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Organizational Culture Change in the Decentralization Practice:

Case Study of Boyolali Local Government, Indonesia

Oleh : Budiarjo

Pusat Inovasi Kelembagaan dan Sumber Daya Aparatur Deputi Bidang Inovasi Administrasi Negara

Lembaga Administrasi Negara Jl. Veteran 10, Jakarta 10110, Indonesia

E-mail: budilan@yahoo.com

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Organizational Culture Change in the Decentralization Practice:

Case Study of Boyolali Local Government, Indonesia

Oleh : Budiarjo

Pusat Inovasi Kelembagaan dan Sumber Daya Aparatur Deputi Bidang Inovasi Administrasi Negara

Lembaga Administrasi Negara Jl. Veteran 10, Jakarta 10110, Indonesia

Phone. (62-21) 3848217, E-mail: budilan@yahoo.com

Abstract

In Indonesia, decentralization came in one package with the democratization process.

Therefore, local governments should reform their internal structures to

accommodate the huge increase in responsibility and personnel that were transferred

from the central government, and simultaneously, they should create their policies

based on the spirit of transparency, good governance, and democracy. These dramatic

changed has, theoretically, a great impact to the organizational culture of local

government institutions.

This study described how one of the local governments in Indonesia, i.e. Boyolali

Regency changed its organizational culture to meet the demands and the changes of

the decentralization practice. The purpose of this research was studying the

implementation of decentralization policy in Indonesia with particularly reference to

organization culture change of local government institution.

This study found that organizational culture change, are to some extent, occurring in

Boyolali local government, especially because of the change in political culture of the

environment. Because of the increasing public participation and control, government

institution becomes more accountable and transparent. However, some aspects of

organizational culture in Boyolali local government remain the same (before the

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reforms) because they have deeply rooted relationship with Javanese culture being

immune to the political system change.

Keywords: Decentralization, Democratization, Organizational Culture

A. Introduction

What happened in Indonesian decentralization practice in 2001 was a dramatic

change and actually it was not just a change, it was re-formation. World Bank in its

report called Indonesian decentralization as a “Big Bang” (World Bank Report,

2003)1. Thisbig bang omens by the rapidly moving from one of the most

centralized systems in the world to one of the most decentralized. The country has

implement a program of fiscal, administrative, and political decentralization at the

same time, thereforein the new autonomy framework; the Local Government has

been given more authority and resources to manage their territory.

Law 22/1999, passed in 1999 and effective-ally implemented in 2001, gave broad

autonomy especially administrative and politic decentralization to the regions.

Local governments had all but a few tasks that were explicitly assigned to the

central government including defense, security, justice, foreign affairs, fiscal

affairs, and religion. Although finally Law 22/1999 was amended and government

promulgated Law 32/2004, this new law did not change dramatically the

decentralization practice that had been set up by Law 22/1999, because it mainly

deals with the issues of relationship between province and the local government,

and the election of head of region.

1 See World Bank report, Decentralizing Indonesia: A Regional Public Expenditure Review Overview

Report, Overview Report, 2003

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In Indonesia, decentralization came in one package with the democratization

process. In Suharto era, what ensured the legitimacy of the political regime was to

delivered economic development (Yuri Sato, 2000), that according to Valerie

Bunce (2000), it would producedan educated, attentive, and expectant public that

demand inclusion and accountability. This new society that was not strong enough

to push the powerful government for reform then finally has its momentum when

Indonesia suffers from the economic crisis, because the government became

weakened and lost its legitimacy. A massive demonstration by the student, public

intellectual, professional, and blow up by mass media forcing Suharto in 1998

“surrendered” and let Habibie, his vice president, took over the leadership. This

democratization process, characterized by a free election, freedom of the press,

and nation-wide calls for reformasi, had also causedthe raisedof regional demands

for decentralization. There was increased pressure on the central government to

establish the framework of democratic political system, and to decentralize many

of its functions. The demands from the regions for greater autonomy are too

strong to be ignored and finally, in 1999, Habibie signed the new law of

decentralization that will change the face of decentralization in Indonesia

dramatically.

Along with political reform in the national level, democracy was enforced in the

Local Government practice. Public participation and public empowering were the

main issues that enforced by public discourse and the ordinances. Local

governments should be creating their policies based on the spirit of transparency,

good governance, and democracy. Legislative body in the local government (DPRD)

as a set of equipment of democracy has been empowered with more authorities

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(legislative, budget and control functions) and the separation with executive agent.

Moreover, decentralization has been a catalyst for participation, as Law 22/1999

required regional governments to engage the local citizenry in local development.

Democratization process had produced a new condition which was people more

critical and demanding for transparency, and accountability of the government. A

boom in civil society organizations since the reformation era2has increased the

demand for participation in governmental process beyond the traditional

electoral channels. Civil society organizations came in many shapes and sizes

ranging from advocacy groups to budget watchdogs, to more traditional

organizations such as charities, and other NGOs involved in service delivery.

