Bestuurscultuur en strategie. Een onderzoek naar de cognitieve kaart van topambtenaren

Abstract

This research study uses the Cultural Theory as a theoretical framework to analyze the governance culture, values and strategic perceptions of top civil servants in the Netherlands. This results in a cognitive map, based on the response to a questionnaire that was sent to the entire population. The majority of them (59 %) prove to adhere to the egalitarian world view stressing the equality of people and attributing a great significance to networks as regulatory social mechanisms. A substantial minority (24%) clings to the individualistic world view ascribing the highest importance to the individual and assuming that mutual relationships among individuals are shaped by contractual bonds and free market operations. Small minorities adhere to the hierarchical (12%) or fatalistic world view (5%). The majority also adhere to strategic perspectives like cooperation, a society-oriented professional role view, and an organic leadership orientation. Thus a set of shared values and beliefs shows up: an __esprit de corps__. This raises the question whether perhaps a neo-Weberian bureaucratic ethos is on the rise that is characteristic for the performance of top civil servants in a society that they themselves perceive primarily as an egalitarian network society.