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The Search for Meaning in Government Service

Alex N Pattakos

Public Administration Review

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106 Public Administration Review • January/February 2004, Vol. 64, No. 1

Alex N. Pattakos The Innovation Group

The Search for Meaning in Government Service

Question: Why doesn’t the civil servant look out her

window in the morning?

Answer: So she’ll have something to do in the af-

ternoon.

—Carroll and Siegel (1999, 181)

This kind of joke, of course, is not exactly what govern-

ment servants want associated with their work, nor do they

find it especially humorous. That said, government work-

ers remain one of the few unprotected societal groups that

can now safely be maligned in such jokes. To be sure, it is

not easy being a public servant in the so-called postmodern

era, a time when the meaning of public service is grounded

in the idea of the free market (McSwite 2002).

Doing the public’s work, in my opinion, has always been

a noble calling even though working in government does

not always conjure up positive images among citizens. Ide-

ally, especially in jurisdictions that are structured on demo-

cratic principles, the link between the governed and the

governors should be both authentic and transparent, which

would allow citizens to remain engaged with and expect

only the very best from their public servants. Similarly,

the delivery of public goods and services by or through

government should always reflect a passion for excellence,

a concern for guarding the public’s trust, and a focus on

advancing the public welfare.

It also seems that, irrespective of one’s political persua-

sion or perspective on the proper size and role of govern-

ment, the concept of public service should be viewed with

respect rather than disdain. And public employment, it

would follow, should by definition provide a path that is

both honorable and meaningful.

However, the attractiveness of seeking a job in the pub-

lic sector—let alone a career path—waxes and wanes.

While the situation today may not be new compared to

previous periods in history, its implications, especially

in terms of what it portends for the future, are far-reach-

ing and profound. Indeed, the capacity of all democratic

nation-states to administer the public’s interest stands at

risk if they don’t do an effective job of addressing the

issues confronting government service at all levels and

in all categories of employment—elected, appointed, and

civil service.

To be sure, there are many formidable challenges fac-

ing public-sector employment which must be tackled. In

this regard, the three R’s—retirement, recruitment, and

retention—are among the contemporary challenges requir-

ing action and opportunities for public-sector transforma-

tion. Likewise, it has been suggested that civil service sys-

tems may be broken, which is more than reason for alarm

as we begin to contemplate the raison d’etre and position

of government service in the twenty-first century. Add to

these forces the continuing challenges associated with the

privatization of public services and those embedded in

generations that have yet to converge on their adult iden-

tity—think Generations X and Millenium—and it is no

wonder that government employment is often viewed with

suspicion, ambivalence, and even disrespect.

“It’s close enough for government work.” “Innovation

in government is an oxymoron.” Statements such as these

are not only indictments of those in the public’s employ,

but also reflections of ourselves, for, as Aristotle observed

in the Politics, “Government is more than a legal structure,

more than an arrangement of offices; it is a manner of life,

a moral spirit” (cited in Pattakos 1995, 318). For public

servants, Aristotle’s wisdom strikes at the heart and soul

of who they are and what they have chosen to do. It also

reflects the concept and spirit of public service in signifi-

cant ways, for it suggests that working in government re-

ally does mean something—above and beyond the obvi-

ous fact of gainful employment.

Not everyone who works in government, of course, is

aware of, let alone admits to, such fundamental existen-

The Reflective Practitioner

Alex N. Pattakos is a principal of the Innovation Group, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico (www.seedsofinnovation.com). A former member of ASPA’s National Council, he also chaired ASPA’s Action Team to Promote the Con- cept of Public Service. He holds a doctorate in political science from North- ern Illinois University. He is the author of a new book, Prisoners of Our Thoughts: Viktor Frankl’s Principles at Work, which will be released in 2004 by Berrett-Koehler Publishers. E-mail:[email protected].

Reflective Practitioner 107

tial concerns. Yet, the search for meaning at work, in-

cluding that derived from government service, has moved

center stage, and the need to reflect on the meaning of

our work is perhaps greater today than ever before. People

in all walks of life are becoming more comfortable ask-

ing the “big” questions, that is, those dealing with their

meaning and purpose in life, as witnessed by the number

of self-help books, organizations, and online support

groups that have mushroomed in recent years. The popu-

lar media, both electronic and print, have contributed (or

perhaps have reacted) to this meaning-centered dialogue

in ways that have only accelerated its growth, intensity,

and popular acceptance. From a distinctly organizational

perspective, it has also been suggested that questions deal-

ing with the human quest for meaning “must necessarily

receive their first expression in public organizations”

(Denhardt 1993, 19).