Although there were big differences between the new and the old structures of

local government, personnel who ran the organization were still the same,

therefore we should paid attention to this issue. More than thirty years,

government institutions had and build their own organizational culture.

Therewas a negative perception about bureaucracy for instance the feudalistic

behavior. People of Indonesia have several perception of a feudalistic behavior3

such as bureaucracy not sensitive and responsive to the public’s need, it has a

2 In the new order era, NGOs are always associated with the group that always oppose the government or

even alleged as “foreign agent". NGO at that moment was considered asa power of government’s enemy and

as a result they were oppressed by the government.On the contrary, in the reformation era when political

freedom occurred, NGO considered as one part of important institution of democratization. As a result,

according to Statistic Bureau, NGOs have grew from only 10.000 in 1996 becoming 70.000 in 2000 (Kompas,

2004)

3 We can find one example of this description in Sugondo’s web page, available online :

http://station.mywwwserver.com/~cars/kentus/indo-feudalistic.php

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very low public accountability, weak decision making ability, and bureaucracy not

serves the public instead asks for service from the public.To deal with such great

transformations, the key success of organizational culture change therefore

depends on how local governments identify and describe external and internal

factors, and arrange appropriate policy to change their organizational culture.

Problem statement

As was mentioned, In Indonesia, decentralization came in one bundled with the

democratization process. Therefore, local governments should reform their

internal structures to accommodate the huge increase in responsibility and

personnel that have been passed on from the central government, and in the same

time, they should create their policies based on the spirit of transparency, good

governance, and democracy.

One challenge that local government has to deal is how to change the “old”

organizational culture in the government institution that was developed almost

for thirty years in the new order era4. To change organization structure, central

government provides regulation and assistance but no for organizational culture

change, it merely local government matter to deal with its local environment,

moreover all responsibility is on local government itself because the condition of

every region were different.

This paper will describe how one of the local governments in Indonesia, in this

case Boyolali Regency, changes its organizational culture to meet the demand and

the change of the decentralization and democratization practice in Indonesia.

4 In Indonesia, new order era represent the era of General Suharto presidency (1966 – 1998).

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B. Conceptual Review

In order to describe organizational culture change, some concepts such as

decentralization, organizational change, and organizational culture were

used.Organizational change, that base on open system approach, is used to

clarifying the need of government’s institution for change because of

decentralization policy that was applied in Indonesia. Since it is difficult to tackle

the entire system, author will only focus on organizational culture.

Decentralization

Decentralization has emerged as dominant feature of contemporary world

particularly in developing countries such as Latin America, East Europe, and the

former of Soviet as well as East Asia (Litvack et.al, 1998). Although East Asia’s5

decentralization has come later than in some other parts of the world, the process

has gained momentum across it. From China to Cambodia to Indonesia, countries

with varying in sizes, income level and political system now they are

implementing decentralization policy (World Bank, 2005). These countries

develop strategic approaches that fit with their country conditions, such as

politics, history, and geography.

Theterm "decentralization" itself embraces a variety of concepts which must be

carefully analyzed. It was used by many different people to define many different

things, broad spectrum from politic to administration, and economy (Peter Self in

Griffith ed., 1976; Cohen and Peterson, 1999).

5 World Bank published its study “East Asia Decentralize” in 2005, and the countries include Cambodia,

China, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

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Although it can be diverge, many writers have written about decentralization and

they have shared a relatively concise definition of decentralization. Boko (2002)

argued that decentralization refers to transfer of authority from a central

government to sub-national entity. Moreover, Cheema, Rondinelli, and Nellis,

(1983) defined decentralization as the transfer of responsibility for planning,

management and resource raising and allocation from the central government

and its agencies to: (a) field units of central government ministries or agencies, (b)

subordinate units or levels of government, (c) semi autonomous public authorities

or corporations, (d) area wide, regional or functional authorities, or (e) non-

governmental, private, or voluntary organization.

Therefore, decentralization in general is the transfer of authority and power in

public planning, management and decision making from higher to lower levels of

government or from national to sub national levels. This definition is similar with

the definition of decentralization used in Indonesia. Decentralization was defined

as the delegation of government authority by the Government to the regional

autonomy to regulate and take care of government affairs within the system of the

Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (Law 32/2004).

Organizational Change

Organizationalchange could be dividedin two characters, planned and unplanned

change (Burke, 2002) or in other words, “natural” change process and managing

change (Connor and Lake, 1994). In natural change process, change occurs as

phenomenon and the process is natural in this sense: it starts and will progress on

its own. As the contrast in the managing change, change appears as a set of actions.

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According to Burke, there are 12 factorsof organizational changethat can be

divided into 2 categories: transformational factors and transactional factors

(Burke, 2002).

