Public service integration in Kazakhstan: the case of one stop shop
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Date
2010Author
Janenova, Saltanat
Metadata
Abstract
This thesis is an analysis of the public service integration, a New Public Management
initiative, in a transitional context such as Kazakhstan. This thesis focuses on three
main perspectives – the impact of the service integration policy on those who was
involved in the implementation process; the problematic aspects of service
integration in a transitional context; and the use of “organisational learning” and
“communities of practice” in analysing service integration. By combining New
Public Management theory (in particular, the ideas on decentralising management
and customer-orientation), service integration theory and organisational learning
theories, and rich empirical data, this thesis found that public service integration was
implemented in the Kazakhstani context to a limited extent. Through the use of
triangulation of methods which incorporated case study, interviews, participant
observation, virtual ethnography and documentary analysis, this thesis captured
complex, non-linear and diverse power dimensions and relationships between the
new single-window centres, traditional service providers and customers. The
development of the “communities of practice” among the front-line personnel was
analysed within service integration policy context.
Promoting service integration is seen as beneficial for both service providers and
customers in Kazakhstan, but there are both conceptual and practical challenges.
Although significant progress in public service improvement was achieved and noted
in the research, this thesis found that the One Stop Shops inherited relations-based,
patronage system and corruption from the traditional bureaucracy. It found that the
new technologies, while improving access to the public services, were used to extend
centralised control across the regions. This thesis also found that organisational
learning did take place, however, in the underdeveloped form of adaptive learning,
with the lack of critical reflection on the existing ways of working. This thesis
concluded that the institutional framework and culture prevailing in the Kazakhstani
traditional bureaucracy constrained implementation of the service integration policy
to a full extent.