The Viennese psychiatrist and philosopher Viktor E.

Frankl (1959) espoused that “man’s search for meaning is

the primary motivation in his life.” And it is this key prin-

ciple—Frankl called it our will to meaning—that has

prompted me over the years to explore the existential needs

and preferences of public servants. As someone who has

worked in and with government and, as a professor of pub-

lic administration, has helped to prepare others for pub-

lic-sector employment, the search for meaning in govern-

ment service is more than a rhetorical or academic

question. On the contrary, the search for meaning, I pro-

pose, is the very platform upon which the concept and

spirit of public service come alive in a real, practical sense.

In other words, more so than in the private sector, the

search for meaning in government service is the linchpin

between theory and practice.

The professional literature in public administration is

beginning to recognize the importance of rediscovering the

soul of government and reawakening the “spirit of public

administration” in the contemporary era (Frederickson

1997). Reflecting on some three decades of government

experience, Fritz Morstein Marx, as a case in point, ob-

served in this very journal that “… those who serve the

public in the nature of their employment have a particular

reason to cultivate public spirit” (Marx 1960, 138). Spiri-

tuality in government, moreover, has been defined “as a

search for meaning and values, which includes some sense

of the transcendent” (Bruce and Novinson 1999). Further,

it has been asserted that the search for meaning is an ele-

ment of spirituality that “… can empower us in the gov-

ernment workplace” by linking one’s outer work with one’s

inner work (163–64). In other words, the search for mean-

ing at work involves aligning our core values, which are

effectively, manifestations of our inner work, with our be-

liefs and actions in the workplace, that is, the empirical

evidence or products of our outer work.

Elsewhere, I have made a case for tapping into the spirit

of government service through authentic dialogue (Pattakos

1995). Indeed, it is important to underscore that the word

“dialogue” actually comes from two Greek words—dia,

meaning “through,” and logos, most frequently but only

roughly translated as “the meaning.” Upon closer exami-

nation, the various translations of the word “logos,” a com-

mon Greek word, reveal that it has deep spiritual roots. In

this regard, one of the first references to logos as “spirit”

came from the Greek philosopher Heraclitus around 500

BCE. To Heraclitus, the logos was responsible for the har-

monic order of the universe, a cosmic law that declared

“one is all and everything is one.”

Interpreting logos in this way—that is, viewing it as a

manifestation of spirit or soul—carries with it significant

implications, both conceptual and practical. Dialogue, as

a concept, takes on a new and deeper meaning when it is

perceived as a group’s accessing a “larger pool of com-

mon spirit” through a distinctly spiritual connection be-

tween the members. True dialogue, in this connection, en-

ables individuals to acknowledge they are part of a greater

whole, that they naturally resonate with others within this

whole, and that the whole is, indeed, greater than the sum

of its various parts. This particular conception of authen-

tic dialogue, interestingly enough, is consistent with the

group process and organizing principles for popular gov-

ernment outlined by the Progressive Era’s astute political

theorist, Mary Parker Follett (1918), who, among other

things, articulated the formation of a “new state” through

civic dialogue. Engaging in authentic dialogue, in this

context, implies not only a process of continuous unfold-

ing of shared understandings and collective decision mak-

ing, which relates to its most common usage, but also a

unique, humanistic process of spiritual connection and

enlightenment that helps groups achieve their collective

and often transcendent aims.

Sources of Meaning Among the foundational building blocks of Frankl’s

existential philosophy and therapeutic system, known as

“logotherapy,” is the commitment to meaningful values and

goals—the will to meaning. In brief, Frankl (1959) identi-

fied three categories of values that, when actualized, pro-

vide sources of authentic meaning: (1) creative values, that

is, “by doing or creating something”; (2) experiential val-

ues, that is, “by experiencing something or encountering

someone”; and (3) attitudinal values, that is, “by choosing

one’s attitude toward suffering.” Actualizing such values

is not only the quid pro quo of the human quest for mean-

ing, it also provides a useful point of reference for reflect-

ing on the search for meaning at work, including working

in government.

