedback from the workshops will be consolidated prior to the finalization of the gender guidelines.16

6. Conclusion: Aim of this study was to compare administrative culture of Bangladesh with those of the USA. The comparison exposed that Bangladesh shares as well as differs from administrative cultural norms found in USA. The norms, that Bangladesh shares with the United States is the reciprocal authority pattern. The Cultural norms of reciprocity authority that Bangladesh shares with the developed country like USA may become an asset in a poor country that cannot afford luxurious incentives to stimulate administrative performance. This asset may help trigger growth if harnessed to an organizational structure that reflects shared national goals for economic development. In essence we can say that a public official in Bangladesh is a generalist manager. His/her administrative actions in many ways are considerably influenced by the social network and obligations. In most occasions he/she is being guided by subjective preferences and not by rational choice. He/she is accommodative and risk aversive and prefer to lead a care free life with modest affection of material gain.

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Annual Progress Report (2012). Civil Service Change Management Programme (CSCMP), Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Ministry of Public Administration (MoPA).

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Bibliography Aminuzzaman, S. M. (1993). management culture of public bureaucracy in bangladesh. Social Science Review, Vol, X(1). Annual Progress Report (2012). Civil Service Change Management Programme (CSCMP), Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Ministry of Public Administration (MoPA). Dangal, R. (2005). Administrative Culture in Nepal: Does it Reflect the Dominant Socio-cultural. A Master Dissertation. Available online fromhttp://www.ub.uib.no/ elpub/2005/h/701002/ Masteroppgave.pdf [accessed 7 July 2012]. E. B. Bergiel, B. J. Bergiel and J. W. Upson, “Revisiting Hofstede’s Dimensions: Examining the Cultural Convergence of the United States and Japan”. American journal of Management. Vol-12(1) pp-69. Henderson, K. M. (2005). "American Administrative Culture." In Administrative Culture in a Global Context, ed. .J. G. Jabbra and O. P. Dwivedi. Whitby: de Sitter. Hofstede, G. (1984). the Cultural Relativity of the quality of life conce. Academy of Management Review, 9,, 389-398. Hofstede, G. (1991). Cultures and Organisations: Software ofIntercultural cooperation and its importance for survival. London: McGraw-Hill. Hofstede, G. (2005). Culture and Organization: Software of the mind: Intellectual Cooperation and its Importance for Survaival. New York: McGraw-Hill. Jahan, F. (2006). Public Administration in Bangladesh. Centre for Governance Studies, BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh Jahan, M. (2007), Gender Mainstreaming in Bangladesh Civil Service: Prospect and Constraints, In Asian Affairs, 29 (i):41-72. Jamil, I. (2007). Administrative Culture in Bangladesh. Dhaka: A H Development Publishing House. Kabir, S. L. (2013). Womens Participation in South Asian Civil Service. Dhaka: A H Development Publishing House. LEWIS, S. A. (1, March 2004). GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES Working Hard or Hardly Working? AMERICAN REVIEW OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Vol. 34 No. , 36-51. Townsend, A. M. (1998). Virtual teams: Technology and the. Academy of Management Perspectives, 12(3), 17–29. WOMEN IN AMERICA, Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being, March 2011, Prepared by U. S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration. Wood, G. (1999). Prisoners and escapees: Towards political and administrative improvement. Paper presented at the UK-DSA Conference, University of Bath.