The Internal Context of Organisational Culture in Implementing the BerAKHLAK Civil Service Core Values: Evidence from Sorong City Government, Indonesia

Abstract

The implementation of the BerAKHLAK civil service core values at Sorong City Government reveals serious challenges in organisational culture transformation. Although the values have been formally declared and socialised, empirical indicators suggest internalisation has not occurred substantively. The 2023 Integrity Assessment Survey placed Sorong City at 58.20 (“vulnerable” category), well below the national average of 70.97, signalling a gap between formal symbols, declared values, and the basic assumptions shaping civil servant behaviour. This study analyses the internal context of organisational culture in implementing the BerAKHLAK core values at Sorong City Government through Schein’s three levels of organisational culture: artefacts, espoused values, and basic underlying assumptions. A qualitative case-study approach was employed. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with key informants across job levels, participant observation of organisational activities, and document analysis. Data were analysed using the Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña interactive model (data condensation, data display, conclusion drawing), reinforced by triangulation. At the artefact level, BerAKHLAK symbols and systems are widely present but not deeply understood (only 17% of civil servants can give concrete examples; digital system adoption averages 49%). At the espoused-values level, value declaration is not followed by adequate operational and accountability mechanisms (behaviour weighting in performance appraisal is only 20%, with no operational behaviour indicators). At the basic-assumptions level, collective beliefs contradict BerAKHLAK hierarchical dominance, personal relations, and resistance to innovation with sharp inter-level divergence in merit perception (implementing staff 28% vs OPD leaders 68% perceiving merit-based systems). BerAKHLAK internalisation at Sorong City Government remains superficial and has not reached the organisation’s basic assumptions. The three levels show structural misalignment: artefacts are visible but hollow, espoused values are declarative but unbinding, and basic assumptions actively resist the values. Cultural transformation requires intervention at the assumption level double-loop learning rather than symbolic reinforcement and normative socialisation.