Figure 1. Transformational factors of organizational change (Burke, 2002)

From Figure 1, mission and strategy, leadership, and culture are the

transformational factors that most immediately and directly respond to external

environment dynamic. The remaining factors: structure, systems, management

practice, work unit climate, individual needs and value, task requirement and

individual skills/abilities, and motivation in the model are the transactional

factors that represent organization dimension and day-to-day operation and

incremental regarding change.

External

environment

Leadership

Individual and

organizational

performance

environment

Mission and

strategy

Organizational

culture

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As author mentioned in previous part, this study focused on the organizational

culture change. Therefore, we will focus only in the transactional factors that

contain culture and also the two others factor that have significant relation with it

and will be discuss briefly: mission and strategy, and leadership.

Culture and Public Administration

Schreiner (2002) provided the identification of 164 different definitions of culture

that will affect how people define organizational culture. In this broad meaning,

culture can be define as a set of learned beliefs, values and behaviors the way of

life shared by the members of a society (http://www.saa.org/) and in the widest

sense, culture embraces spiritual life, values, morality, education, and political

processes (Amanda Rath, 1997).

Despite the fact that organizations will develop their own culture, organizations

still bounded by the value system of their societies. In the context of government’s

institution, Guy Peters (2001) proposed three distinct level of culture for purpose

of understanding how government institution works. There are societal culture,

political culture, and administrative culture that influence the conduct of public

administration. The conceptual relationship among these three levels of culture

can be seen in figure 2.

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Figure 2, Culture and Public Administration (Peters Guy B., 2001).

General societal culture in the society will influence the behavior of individual

who working within organization. Reinhard Bendix (1956) made distinction

between entrepreneurial and bureaucratic societies. In the entrepreneurial

societies, the style of management has tended to remain personal, and therefore,

the manner of functioning of public administration appears to be more informal,

and personality manner based generally on personal acquaintance and personal

trust. In the contrary, in bureaucratic society, bureaucracy is a dominant form of

social organization, and therefore authority and status relationship become more

important in social relationship. This societal culture will be reflected in

administrative culture, a general orientation of the society toward management

and impersonal authority in formal organization.

The political culture influences the relationship between political and elite of

bureaucratic, and between the population and the bureaucracy. Guy Petters

Public

Administration

Societal

Culture

Administrative

Culture

Political

Culture

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(2001) attempt to classify political culture by develop four dimensions for

examination of political inputs that also useful for analysis administrative aspect

of government. These four dimensions are:

1. Hierarchy and equality

Cultural values concerning authority and impersonality of personnel and

authority in the hierarchical structure of administrative structures are

important for determining the acceptability of hierarchical management

service.

2. Liberty and coercion

It is about political control and stability of democratic society. Control and

stability may depend upon the degree of value consensus among the enforcers

of those rules and the majority of citizens. Often the bureaucracy should decide

the limits of liberty of expression and social action and also determine how

much coercion is acceptable in enforcing decisions or policy.

3. Loyalty and commitment

It refers mainly to terminal community to which individual gives his or her

ultimate loyalty. Loyalties for language, religion, caste, or ethnic group can

diminish individual commitment to the national political system and therefore

produce potential for political unrest and instability.

4. Trust and distrust

The last aspect of political culture is the level of trust and distrust among the

population that contain two different components. First, trust in individual as

opposed to personal cynicism, a degree to which individual in the society

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believe that others outside their immediate family can be trusted, or at least

are not actively an enemy. Second, trust in government and political

institutions, a degree to which individual believes that government’s

institutions are worthy of trust.

Organizational culture

Talking about organizational culture, people agree that it exists and is important

but sometimes people have completely different ideas of what it is, there is no

consensus about exactly what the term means (Schein, 1985; Tepeci, 2001).

However, considerable agreement and overlap do exist. There are some common

ideas from several scholars regarding the key elements and dimensions of

organizational culture, including shared meanings, norms, values and beliefs

(Denison, 1996; Hodge and Anthony, 1988; Schein, 1985).

Jones (1995) defined organizational culture as set of shared values that control

organizational member's interactions with each other and with suppliers,

customers and other people outside the organization. In addition, one prominent

researcher in the organizational culture studies, Schein (1985) define

organizational culture as a pattern of basic assumption - invented, discovered, or

developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external

adaptation and internal integration - that has worked well enough to be

considered valid and, therefore, to be thought to new members as the correct way

to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.

This concept of organizational culture refers to the stated values of an

organization, implying that culture is something that exists at a conscious level

and can be deliberately transformed by leader. Those theories shows that

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organizational culture can be seen easily from daily activity but actually is a

complex and deep aspect of organization that support or impact organization’s

members strongly in the way to do their job and communicate with their peers,

superiors and subsidiaries

In order to reveals the culture, Schein (1985) described three essential levels of

culture at which culture reveals itself.

