Organizational culture and career development in the British civil service

ABSTRACT

Quantitative analysis has rarely been used to assess the organizational culture of the British civil service. This paper matches a framework based on features of prominent theories against British Civil Service People Survey data for 2010–2018 for 71 organizations. The analysis shows a shift over that timescale to a culture giving significantly greater emphasis to personal development, with staff given more responsibility to achieve their organization’s mission come what may.

IMPACT

The analysis in this paper shows a significant shift in the organizational culture of the UK civil service over an eight-year period. Staff have been given more responsibility to achieve their organization’s mission, and this appears to promote improved career development prospects. Such quantitative analysis is largely untapped territory in this context, and the methodology and data source it deploys potentially facilitate wider reviews of public service culture and impact on outcomes.

KEYWORDS:

• Career development
• civil service
• decentralization
• empowerment
• organizational culture
• public administration
• public policy analysis
• public service mission

Acknowledgements

The author is very grateful for the comments from two anonymous referees, and for the advice received from Professor Edward Page of the London School of Economics and Andrew Campbell CB (formerly of DCLG) at an early stage of this paper. All and any errors remaining are the sole responsibility of the author.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).