The Time Orientation of the Civil Service : an Attempt to Operationalize the Typology of Time Orientations

Abstract

Nowadays, national development is one of the most important problems in a developing country, and her government plays an essential role as a strategic variable in order to accomplish national development. Therefore, public administration, whole vocation is the systematic study of all the aspects of government operation, began to what the most effective ways are to conduct government operation so as to accelerate national development. While development is defined as a "system's increasing capability to cope with new, continuous change." development administration provides two focuses; one is social change as the environmental aspect and the other is the capability of the administrators who handle that change. On the other hand, the study of administrative behavior has focused its attention to value, attitude, and morale of administrators for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of administration. And especially value and attitude, acting reciprocally, influence to the behavior of administrators. Accordingly, the time orientation, being a composite concept incorperating both time perspective and attitude toward change, involves indications about their behavior and ability. This research study is an attempt to identify the time orientations of civil servants in accordance with Dr. Hahn-Been Lee's Typology of Time Orientations and to ascertain the variables determining their time orientations. Identifying their time orientations it will be possible to operationalize the proposition that Professor Lee had established. When a proposition was built up, it cannot help remaining permanently as a proposition without the empirical testings; and hence the interdependence between a theory and a research is more emphasized. In this context, this research may contribute to the professor's proposition so as to be developed toward a theory.