108 Public Administration Review • January/February 2004, Vol. 64, No. 1

Reflections from the Field Against this conceptual backdrop, let me now highlight

some of the findings that have emerged from interviews

conducted with current and former public servants about

the search for meaning in government service. These struc-

tured interviews began in 1998, so many of them pre-date

the tragedy of September 11, 2001, the war on terrorism,

and other recent events in the public domain. All in all,

these findings draw from the knowledge, skills, and atti-

tudes of more than 200 reflective public servants, mostly

from the United States and Canada, although other coun-

tries are also represented. The questions focused on the

reasons behind entering and remaining in government ser-

vice and sought to uncover the ways that public servants

find—or, to use Frankl’s term, “detect”—meaning in their

work even when public perceptions of government service

conflict with their own views and experiences.

It is important to underscore up front that an awareness

of meaning, even if it was not apparent at an early stage of

government service, almost always evolved over time, es-

pecially for those in the career civil service. This was the

case among many of those whose public service careers

were short-lived, including elected and appointed officials.

In other words, even if a public servant was unaware of the

deeper meaning behind his or her choice to enter govern-

ment work, or acknowledged the initial decision was based

on something concrete such as job security or political in-

fluence rather than the search for meaning, very few of

these public servants denied that such meaning ultimately

became very important to them in their work.

Drawing on these personal interviews, we will now turn

to a discussion of the sources of meaning in government

service which can be associated with actualizing creative,

experiential, and attitudinal values. As a preface to this

discussion, let me first share a statement made by one in-

terviewee, a local government employee, who referred to

values as the “things that make life worth living.” A per-

sonal commitment to such life-affirming values, it would

appear to follow, is clearly a manifestation of Frankl’s will

to meaning!

Creative Values

Like their counterparts in other sectors or industries,

public servants draw meaning from doing something or

creating something of value. In this regard, the desire to

make a difference through their work was cited repeatedly

as a (if not the) primary source of meaning among the gov-

ernment employees or officials who were interviewed.

Importantly, and perhaps not surprisingly, money was

not the primary motivator of public servants, even among

those seeking so-called employment security. On the con-

trary, public servants at all levels and functions demon-

strated that they want to make a genuine difference through

their work. Even in positions not always lauded for their

public-service ethic, this desire to make a difference was

quite evident. For example, I recall a postal carrier in

Canada who quickly set the record straight about the na-

ture of her government-service responsibilities in the fol-

lowing way: “I don’t simply deliver the mail, I help to build

community.”

Likewise, one manager of a county government agency

in the United States emphasized that the desire to do some-

thing meaningful every day drives him. Before entering

the public service, he had worked for a retail holding com-

pany in the home furnishings industry. After a while, he

said, “I began to fear that my legacy or epitaph would read

something like, He put a lot of cheap furniture in America’s

living rooms!” While I have no intention of marginalizing

the value of selling furniture, even inexpensive furniture,

there is an important lesson to be learned from this fellow’s

experience. Upon reflecting on his long career in govern-

ment, he summarized his chosen path with a great deal of

sincerity and passion: “I want to do something that adds

value to the community, improves the planet, so that when

I leave this earth I can say that I did more than put a lot of

cheap furniture on the road.”

Doing something or creating something of value is not

necessarily driven by images of the long-term future, such

as thoughts about one’s personal legacy. More often than

not, government employees and public officials also find

meaning in making a difference in the here and now. For

example, one local government emergency services offi-

cial described the meaning that he derives from his work:

“I love the job I have because every day I can look back on

at least one project that is going to make someone’s life

safer, someone’s property safer, someone’s community

more secure.” Similarly, look at what an employee of the

Forest Service had to say about the nature of her meaning-

ful work: “I enjoy a feeling that I am making a difference,

slowly or some times in occasional leaps and bounds when

there’s a breakthrough toward a goal we’ve been working

toward. I like jobs where I get a sense of ‘connectedness’

to a larger purpose … I like working together with people

in communities on projects we mutually care about.”

It is also important to reflect upon the influence of the

broader context when approaching the issue of actualizing

creative values and finding meaning in government ser-

vice. Organizational culture, for example, appears to play

a defining role in the quest for meaning at work. Likewise,

both the function of the government organization and the

role or function of the public servant may be significant

influences—either as enablers or barriers—in the quest for

meaning. Insofar as the broader context is concerned, let

me share a brief quote from one government worker that

Reflective Practitioner 109

demonstrates how organizational culture and role/function

relate to the actualization of creative values:

What I discovered over time in working for the fed-

eral government (and what has effectively kept me

here) is: (a) a high level of empowerment around

what work I do and how it is done; (2) the opportu-

nity to be impactful on issues that are important to

me; (3) and opportunities for creative expression.

