Proceedings of Annual Paris Business Research Conference
13 - 14 August 2015, Crowne Plaza Hotel Republique, Paris, France
ISBN: 978-1-922069-82-5
Restoring Dignity: Public Administration after Effects of
Communism and Liberalism
Przemysław Hensel
The study of the Polish public administration reported in this paper reveals that the
changes in the political regimes over the last 70 years, namely the rise and fall of
communism between 1944 and 1989 and the advent of neoliberal market system after
1989 negatively influenced self-image of the public administration employees. During the
communist period the employees of public administration were seen as a part of resented
authoritarian regime while under the neoliberal market system they have been seen as
necessary evil – needed but wasteful, lazy, and inefficient. In this paper I try to offer
insight on how the negative self-image of the Polish public administrators can be
changed. This seems to be a crucial issue because negative self-image appears to
influence negatively their performance and their relationships with other societal actors.
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Prof. Przemysław Hensel, Public administration, Faculty of Management, University of Warsaw, 1/3 Szturmowa
str, Email: phensel@wz.uw.edu.pl