Bureaucratic Simplification Boosts Motivation, Not Performance, at Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism
Efforts to simplify bureaucracy inside Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism have succeeded in raising employee motivation but have not yet translated into stronger job performance. That is the key conclusion of a 2026 peer-reviewed study by Yashinta Novia Mayasari and Siti Safaria from ABFII Perbanas, published in the International Journal of Integrative Sciences.
Based on a survey of 274 civil servants, the research shows that structural reforms and transformational leadership influence performance only indirectly—through employee motivation. The findings are highly relevant as Indonesia continues to push nationwide bureaucratic reform to improve public service quality.
Why Bureaucratic Reform Remains a National Priority
Indonesia’s public sector has long struggled with rigid hierarchies, slow decision-making, and performance systems driven more by rules than results. To address these challenges, the government has rolled out an ambitious bureaucratic reform agenda, including the simplification of organizational structures across ministries and agencies.
At the Ministry of Tourism, this reform has been dramatic. Since 2021, more than 90 percent of echelon III and IV structural positions were removed and converted into functional roles. The goal was to create a leaner, more agile bureaucracy that could better support tourism recovery and creative economy growth.
Yet despite these sweeping changes, several key performance indicators at the Ministry of Tourism between 2021 and 2024 failed to reach their targets. This gap between reform efforts and performance outcomes prompted Mayasari and Safaria to look more closely at what is happening inside the organization.
How the Research Was Conducted
The study used a quantitative case-study approach focused on the Ministry of Tourism’s central office in Jakarta. Data were collected between November and December 2025 using an online questionnaire distributed to civil servants.
Key features of the research design include:
a. Sample size: 274 employees from a total population of 862
b. Respondent profile: structural officials, functional officials, and executive staff
c. Data source: primary survey data using a five-point response scale
d. Analysis method: statistical modeling to examine relationships between variables
Instead of relying on assumptions, the authors tested how four factors interact in practice: bureaucratic simplification, transformational leadership, employee motivation, and employee performance.
What the Study Found
The results challenge a common assumption in public sector reform: that cutting layers and changing leadership styles automatically improve performance.
Key findings include:
1. Bureaucratic simplification does not directly improve performance.Structural changes alone showed no significant effect on employee performance. The reforms were seen as administrative rather than behavioral.
2. Transformational leadership also shows no direct performance effect.
Inspirational leadership, by itself, did not significantly raise performance scores in a highly regulated bureaucratic environment.
3. Motivation is the strongest driver of performance.
Employee motivation had a strong and statistically significant impact on performance, making it the most influential factor in the model.
4. Reforms work indirectly through motivation.
Both bureaucratic simplification and transformational leadership significantly increased motivation, which in turn improved performance.
In simple terms, employees performed better not because structures changed, but because those changes helped them feel more motivated and engaged.
Understanding the Human Side of Reform
The authors explain that performance in government institutions is still heavily shaped by formal rules, appraisal systems, and standardized procedures. As a result, leadership charisma or organizational redesign does not automatically change how employees work day to day.
Motivation, however, acts as a psychological bridge. When employees perceive clearer roles, simpler workflows, and supportive leadership, their internal drive improves. That motivation then leads to better work quality, higher target achievement, and stronger public service orientation.
As Siti Safaria of ABFII Perbanas ethically paraphrases in the discussion, bureaucratic reform becomes meaningful only when employees internalize it as something that makes their work more valuable and purposeful, not merely different on paper.
Implications for Public Policy and Management
The study carries important lessons for policymakers and public sector leaders:
1. Structural reform is necessary but not sufficient.Simplifying bureaucracy must be accompanied by strategies that directly strengthen employee motivation.
2. Leadership development should focus on motivation, not symbolism.
Transformational leadership matters when it actively supports employees’ psychological needs, not just vision statements.
3. Performance systems need alignment.
As long as performance is driven mainly by formal compliance, the impact of reform will remain limited.
4. Human resource management is central to reform success.
Motivation-centered HR policies can help ensure that bureaucratic reform delivers real results.
For the Ministry of Tourism and other government agencies, the message is clear: reform works best when it reaches the human core of the organization.
Author Profiles
Yashinta Novia Mayasari, M.M., ABFII Perbanas.Siti Safaria, M.M., ABFII Perbanas.
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