Towards an Impartial, Professional and Responsive Public Service

Transcription

1 Towards an Impartial, Professional and Responsive Public Service

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3 Unlocking the Human Potential for Public Sector Performance 3 Introduction Within living memory, it used to be fairly simple and straightforward to define the administrative state, to delineate the public sector, to differentiate and distinguish public administration, and to identify the profession of government as consisting of trained and experienced public administrators who devoted their working lives to running public organizations. However, given the speed and scope of ongoing change in most societies, public administration is under a great deal of pressure to adjust and innovate just to keep pace with developments and facts or else it will find itself falling further and further behind the expectations of citizens as well as politicians and other stakeholders. The changing role of public administration has been influenced by many factors, including the emergence of new tasks and activities for government, the transformation of many of its traditional functions, and the recent revolution in information and communications technology (ICT) that alone is requiring radical change in work, management, and decision-making processes in all organizations but especially in traditional-style bureaucracies. Nonetheless, certain challenges stand out as needing immediate attention lest all other efforts fail to realize their potential. Among these for public administrators everywhere, in both developed and less developed countries, are coping with globalization, restoring the capacity to govern, furthering democratization, adapting to the knowledge society, and attracting talent into public service. Essential to the capacity of governments to respond to these critical challenges effectively will be renewed focus on the management of human resources, the lifeblood of the public service, including the development of strong leadership capacities. This is the overarching message of the World Public Sector Report Chapter I The first chapter provides an overview of the evolution and key attributes of three broad models or schools on which most of the lessons and examples of contemporary global thinking about HRM reform are based: traditional public administration; public management, including new public management (NPM); and responsive governance. Each of the three models espouses certain core values and key variables that are essential in addressing contemporary HRM challenges. A new HRM synthesis should build on the best attributes of these three models. Traditional public administration, for example, is anchored in the enduring principles of impartiality and merit; public management places particular importance on performance management and professionalism; and the governance paradigm stresses the need to make public administration more responsive to the demands of citizens and other stakeholders. The present report suggests that the unifying principles of such an HRM synthesis in the public service could be impartiality, professionalism and responsiveness. Chapter II The second chapter focuses on why the quality of HRM in the public sector is critical for government performance and national development. It emphasizes that reform of HRM will

4 4 Introduction depend on the pre-existing structure of public administration in a given country. Governments are well advised to start HRM reform on the basis of their current needs, developing and adjusting gradually to meet the requirements of the day rather than adopting a blueprint model drawn from an international best practice. It is this path-dependent character of public service institutions and procedures the result of their history at least as much as cultural differences that explains why governments vary to such an extent in the basic structures that they have put in place to manage staff. While some countries need to lay the foundations for HRM by putting into place the necessary legal and regulatory framework and ensuring that these policies are being followed, other countries, where the foundations are strong, already have the luxury of building on them, for example by delegating authority to line managers. Senior officials, unlike their counterparts in the private sector, have traditionally been constrained in the exercise of leadership and taking initiatives by the complex political environment and institutional arrangements in the public sector. Without a solid understanding of the political context, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, for leaders to spearhead comprehensive reform effectively, particularly in environments characterized by significant resource scarcities. In such situations, it is important for leaders to have a good grasp of the complex networks of people that underpin the operation of the public sector. Chapter III The third chapter examines some of the major socio-economic challenges confronting governments and posing serious questions about the sustainability and integrity of key aspects of public sector human resource systems. A common thread running through these socioeconomic challenges is that they affect in some measure both developed and developing countries. The present report examines three prominent challenges with direct consequences for HRM. First, it focuses on demographic shifts and in particular the challenge of an ageing population. Second, the report examines recent trends in labour migration, including the socalled brain drain. Finally, it looks at the effects of HIV/AIDS on public sector management, especially in sub-saharan Africa. Chapter IV The fourth chapter discusses some of the recent HRM reform experiences. Among those discussed in this chapter, the report highlights how structural adjustment and downsizing of the public sector constituted a dominant trend during the 1980s and 1990s in many developing countries. Such measures often resulted in a set of harsh actions that lacked support and legitimacy because of their social impact, to the detriment of other reforms that might have resulted in improvements in administrative capacity. Moreover, only modest results were often achieved beyond the elimination of ghost workers and others who should not have been on the payroll. The lessons learned from NPM are also assessed in this chapter, with a particular focus on the devolution of HRM, outsourcing, performance-related pay and deregulation as well as the relevance of NPM for developing countries. The issues of labour-management relations and diversity management are also briefly discussed in the chapter.