Figure 3, Level of Culture and Their Interaction (Schein, 1987)

Figure 3 shows the difference of each level of cultures and the way they correlate

and give impact to each other. The model explain that in order to understand

visible items one should relate items to organization’s values that guide

organization member to create their artifacts. Moreover, to understand values one

should relate values to organization’s assumptions. Basic underlying assumption

leads organization to create value.

Values Testable in the physical environment

Testable only by social consensus

Basic Underlying

Relationship to environment

Nature of reality, time, and space

Nature of human nature

Nature of human activity

Nature of human relationship

Artifacs and creation

Technology Art

Visible and audible behavior pattern

Visible but often not

decipherable

Greater levels of awareness

Taken from granted

Invisible

Preconscious

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C. Implication of The New Policyto the Organizational Culture

As mention, although organizations developed their own culture; they still

bounded by the value system of their societies and Guy Peters (2001) proposed

three distinct level of culture for purpose of understanding how government

institution works. This part mainly discussed about societal culture, political

culture, and administrative culture in Indonesia and also organization culture in

new order regime era before the new policy of decentralization and

democratization were implemented.

Actually it is difficult to define Indonesian culture because of the diverse of

religion, ethnic, language, and tradition of the people6. Every ethnic have their

own culture and even in one ethnic the culture can be vary, for example there

many types of wayang7 and batik8 because each region has its own style of

wayang and batik. Moreover they also develop their own music and theatre, the

visual arts, poetry and literature. Therefore, the description about Indonesian

culture will be more in general and was influenced by Javanese culture since the

majority of Indonesian people are Javanese.

In the societal culture and administrative culture, refer to the terminology of

entrepreneurial and bureaucratic society, characteristic of these two societies do

exist in Indonesian culture. For example in the decision making trough personal

6We can see in the republic’s motto, Bhineka Tunggal Ika (unity in diversity) as a national symbol of

Indonesia's multi-cultural population.

7Wayangis Indonesia’s famous shadow puppet theatre which combines Indian epic tales with indigenous

mythology.

8Indonesia also developed some of the richest textile traditions in the world, the best known of which is batik

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bargaining and negotiation in public administration, it is common if people ask for

something that actually, according to the rule or procedure, is not allowed9.

Because of rational or irrational reason10, people cannot fulfill the requirement a

kind of service but they still ask for the service to the officer. This condition

pushes the officer to choose, follow the rule or think about human consideration,

and in many case it caused bribe phenomenon emerged in Indonesian

bureaucracy.

Moreover, traditionally Indonesia has concepts of "gotong royong11" (mutual

assistance) that derived from rural way of life and is still very much in use in

community life throughout the country not only in informal community but also in

formal community such as civil service organizations and private sector

companies. Bowen (1986) argued that gotong royong become the key element of

political and social system. The term actually was derived from Javanese

expression of “several people carrying something together”. The philosophy of

gotong royong reflects that Indonesian people, disregarding their ethnic group,

uphold cooperatives and collective life as the most important element.

9It is common if people ask the officer for kebijaksanaan, literally mean is wisdom but in this context, this

means: it is out of the standard procedure.

10Perhaps it is difficult to imagine in others advanced country, in several region of Indonesia, people need

two or three days to travel to the government office to get the service and in another case, people don’t have

money and therefore they pay for the health service with sweet potato or banana. Moreover when they need

the service butbecause some reasons they can’t fulfill the service requirement,therefore the want special

treatment.

11There is another expression for gotong royong, in java some people use term gugur gunung.

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In term of bureaucratic society, there is a relation between government and the

people that was derived from Javanese values: kawulo and gusti, literary meaning

is the relation between follower and the ruler. In this value, social interaction base

on the social status of authority. Kawulo should give respect, obey, and follow the

gusti’s order because the leader’s power and authority is a blessing from the god;

on the other hand, gusti should give protection and regulate kawulo wisely. Thus

the ideal relationship in this value is manunggaling kawula lan gusti12, means the

unification of the follower and the leader. When the leader and the follower

become one entity, they actingand running function as according to its position

and therefore there is no conflict in the society.

This Javanese value than was adopted, with intention or unintentionally, by New

Order regime (1966- 1998) by put the government (bureaucracy) as gusti and the

people as kawulo, in other words, government is the patron and people is the

client. Then, the long history of new order regime under President Soeharto13 has

falsely interpreted their function. Instead of serve the people, bureaucracy

became super power and dictating people what they want to do, they know

12This value actually derives from IslamicSufism"Manunggaling kawulo Gusti", manunggal means unity;

kawulo means servant, human beings; Gusti means God. So, manunggaling kawulo Gusti means "The

spiritual unity of the man and God, the creature and creator". Everything could be happened by the wish of

God Almighty.

