Creating readiness for public service improvement: a study in Brunei Darussalem

The study examines and identifies the perceived favourable conditions needed for employees readiness to support improvements. In the context of Brunei, readiness research in public service organisations is underrepresented if not, non-existent. There is a need for a more comprehensive study that integrates the combined perspective of the interrelated conceptual elements of readiness, its climate and the organisation. Four key findings were identified based on 119 interviews and 665 surveys. Firstly, it was found that as employees self-organise to cope with chaos, an unintended conducive climate that is specific to the Brunei context evolves out of employees readiness to adapt and survive. Secondly, the essential climatic factors that trigger the minimum level of employee readiness are identified. Thirdly, the influential climatic factors that further amplify a higher level of employee readiness are identified. Finally, based on the shared multilevel perspective of employees, the statistical analysis result confirm the hypothesis that there is a positive relationship between the identified climatic factors and employees readiness in terms of the way employees believe in, feel about and act towards improvement. Supported by qualitative findings, the essential climatic factors were identified as being communication, participation, clear task roles and responsibility, and top management s trust in subordinates. Similarly, the influential climatic factors were identified as being efficacy, organisational trust, organisational trusts in top management and top management support and participation. It is concluded that employees readiness can be incrementally developed towards improvement success; however, the contextual conditions need to be recognised and well-tailored. The development of a novel conceptual framework and model demonstrates how employees multidimensional readiness can be triggered and influenced to support improvements in a complex and adaptive organisation.