5 Unlocking the Human Potential for Public Sector Performance 5 Chapter V The fifth chapter reviews some of the key frameworks, strategies and systems that need to be in place for effective HRM in the public sector. Whether governments need to establish or amend legislation governing civil service employment, the present report advocates that embedding the principle of merit is essential. In addition, it is important that the values of impartiality, professionalism and responsiveness be institutionalized, promulgated and protected by a prestigious, professional and powerful guardian agency at the centre of government. Every government needs to develop a policy statement that defines how staff management will contribute to the achievement of its overall strategic objectives. Whatever HRM strategy a government chooses to adopt, it will need to provide professional HRM support to the managers who make staffing decisions. The application of an integrated competence-based model is also an important part of strategic management of human resources in the public service. By promoting a consistent approach across all HRM activities, the framework helps to ensure that HRM contributes effectively to achieving the government s objectives. Another integral part of strategic HRM is the development of a comprehensive pay policy that enables the public service to attract and retain talent. Adequate pay is widely considered a key component in improving and sustaining the motivation, performance and integrity of public servants. Conversely, low salary levels result in absenteeism, alternative and additional employment, corruption and low productivity. These pros and cons as well as additional challenges of developing a pay policy are discussed in the chapter. Chapter VI The sixth chapter points out that many observers believe that governments have lacked the ability to learn and adapt to circumstances of rapid change such as those experienced during the last two decades. Governments tend to experience great difficulties in diagnosing problems early, selecting policy directions, designing effective and efficient programmes, rectifying problems and avoiding what is commonly referred to as state or public sector failure. An important quality of a public sector engaged in organizational learning, on the other hand, is its adeptness in identifying and analysing salient cues in the broader environment as well as in responding to those cues in a strategic, timely and thoughtful manner. Governments have many ways to promote organizational learning in the public service. On one hand, they can focus on strategies that encourage greater sharing of both explicit and tacit knowledge among staff, and, on the other, they can emphasize incentives for public servants to take more direct charge of their own capacity-building needs within an overall corporate HRM strategy. The role of leaders in developing an environment of learning and trust is very important. By playing a proactive role in promoting information-sharing and better communication within the organization, leaders can send a message that learning is a high priority and that old ways of doing business are being actively discouraged. Organizational learning can also be facilitated through more effective coaching and mentoring of junior and mid-level colleagues. Several countries, for example, have opted for fast-track programmes where highflying candidates are put on paths to senior management under the guidance and advice of mentors.

6 6 Introduction Technical summary Finally, the technical summary provides quantitative analysis that supports the discussion in the main body of the report. By applying linear multiple regressions to cross-country data, the analysis measures the impact of selected variables on the quality and integrity of the public service and on the prestige of public sector employment. It confirms a positive correlation between merit-based recruitment as well as promotion and the quality as well as integrity of the public service, but not the prestige of public sector employment. Better remuneration of senior officials increases the quality and integrity of bureaucracies and enhances the prestige of public sector employment, although the latter is only the case in non-african countries. New public management, measured indirectly by the extent to which senior officials mix private and public sector careers, has no apparent effect on the quality or integrity of the public service. It is associated, however, with low prestige of public sector employment, making it more difficult and expensive for government to recruit and retain a fair share of the best talent. These findings are explained in more detail in the technical summary at the end of the report.