13Suharto is a Javanese and he adopts many Javanese value and term in Indonesian politic in his presidency.

He published his book: Butir-butir Budaya Jawa (Javanese Cultural Items), edited by his daughter Siti

Hardiyanti Indra Rukmana (Tutut). This book was criticized by Hersri Setiawan:$uharto Orang Jawa yang

'Ora Jawa, available online: http://www.listserv.dfn.de/cgi-

bin/wa?A2=ind9808d&L=indonews&O=D&F=&S=&P=31108

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everything and much more smart than the people, therefore they create a

program that sometimes actually are not needed by the people.

In the political culture, New Order regime was characterized by centralized and

authoritarian government. Indoctrination in ideology became a powerful social

control andwe can saw it, for instance in how government forcing all of party and

other social organization to adopt Pancasila14 as one and the only ideology.

Indoctrination was done by repression mechanism that frightened people to

behave different from what it was stated by authority’s instruction. The

repression forms in many ways and in all sectors such as education, and

professions.

Bureaucracy was used by the regime as a tool of political control and stability.

Therefore, often the bureaucracy limiting the liberty of expression and social

action, and also it use coercion to enforcing decisions or policy. Then, bureaucracy

becomes a powerful machine with absolute power. This make bureaucracy

misusing authority, corruption and collusion appear and become phenomena and

therefore trust from the people become less and less. Indonesia is being heavily

corrupted by its own people, and notably by its own leaders.

14 Pancasila (panca means five, sila means principles) is the five basis ideology of the Republic of Indonesia

which comprises five inseparable and interrelated principles. They are Belief in the One and Only God,

Justice and Civilized Humanity, The Unity of Indonesia, Democracy Guided by the Inner Wisdom in the

Unanimity Arising out of Deliberations Amongst Representatives, and Social Justice for the Whole of the

People of Indonesia.

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Change in the Political culture

There are some implications of democratization and decentralization process to

the political culture of Indonesia. These processes changeddramatically the

paradigm of political life as a whole.

1. Political liberalization

The first and the most foremost condition of establishing democratization is

the guarantee of freedom for speech, and freedom for association. Habibie,

soon after he takes over the presidency, making decision to allow the people to

regain their freedom for speech and association. He abolish the power of

ministry of information to license newspaper, magazines and other publication

that in the previous time, the license use by the government to control the

mass media.

The freedom of association, one of the examples is the announcement the

policy of liberalization of political party formation and as the result, in January

1999, more than 200 new political parties report their establishment to the

ministry of home affair.

2. Institutionalization of political competition and participation

In 1998 government submitted bills to the parliament (DPR) for revision of

three political bills: the law on political parties and Golkar, the law on general

election and the law on the composition of people representative assembly

(MPR), parliament (DPR) and local parliament (DPRD). The new law on

political parties allows the new parties, after they fulfill the requirements,

participate in the general election. The law of political party is also guarantee

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the bureaucracy, police, and military neutrality and therefore, there is no

obligation anymore to choose and treat one of political party exclusively.

3. Institutionalization of power relationship

The constitution amendments create the new institutional relationship. The

first is elimination of the power of MPR, MPR is not the supreme power instead

only the joint session of DPR and region’s representative (DPD), the new

institution that establish by the amendment. Moreover, the amendments

reduce the power of president and empowering the DPR as legislative body.

4. Combating corruption, collusion, and nepotism

People become more critical and demanding for transparency, and

accountability of the government. Therefore, the fundamental part of the

reformation program in Indonesia is how establishing good governance to

supports economic and social progress. The program requires comprehensive

performance accountability as the one of some important elements of good

government.The Indonesia governance then implemented government

reformation since 1998 to build a clean government and eliminating

corruption which are the hottest issue in the reformation.

Decentralization practice is fertile ground for democratization to grow in region.

Decentralization make the democratization spread not only in Jakarta but also in

every region in Indonesia. Law 32/2004 bringing several implications to the

democratization process in region. According to this law, in running their

autonomy, regions must promote democracy (article 22) and also, it was reflected

in the obligations of head and deputy regional head when they perform their

duties and authorities. Regional head has obligations such as to promote

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democracy; carry out the principles of clean and good governance; and implement

and be accountable for the regional finance management.

Moreover according to this law, The Regional House of Representatives (DPRD)

has significant role to ensure democratization and governmental process run as

the hope of the people. The main roles of DPRD are drafting the laws, preparing

the regional budget and conducting supervision which have big effect in control

the way government institution manage the region.

The new suitable culture

The change in the political culture of Indonesia raises the demand of new culture

in the bureaucracy. In other words, government institutions should change their

organizational culture to meet the demand from the environment. Base on

previous description about implication of democratization and decentralization,

author identified several issues that related with organizational culture of local

government institutions.

