The impact of culture on reform implementation

Scholars have argued that uncritically transplanting management processes and practices developed in the West to developing countries will doom such processes to failure. It is in line with this argument that this study was undertaken to look for empirical evidence of the nature of administrative culture and its relationship with the institutionalization status of western-rooted performance management reform in Ethiopia, a developing nation. By empirically investigating the relationship between administrative culture and NPM-inspired performance management reform, this study has provided strong evidence that administrative culture does matter for Western-rooted performance management reform to take root in non-western context. The findings can thus be used as a basis for recommending or encouraging the need for sensitivity to administrative culture while importing Western performance management reform ideals to non-western context.