| This study focuses on the relationship between the crisis of state interventionism and the organizational culture of managers of state-owned enterprises in Peru. It presents the political and institutional environments in which a particular organizational culture emerges and the specific contents of this organizational culture.There are four main points informing the study. First, the crisis of the Peruvian interventionist state is expressed in its lack of hegemony, consensus or effectiveness. Second, organizational culture is not a fixed manifestation valid for all times and places. Organizational culture belongs to a specific historical, social context which influences its content. Third, organizational culture is a manifestation of active social agents interacting with their environment. Fourth, an understanding of the organizational culture of public bureaucracies has become an essential step in the path towards state reform.From these theoretical perspectives, the study reveals that the views of public enterprise managers on their organizational, political and institutional environment have become deterrents to, rather than facilitators of, any basic change within the state apparatus.The study bases its conclusions on the analysis of the views of public enterprise managers gathered in a 1988 survey applied to a sample of twenty public enterprises, and on personal interviews with selected public managers in 1986, 1987 and 1988. Contextual information on Peruvian public administration at the executive levels was obtained from data gathered by the Proyecto de Gestion Publica of the Escuela Superior de Administracion de Negocios in 1984. The study of the macro political context in Peru for the period 1968-1988 is based on primary and secondary sources.This study would permit the construction of a specific profile of the organizational culture of public managers. Such a managerial profile could be a valid tool for planning and implementing a significant modification of the functions of public managers. The profile would also assist in developing training proposals for public managers. The derived proposals would emphasize objective technical criteria, as well as the managers' perceptions about their own functions, the state and the needs of the citizenry. |