Concerning hierarchy and equality in public administration, especially the means

of recruitment into administrative position, open and transparent procedure of

recruitment are required. It is also related with how the leader manages the new

organization since the officer come from various organizations (local and central

government officer).

Concerning liberty and coercion, the era was changed therefore the role of

government in political control and stability of democratic become less. Although

there still need limitation of liberty of expression and social action the uses of

coercion should be minimize. In the loyalty and commitment, bureaucracy

neutrality should be protected and the only legitimate commitment is serve the

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public appropriately. In order to run democratic system smoothly, the new system

of politic need high level of trust. With the long history of low level trust from the

public, government institution should work hard to gain the trust. Therefore, the

culture of transparency and accountability should be maintained along with the

strong law enforcement.

D. Organizational Culture Change in Boyolali Local Government

Located in mountainside of Merapi and Merbabu, Boyolali Regency is one of the 35

regency/city in Central Java Province.Boyolali was divided into 19 sub-districts

with a high potency in agriculture commodities such as rice, papaya, and tobacco.

Moreover, dairy cannot be disassociated from Boyolali identity.In year 2001 dairy

contribution wasRp 425.25 billion and the population of Oxenin year 2002 are

60,205, represent the biggest population of oxen in Central Java. Recently,the

dairy cattle breeder in Boyolali could produce 92,960 liters of milk a day.

Organizational Culture in Boyolali Local Government

Boyolali in the Dutch colonialism era is part of Surakarta Kingdom, one of main

Javanese cultural center be side Yogyakarta Kingdom. Therefore, Javanese culture

has an effect deeply on the way of thinking and behavior of the people. How

Javanese culture affect organizational culture in Boyolali local government can be

described briefly as below:

1. As mention earlier, Javanese has concepts of "gotong royong" (mutual

assistance) that is still very much in use in community life not only in informal

community but also in formal community like Boyolali local government

organization. The philosophy of gotong royong reflects that people should

uphold cooperatives and collective life as the most important element in the

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social interaction. They help each other voluntarily by giving assistance, money

or other materials. For instance, author saw how one officer assist her

officemate when there were too many people in queued. She asked what kind

documents was required for apply the service and then she quickly checked it.

Moreover, it is also common, they collect money and call it urunan if the money

was collected for buy something and call it sumbangan when they use the

collected money to donate their friend for instance for funeral ceremony.

2. Another value is tengggang rasa, a kind of tolerance behavior when others do

something that we do not like because, for example, it is unpleasant, or

disturbance. We can find this value in occurs for instance in the straightening

of officer’s discipline. Although there is a government regulation No. 30/1980

on discipline of government officer that regulate how sanctions15, step by step

are gave to the undisciplined officer, local civil agency (BKD) usually does not

implement this regulation immediately to the officer. They will ask the officer if

they have problem so they can help him or her to solve it. If there is no

behavior change, BKD will punish the officer base on the rule. In year 2005, 7

officers were punished by delay their promotion.

3. The using of symbols, colors, and old Javanese words (sengkalan) in the

regency logo.

4. The using of batik as uniform,

Uniform is one system to be a sign of member identity of organization. There

are four kinds of uniforms used by Boyolali local government officers, a pairs of

light brown (kaki) shirt and trousers that called pakaian dinas harian (daily

15There are several sanctions includes oral and written warning, delay promotion and discharged.

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clothes on duty) and be dressed in on Monday and Tuesday, a pairs of light

green shirt and trousers that called pakaian hansip16 and be dressed in on

Wednesday and Thursday, and because all government officers are member of

Korpri, they have Korpri’s uniform for special ceremony.On Friday, known as

krida17 day (hari krida), they have sports activity and therefore they wear

sport clothe in the morning and then change with batik cloth. Batik cloth is also

wear on Saturday.

One officer informed how these uniforms, especially pakian dinas harian, affect

their life; uniform of government officers in the reality bring the major effect

which hence their pertinent even for newly honorable candidate government

officers. It able to lift their degree in social structure from ordinary people to

becoming somebody that closes to the power circle. Therefore people who

dress in the uniform get the special social place. They were respected, and

especially for the bachelor many people want them to become their

daughter/son in law.

5. The using of Javanese language

Officially Indonesian language (bahasa Indonesia) is official language in the

governmental process in Indonesia but in case of Boyolali, since almost all of

the people are Javanese, the uses of Javanese language is frequent. Sometimes

16Hansip (Pertahanan Sipil – Civilian Defense) is security organization under government control through the

village, and sub-districts. Hansip are under the Department of Home Affairs rather than TNI (Indonesian

Military), but TNI provides training for them. Hansip platoons are established in each village, the members

of which come from the village community such as farmers, laborers and others. Organically Hansip is under

the supervision of the district head and the governor of the province.

17Krida is physical activity (as opposed to office, school work)

24

they mix Javanese and Indonesian language in their conversation or use

Javanese words or idioms when they speak Indonesian language.

