Professionalism among employees in Lebanon: the Lebanese University
| Date | 12 November 2018 |
| Pages | 385-392 |
| Published date | 12 November 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/WJEMSD-04-2018-0042 |
| Author | Hala Abou Arraj |
| Subject Matter | Strategy,Business ethics,Sustainability |
Professionalism among
employees in Lebanon: the
Lebanese University
Hala Abou Arraj
Regsitrar’s Office, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
Abstract
Purpose –The present paper tries to assess empirically the level of professionalism. In addition, this paper
tries to analyze the factors affecting professionalism. For this reason, the purpose of this paper is twofold:
first, to provide an empirical assessment of professionalism in a bureaucracy, and second, to assess the
relationship of age and education, on the one hand, and bureaucratic professionalism, on the other hand.
Because whims make a poor basis for change, an objective empirical assessment of the level of
professionalism is provided and that is where the strength of this paper lies.
Design/methodology/approach –The data for this study are obtained from a survey administered
to employees.
Findings –The findings of this paper are as follows: low professionalism among civil servants in Lebanon,
no relationship between professionalism and age of employees and the direct relationship between
professionalism and education of employees.
Practical implications –It is true that the woes of the administration lie in the confessional political system
of the country; however, concentrating on contextual and behavioral variables that can be controlled could
alleviate the problem.
Social implications –Recruiting educated employees based on their competency levels may alleviate the
behavioral problem and may lead to improved professionalism.
Originality/value –No previous work was done in this regard.
Keywords Professionalism, Ethics, Management, Social responsibility, Values, Bureaucracy in Lebanon
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Organizational professionalism has been discussed in the literature; however,
professionalism of public servants in Lebanon has not been systematically studied.
Defining organizational professionalism is important because the behavior of a public
agency may affect the behavior of employees inside this organization and behavior of the
community at large. This paper will try to assess the level of professionalism in a public
agency, the Lebanese University, by discussing the following competencies of
organizational profes sionalism derived from eth ical values: integrity an d service.
Moreover, this paper will try to determine whether age and education of employees are
associated with higher levels of professionalism. Because whims make a poor basis for
change, an objective empirical assessment of the level of professionalism was provided and
that is where the strength of this paper lies.
2. Literature review
Professionalism is a basic element of bureaucracy that requires a full-time corps of officials
whose attention is devoted exclusively to its managerial responsibilities. In the public sector,
professionalism is vested in the cadre of civil servants whose positions have generally been
obtained through the passage of merit tests (Rockman, 2014). The type of bureaucracy as
well as the type of the political system, whether democratic or autocratic, influence the level
of professionalism among employees and hence the level of bureaucratic efficiency.
Adler and Borys characterized two distinct types of bureaucracies: Enabling andcoercive.
It dependson the way bureaucracies are operatedthat lead to different result.In coercive ones,
World Journal of
Entrepreneurship, Management
and Sustainable Development
Vol. 14 No. 4, 2018
pp. 385-392
© Emerald PublishingLimited
2042-5961
DOI10.1108/WJEMSD-04-2018-0042
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2042-5961.htm
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Professionalism
among
employees
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