In this particular instance, the public servant happens to

be an employee of the U.S. Environmental Protection

Agency. During our interview, he candidly admitted that

he had not made a decision to work for the government per

se, but rather followed his passion for environmental work

and his desire to do this work at the most meaningful level

possible. To be sure, his quote suggests an organizational

culture or context that allows employees to proactively seek

and find authentic meaning in their work. Moreover, in

this case, the fact that the operating values of the public

servant and the government organization appear to be so

closely aligned illustrates how public-service roles or func-

tions can influence creative expression and, by extension,

the search for meaning at work. In a similar vein, employ-

ees who are unclear about their role or function, or who

don’t have a clear understanding of (or are not in align-

ment with) the role or function of their organization are

less likely to search for, let alone find, authentic meaning

in their work.

Experiential Values

Experiencing something of value or encountering some-

one (in a value-added way) was clearly perceived to be

another source of meaning among the public servants who

were interviewed. Actualizing meaningful, experiential

values in government service is much more common than

many outside observers, especially political pundits and

bureaucratic critics, may want to admit. Besides the expe-

rience of making a genuine difference through their work,

public servants describe many different kinds of human

encounters and other work-related experiences that clearly

provide them with abundant sources of authentic mean-

ing. All of these experiences, in one way or another, illus-

trate that human beings are interdependent and that the

search for meaning in government service includes some

sense of the transcendent.

Significantly, the public-service paths of government

servants were found to be largely influenced by encoun-

ters with two key actors: parents and mentors. In both cases,

the influence was viewed as a determining factor not only

in the decision to enter public service in the first place, but

also in navigating the choices along one’s career path. Par-

ents, in this regard, were most often cited as the basis for a

sound public-service ethic (attitudes, values, and commit-

ment to help others through government service), whereas

mentors were more likely to serve as role models for ap-

propriate behaviors as public servants in the trenches. Fre-

quently, both parents and mentors served as catalysts for

finding meaning in public service and provided important

strategic guideposts, through their example, during the

quest. Indeed, their central influence in this way should

not be taken lightly and, in fact, should point the way to-

ward how best to leverage the three R’s for the public

sector’s (and general public’s) benefit.

Public perceptions of government and public servants

also frame the way experiential values are actualized to

detect meaning at work. Here’s how one city manager de-

scribed the challenge of his job: “I guess I just believe

with a zeal that one of my most important roles (as a pub-

lic servant) is to do missionary work at every opportunity

I get to convince people that not all government officials

deserve their criticism.” Other public servants, I found,

draw from the positive experiences around them, as illus-

trated by the following observation from a state govern-

ment employee: “The longer I am employed in govern-

ment service, the more I respect and support the services

government provides. Given the constant government

bashing, it’s not always easy. However, there are suffi-

cient examples of people being better off from interaction

with government that I have come to appreciate the op-

portunity to contribute.”

So, the glass can be perceived either as half-empty or

half-full. We all have the opportunity to choose how we

view any situation. We also can choose to be part of the

problem or part of the solution. In this regard, many public

servants, whether they are aware of a personal calling or

not, choose the latter course of action and seek to alter

public perceptions through the power of human encoun-

ter, engagement, and authentic dialogue with their citizens

or constituencies. Let me share some examples of what I

mean by quoting from a sample of public servants.

Though there is much about government that seems

beyond our control, I believe peoples’ cynicism di-

minishes when they (1) feel heard, (2) can influence

opinions and actions, and (3) understand the ratio-

nale for decisions. It comes from being treated with

respect.

—Federal government employee

I’ve found that most people see government work-

ers in one of two lights: as politicians or bureau-

crats. Unfortunately, both seem to carry negative

connotations. You are automatically assumed to be

either crooked or lazy.… People seem to view me a

lot more positively when they understand my com-

mitment to serving the community.

—County government employee

110 Public Administration Review • January/February 2004, Vol. 64, No. 1

For me, the most thrilling times in public service

are when people are working together, find some

way to go beyond finding balance between use and

protection of land.… They actually find synergy

between themselves and a fitness with the land. I

simply love facilitating the rare chances that this will

happen.