6. Office layout

Social interaction base on the social status of authority that reflected in the

values: kawulo and gusti can be seen in the office layout of Boyolali local

government. The leaders18 have special status, they work in separate room

with their staff which is have different facilities such as television, computer,

conference room, toilet, and special phone line depend on their levels in the

hierarchy. In contrast, staffs works together in an open space room (without

partition) and use the facilities together.

Organizational Culture Change

As it is a general phenomenon in Indonesia after the reformation era, Boyolali

local government aware to the change and percept that change is an obligation

and therefore, they don’t have choices. They should compromise with the demand

from the people and moreover they should comply with central government

regulation such as Government Regulation No. 8/2006 concerning report of

budget and government institution performance; and President Instruction No.

7/1999 regarding accountability report of performance of government institution.

18There are four level of leader in Indonesian bureaucracy system (echelon) from echelon 1 to echelon 4.

According to Government Regulation 8/2003 on Guidelines of Local Government Organization, the highest

echelon in the regency is Sekda (echelon 2a) and the lowest is leader of sub unit (echelon 4). These leaders

work separate with their staff, but in case of limited room occurs, the echelon 4 could work in the same room

with their staff. Although work in the same room, they still have privileges than their staff such as different

type of table and chair, personal computer, and phone line.

1

The change in the political culture of Indonesia raises the demand of new culture

in the bureaucracy. In New Order regime, in Boyolali likewise the other regions,

government officers were controlled tightly to ensure high conformity in the

direction of authorities and to reduce critics and disagreement. For promotion

purposes, they should show how they loyal and winning Golkar in the general

election by urge their family and neighbors to voted Golkar. In the reformation era,

the process of recruitment into administrative position and also recruitment for

the new officer become more open and transparent. For example, BKD and Sekda

base on competency test, held fit and proper test in the recruitment into

administrative position. All government officers who fulfill administrative (grade)

and competency requirement, disregarding their previous status (local or

formerly central government officer) have the same opportunity to appoint for

administrative position.

In the peaceful condition of Boyolali, the government saw the increasing of public

participation. There are several NGOs in Boyolali, and they had significant role in

the process of people empowerment and participation. Regarding public

participation, we can note here the award that had received by Forum Rakyat

Boyolali (Forum of Boyolali People). Forabi get the Participatory Awardfrom

Home Affairs Department and USAID after defeated 79 citizen forum from eight

provinces (www.suaramerdeka.com).

Increasing public participation and control was supported by the increasing of

local and national mass media such as newspaper, radio and television in Boyolali

and other neighbor regency and city such as Semarang, Surakarta and Sukoharjo

that also cover Boyolali in their service. These mass media and also national

26

television and newspaper, they have representative or reporter19 in Boyolali

regency. As government sees these media as partner in the democratization

process, they have a good mutualism relationship. These media can be use as tool

for communication between government and the people.

This increasing in public participation is accompanied with the increasing of

public control and public demand for better services. From budgeting process,

recruitment process of new officer, public services, traditional market renovation,

to the new organizational arrangement20, all were monitored by the public and the

DPRD. Government officer have to more accountable and discipline in running

their task. Nowadays, it became more difficult to make corruption, collusion, and

nepotism that appeared in the previous time because the public control and the

law enforcement21.

In the loyalty and commitment, bureaucracy neutrality should be protected and

the only legitimate commitment is serve the public appropriately. In order to run

democratic system smoothly, the new system of politic need high level of trust.

With the long history of low level trust from the public, government institution

should work hard to gain the trust. Therefore, the culture of transparency and

accountability should be maintained along with the strong law enforcement.

19There is an association of journalist in Boyolali (Forum Komunikasi Wartawan Boyolali or Boyolali’s

Journalist communication Forum). The members are the representative or reporter of mass media that operate

or cover Boyolali in their service.

20There are many reportages related to these issues, for further informations see http://www.solopos.net/

21Recently the former Bupati and the former head of DPRD were prosecuted because of corruption. They

were accused for corrupt the budget of 2004 local budget that equal to 3.325 billion rupiah (Indonesian

currency).

1

Moreover, there are some policies developed by the government such as

formulate the vision and mission of regency as a guidance, hope and fundamental

value of the government and the citizens. These vision and mission formalized in

region regulation as part of regency’s strategic plan. The vision of Boyolali

Regency is: the existing of secure and prosperous society of Boyolali, self-

supporting, and competitive base on agriculture, industrial and tourism

All of the government institutions of Boyolali Regency should create their own

vision and mission base on the regency’s vision and mission, and their core

function. Base on their vision mission, they should make long term and short term

planning. Moreover, they should make progress report monthly and yearly so the

head of region can evaluate their performance. Sekda gathers the reports from all

of unit organizations and base on this report, they make accountability report of

the head of regency (Bupati) to the DPRD and central government. Yearly the

DPRD assesses performance and accountability report of Bupati and local

government organization. Moreover, Local Inspector Agency periodically conducts

inspection or investigating the public report of authority abuse of government

officer in a project22.

