Proactive transparency and outward accountability in the public sector : the perspective of the frontline public bureaucrats in Bangladesh

Abstract

Transparency laws are argued to bring accountability to organizational activities. This dissertation aimed at answering the general research question of how organizational factors such as organizational culture, structure (discretion), and endowment (resources) affect the proactive transparency behavior and outward (citizen-centered) accountability orientation of the frontline public bureaucrats in the context of Bangladesh. Proactive transparency behavior is a tendency to disclose information about organizational activities for citizens’ audit without being requested by anyone. Outward accountability is the attitude of the frontline public bureaucrats in terms of being answerable to the citizens. The objective was to develop a conceptual model for understanding the proactive transparency behavior and outward accountability orientation of the frontline bureaucrats. The study followed a mixed methods research design consisting of a quantitative survey and in-depth qualitative interviews and observations. Survey data were analyzed using standard multiple regression and interview data were analyzed using a basic thematic framework. The research participants were 326 sub-district level frontline public officials that directly distribute government benefits and sanctions to the citizens.

A conceptual model was developed based on a literature review having four cultural dimensions, discretion, and resources as the factors influencing proactive transparency behavior, which, in turn, was assumed to affect outward accountability. Principal component analyses produced ten components leading to modifications of the proposed variables. Thus, in the proposed revised model, three cultural dimensions, i.e. “power distance”, “risk avoidance”, and “citizen orientation” were hypothesized to affect “proactive transparency behavior” through the mediating role of “value for proactive transparency” having “value generic” and “value specific” as the two dimensions. “Discretion” as organizational structure, and “IT skills” and ‘resources’ as the two dimensions of organizational endowment, were also hypothesized to affect “proactive transparency behavior”. “Proactive transparency behavior” was hypothesized to have a relationship with “outward accountability”.

The regression findings revealed citizen orientation as an important factor that significantly and positively influences proactive transparency behavior as well as outward accountability. Value generic and value specific were found to play a mediating role between citizen orientation and proactive transparency behavior. IT skills as organizational endowment also were found to significantly and positively predict proactive transparency behavior. Risk avoidance was found to significantly and negatively predict outward accountability. Further, one demographic variable “age” was found to significantly and negatively affect proactive transparency behavior, and another demographic variable, “experience in current position”, was found to be significantly and negatively related to outward accountability. It was interpreted that younger frontline bureaucrats take more proactive transparency measures and are more willing to be accountable to the citizens than older ones. The interview and observation data also support these findings. Moreover, the interview and observation data also supported the idea that power distance, risk avoidance, discretion, and resources affected the proactive transparency behavior of the frontline bureaucrats.

This dissertation, therefore, contributes to the understanding of transparency and accountability literature in highlighting the importance of the organizational factors in these issues. Policy makers must address cultural, structural, and endowment issues in the formulation and implementation of transparency laws