The Singapore Civil Service Bureaucracy and the Kathakalli Corporate Culture - The Analogy Revisited

Leadership & Organizational Management Journal, No. 4, pp. 108-133, 2008

26 Pages Posted: 26 Feb 2010 Last revised: 1 Oct 2012

See all articles by K C P Low

K C P Low

Kazakh Leading Academy of Architecture and Civil Engineering/ Kazakh American University (International Educational Corporation); University of the South Pacific; University of South Australia

Date Written: February 15, 2009

Abstract

In this paper, through literature survey and interviews with forty-one civil service officers, the corporate culture particularly the salient features of the Singapore Civil Bureaucracy, is examined. The use of analogies and metaphors is indeed not uncommon in describing cultures, and in this study, the researcher interestingly revisits and further expounds the Kathakalli dance metaphor (as applied in a previous study). The Indian Singaporean ethnic dance and its key features are aptly used to attribute the key cultural traits of the Singapore Civil Service.

Keywords: Singapore, civil service, efficiency, rationality, planning bias, integrity, Kathakalli dance

Suggested Citation

Low, Kim Cheng Patrick, The Singapore Civil Service Bureaucracy and the Kathakalli Corporate Culture - The Analogy Revisited (February 15, 2009). Leadership & Organizational Management Journal, No. 4, pp. 108-133, 2008, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1559252

Kim Cheng Patrick Low (Contact Author)

Kazakh Leading Academy of Architecture and Civil Engineering/ Kazakh American University (International Educational Corporation) ( email )

28, Ryskulbekov street
Almaty
Kazakhstan

University of the South Pacific ( email )

Laucala Campus
Suva
Fiji

University of South Australia

37-44 North Terrace, City West Campus
Adelaide, South Australia 5001
Australia

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