To improve and maintain the quality of public services, government integrated all

of services in one place. There is one stop service under the office of integrated

service. All information related to service, such as the requirement, cost, time, and

procedure were displayed therefore, people well inform about the service.

Moreover, for efficiency reason, some public services were delegated to sub-

22Recently the local inspector agency investigated the project of SemadohBridge in sub district Musuk.

According to the DPRD, the officer in this project had broken the bestek (specification of construction).

28

district and village levels. According to one officer, this policy is also to tackle the

bribes issue in public services that occurs in the new order era.

To improve apparatus ability and discipline, local civil service agency develop

training and development program. It is include bounce development through

religion approach. Moreover there are morning and afternoon meeting (in

Indonesia we call it apel) which is officers should attend monitoring meeting both

in morning and afternoon before they start their task and before they go home. If

they twice absence without confirmation, they will get punishment. It is important

to note how the assistant of Sekda (functionary of echelon 2b) and also some

camats (the head of Kecamatan) that also get the punishment by Polisi Pamong

Praja23, a rare case in the previous era24, because they came late to the apel. It is

one effect of reformation, the officer in charges enforce the law disregarding their

position in the bureaucracy.

E. Conclusion

There are some implications of democratization and decentralization process to

the political culture of Indonesia. There are:

1. Concerning hierarchy and equality in public administration, especially the

means of recruitment into administrative position, open and transparent

procedure of recruitment are required.

23Polisi Pamong Praja or Police of Pamong Praja is part of local government organ that have duty to looking

after and carrying out public orderliness and pacification and also uphold the local regulation.

24It was common in the new order era, law enforcement will be applied strictly by the officer in charge only

for the staff that in fact they weak and powerless and for the leader they get privilege“to break the rule”.

1

2. Concerning liberty and coercion, the era was changed therefore the role of

government in political control and stability of democratic become more less.

Although there still need limitation of liberty of expression and social action

the uses of coercion should be minimize. Public participation is the key for the

better governmental system.

3. In the loyalty and commitment, bureaucracy neutrality should be protected

and the only legitimate commitment is serve the public appropriately.

4. In order to run democratic system smoothly, the new system of politic need

high level of trust. With the long history of low level trust from the public,

government institution should work hard to grow the trust. Therefore, the

culture of transparency and accountability should be maintained along with

the strong law enforcement.

Boyolali, as part of Republic of Indonesia, the government aware about the change

and percept the change as an obligation and therefore they don’t have choices;

they have to compromise with the demand from the people and also from the

central government. There are several government regulation regarding good

governance and accountability that should be followed by Boyolali local

government

Therefore, some policies was developed by the government such as formulate the

vision and mission of regency as a guidance, hope and fundamental value of the

government and the citizens; improve and maintain the quality of public services

by integrated all of services in one place and delegated some public services to

sub-district and village levels; improve apparatus ability and discipline; develop

30

open and transparent procedure of recruitment base on competency; and develop

public hearing mechanism.

Organizational culture changes for some extent are occurring in Boyolali local

government, especially because of the change in political culture of the

environment. Because of the increasing public participation and control,

government institution becomes more accountable and transparent. However,

some aspects of organizational culture in Boyolali local government still remain as

the previous condition (before the reformation era) because it has deep root

relation with Javanese culture that not affected by the political system change.

The literature review explains the positive relation between organizational

culture and organization performance that means organizational culture is

important element to achieve high performance. In case of Boyolali, even the

organizational culture change smoothly, the government pays less attention to the

systematic approach of organizational culture. Organizational culture was treated

as natural thing that can run well without systematic approach. Therefore, in

order to have effective organizational culture that fit with challenges, the

government should this systematic approach. By knowing organizational culture

in the government institution of Boyolali Regency it will help the leader has

accurate figure of its organization weaknesses and problems. Accurate

understanding of organizational culture and expectations allows the management

to make right decision to improve their organization

1

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Regulations:

Indonesia’s 1945 Constitution .

Law 22/1999 on Local Government.

Law 32/2004 on Local Government

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Government Regulation No. 8/2006 on report of budget and government

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President Instruction No. 7/1999 on accountability report of performance of

government institution.

34

Newspapers:

Kompas (Indonesian Language)

Koran Tempo (Indonesian Language)

Sinar Harapan (Indonesian Language)

Suara Merdeka (Indonesian Language)

Solo Pos (Indonesian Language)

Wawasan (Indonesian Language)

The Jakarta Post

Useful website:

http://www.jawapalace.org

http://boyolali.go.id/

http://www.solopos.net/

http://www.ri.go.id/produk_uu/datar_isi-2.htm