The Public Service Ethos Versus Public Management Models

The paper examines the issue of public service ethos and poses a question how that specific culture fits into the framework of public management. The author states that in the early 21st century, the Weberian model of bureaucracy is under increasing pressure of market-logic driven models of public management. On the other hand, an alternative to both classic bureaucracy and modern public management seems to have emerged in the form of public governance theory. In the context of contradictory influences, Poland 's administration finds itself at a crossroads nowadays, as it struggles with the bureaucratic legacy and underdeveloped public service ethos, while entering the foreign land shaped by not entirely compatible logics of the market and public governance.