Analyzing and Designing a Model of Public Service Culture in Public Organizations

The aim of this study, as mixed research, is to analyze and design a model of public service culture. The ultimate goal of conducting this research is to design and evaluate the public service culture model.

In the first stage, to identify the components of the public service culture model, the researchers conducted 18 in-depth interviews with connoisseurs, including managers and experts in the research topic, and also reviewed the research literature. At this stage, the thematic analysis method was used. The components of public service culture were extracted and categorized into three main themes, 26 sub-themes, and 201 concept codes. A questionnaire related to the components of public service culture was distributed among 392 public and private sector employees to assess the current situation and rank them.

According to the responses of the participants, the only theme that scored above the average in the component of public service motivation, was “compassion”. Also, in the component of public service values, four themes including “politeness”, “decency”, “benevolence”, “philanthropy” and “God-centeredness” scored above the average. In the component of public service symbol, only the theme of “appearance and clothing” in the current situation scored above the average. The scores of other themes of all three components were lower than the average. Finally, using the collected data, the themes related to each of the components were ranked.

The results of this study showed that the participants considered the components of good public service culture among employees and public organizations to be weak. This indicates a failure in providing effective services by Iran's public services that are responsible for implementing policies, decisions, and regulations of the public sector.