—USDA Forest Service employee

At first blush, connecting with citizens as a public ser-

vant sounds both natural and expected. But, as I found out,

this is not always the case. The following experience of a

county government employee in the United States reveals

that, although it may serve as a source of meaning at work,

the link between public servants and their citizens and con-

stituencies can also become problematic: “When you work

in government, understanding who you work for is a criti-

cal factor in finding meaning in your work. I’ve always

viewed myself as working for the citizens that we serve.

That has always created controversy for me within the bu-

reaucracy. More than once, I have been accused of being

disloyal to my boss or the system because I advocated for

our constituency.”

On the other hand, it is this very link that allows gov-

ernment workers to encounter citizens as co-creators of

the services they provide and often opens the floodgates

of meaning in government work. Consider the following

experience from the front lines:

As an administrator, it is easy to get burnt out with

all of the politics and mindless bureaucracy. When I

found myself getting down, I would head to the front

lines. Being among the citizens who we served re-

minded me of why I was there, and why it was im-

portant to keep fighting. I was fortunate to work in

poverty programs because it was like going back to

my youth—every time I visited a community center

or Head Start center I could see my mom’s face and

feel her pain. Those images fortified me when I had

to deal with tough or mundane assignments.

The capability to deflect one’s attention from the prob-

lem situation to something else and to build one’s coping

mechanisms for dealing with stress and change is central

to Frankl’s philosophy and therapeutic approach. In the

experience just cited, we can see the principle of de-re-

flection at work, and we can detect, or at least feel, the

public servant’s path to self-transcendence. I found these

kinds of experiences to be commonplace among the many

public servants I have come into contact with.

Attitudinal Values

According to Frankl, whenever one is confronted with

inescapable, unavoidable situations that are associated with

suffering, the opportunity to actualize attitudinal values—

namely, those that involve one’s attitude toward the suffer-

ing—becomes a source of deep meaning. Obviously, a situ-

ation such as September 11 presented public servants, as

well as the general population around the world, with the

opportunity to actualize such attitudinal values. To be sure,

this is much easier said than done, and not everyone, of

course, is prepared to confront such situations from this

kind of meaning-centered perspective.

Still, along the continuum of possibilities for finding

meaning in situations that involve suffering, from surviv-

ing a concentration camp experience (as Frankl did), to

coping with the horrors of September 11, to confronting

an incurable disease, on the one side, to dealing with a job

loss or similar situation on the other, the attitude that one

chooses toward the given situation will largely influence

both the response to and outcome from it. Public percep-

tions of government and government service are usually

negative and cynical; as a consequence, they are often

treated as givens by public servants who are responsible

for the delivery of public goods and services. Under such

situations, the ability to actualize attitudinal values is put

to the test in order to maintain the spirit of public service.

The gravity of this situation and its potentially negative

influence on employee morale and performance are illus-

trated by the following experience shared by an employee

of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration: “I was con-

versing amiably with some sort of stock broker in a pub

several years ago. As he is discussing the advantages of

zero coupon bonds and short maturation derivatives when

he thought to ask what I did for a living. When I made it

clear that I worked for the U.S. government, he swiveled

around to the person sitting to his left and continued the

conversation.”

Obviously, when one hears statements such as “It’s close

enough for government work,” it is easy to fall prey to the

notion that government employees are lazy, or that they

couldn’t cut the mustard in the private sector, are dishon-

est, unethical, on the take, and so on. Within these con-

straints, it becomes the responsibility of public servants

themselves to find the source(s) of their intrinsic motiva-

tion to avoid the pitfall of creating a self-fulfilling proph-

ecy. And it is at this juncture that their commitment to ac-

tualize attitudinal values toward the situation influences

the search for meaning in government service in the most

dramatic ways.

Here are some illustrations of how public servants deal

attitudinally with such challenges in or to their work:

I recognize that many people judge governments by

the behaviors of political actors vis-a-vis those civil

servants who slog through day after day doing good

things for community and country.

—Federal government employee

Reflective Practitioner 111

I am aware of the low esteem that many people have

for public/government employees. I am proud to

show them the error of their prejudice.

—City government employee

Maybe I am following an impossible dream, but my

focus is in making a difference in people’s lives be-

yond my lifetime. I believe that public service is the

highest expression of democracy in action. I know

my place, I know where I belong.

—State government employee

I believed that land management agencies held the

public’s trust to provide land stewardship on their

behalf. I wanted to be part of it. I saw the job as

complex, the profession as noble. After 23 years of

government service, I still do.

—Federal government employee

To be sure, working in government is not viewed by

many people as the most desirable career path. One local

government official, in this regard, pessimistically ob-

served that: “Public sector employment is not easy, it’s

not fun and it’s thankless. If you are looking for psychic

gratification, you’ll only get it in the early years of your

career. After the first few years, forget it.” Or, how about

this comment, which came from a county government

worker: “Be prepared to suffer because few outside of

government will understand or appreciate what you do.”

One does not need to agree with these particular assess-

ments to see the formidable challenges that lie ahead for

government recruiters who must deal with increasing num-

bers of retiring public servants.

Interestingly, not everyone would agree the situation is

as bad as it seems from such statements. In fact, according

to one positive-thinking interviewee, who happened to be

a federal government employee: “The awareness that not

everyone views government service as worthy of their skills

is to me, the gauntlet that makes only the best and most

hearted stay in the game. Perhaps it is a good thing in ret-

rospect-if it was popular, everyone (including the most

undedicated) would want to do it!”

The freedom to choose one’s attitude in any situation

certainly has plenty of opportunity to play itself out within

the operating domain of government service. Among other

things, more reflection by contemporary public servants

on how to actualize attitudinal values and thereby advance

the search for meaning in government service is necessary

(McSwite 2002; Kiel 2003).

Implications for Government Service What does all of this mean or suggest for the future of

government service? Political posturing aside, the time has

come to elevate and, in my view, return government ser-

vice to its position as a noble calling. Fortunately, there is

evidence that support for such a change in status exists

and that the search for meaning in government service need

not be an impossible mission. Listen now to some of the

possibilities that come from the unsung heroes in govern-

ment who have been quietly getting things done on the

public’s behalf:

We have turned into a society where public service

has deteriorated to become synonymous with self-

service—what’s in it for me? We as a society have

lost our focus. I’m here to say that there are many

career people like myself who are praying and work-

ing toward finding that focus.

—State government employee

There are many ways in which government service

can make you crazy, and there are many ways in

which government service can best meet your defi-

nition of what is meaningful. By frequently exam-

ining what is meaningful to you and evaluating

whether your career is a good match, you can ac-

tively choose—again and again—to stay in govern-

ment service or to switch.

—Federal government employee

I am attracted to the ideal of public service. It is fun-

damental to my own personal values and provides

an opportunity for me to live these ideals. My father

was a police officer for over 30 years and my mother

a health professional in a hospital setting. I come

from parents who believed that helping others was

the best way to spend your life … service to human-

ity is the best work of life … need I say more?

—Federal government employee

I believe that government allows me to not have to

compromise my principles. While I compromise on

a daily basis, it is compromising over cost/benefit,

greater good for the greater number, fairness versus

responsiveness. I am not forced to choose between

integrity and profit.

—City government employee

I believe that public service is most effective and

gratifying when it is being delivered by people who

have a passion for what they are doing, have influ-

ence over how it is done, and can feel their creative

fingerprints on the process. At that point, public ser-

vice “comes alive” and is characterized by the car-

ing, concern, compassion, understanding and com-

mitment we all seek from public servants.

—Federal government employee

Unfortunately, these are not the kind of comments one

hears in the popular media, nor are these the kind of pub-

lic servants who are showcased before wide audiences

112 Public Administration Review • January/February 2004, Vol. 64, No. 1

and offered the opportunity to share their stories and

messages about what they do and how they find meaning

in government service. Yet, these are exactly the kind of

people and messages that need to be heard if the quest to

elevate the spirit (and meaning) of government service is

to be fully realized (Holzer 2000; King and Stivers 1998;

Riccucci 1995).

The search for meaning in government service is a pro-

cess—a journey—not a product. If nation-states around

the world really expect to manage the public’s business

effectively, efficiently, and equitably, then something is

going to have to change in the way government service is

perceived and treated. In this regard, the future of gov-

ernment service in the twenty-first century and beyond

will depend on how well we prepare for the journey be-

fore us. And preparation for this journey will require all

of us to respond authentically to the kinds of meaning-

centered questions and issues that I have introduced in

this article. In short, the spirit of public administration

demands public servants who are driven by the search

for meaning and who seek a noble calling through gov-

ernment service. It is the role of all of us to support them

(and each other) in the quest.

References

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