Public service: PROMOTING PLEASING professionalism

Lionel Wijesiri

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has assured that by 2015, a people-friendly Public Service will be established through the introduction of number of reforms. This was revealed by the Public Administration and Home Affairs Minister W.D.J. Seneviratne recently.

Over the years, policy makers have confronted great uncertainty about the future for the public service systems and the scope to reform them effectively. The reform of public service remained a sensitive issue. And now, this is good news.

Needs for customer-friendly public service

It has become increasingly recognized that poor human resource management (HRM) practices remain the most dominant constraint on the reform of our public services. The legacy of insufficient attention to HRM is all too evident; the majority of Government Institutions have problems with shortages, misdistribution and poor staff utilization that often co-exist with problems of chronic over-supply. Even if institutions possess sufficient numbers of staff they are often utilized ineffectively because they lack appropriate skills or are concentrated in urban areas leaving rural areas poorly served. These HRM problems reduce service effectiveness resulting in public services being ranked as inefficient in the minds of the public.

In the public sector, in which the largest proportion of recurrent expenditure is invariably staff costs, it may seem curious that such neglect has persisted, but this reflects a historically narrow and low profile human resources agenda.

First, most governments since Independence, have been primarily concerned with macro-economic issues, especially the size of the public sector workforce, rather than the micro-level focus of contemporary HRM practice which concentrates on the motivation and performance of the workforce. The state has acted as an employer of last resort, allowing the continued growth of public employment even during periods of austerity.

Second, the establishment of terms and conditions of employment in public service has usually formed part of a broader system of public sector employment regulation, characterized by centralized personnel policies. These issues are often handled by Public Services Commission, with the Ministry of Finance taking a keen interest in wage determination. This has left the government institutions bereft of personnel expertise or influence over HRM issues. Involvement in HRM management policy has been confined to small groups of experts located at central level. The role of these officials has been limited by these policies, leaving them with a restrained operational role, in implementing and interpreting national employment rules.

By contrast, in most developed countries, it has become commonplace for public institutions to suggest that human resources are their most important asset. Whether termed human resource management (HRM) or high performance management the novelty of these approaches is that they emphasize pursuing a strategic approach to the management of people.

This involves developing a coherent human resources approach with the full backing of senior officials and with a tight coupling between human resources and government policy. HRM comprises a particular ‘high commitment’ route in which there will be organizational pay-offs if specific configurations of personnel policies are adopted. These policies have three aims: (1) secure the commitment of the workforce, (2) ensuring highly flexible and innovative working practices; and (3) establishing a high quality of work by developing a skilled workforce.

Many commentators suggest that a positive link exists between the establishment of sophisticated HRM architecture and institution’s overall performance.

A 2000 UN report laid out a sensible set of criteria for gauging professionalism in the public service. It stated that: “The public service as a profession, as it developed, espoused the values of integrity, neutrality, and fairness, among many others.

It has embraced the merit principle in setting up career structures from recruitment to promotions. By running the administrative machinery that supports decision-making and implements the policies and programs of the government-of the-day, public servants play an indispensable role in the sustainable development and governance of a nation.

The report recommended that each country should make the commitment and take the necessary measures to regenerate professionalism and promote ethics in its public administration by:

* Creating managerial structures and mechanisms;
* Reforming civil service codes to introduce principles of neutrality, transparency, flexibility and stressing ethics and integrity;
*Implementing a system of recruitment, career development and remuneration based on merit

Some twenty odd years, most of the developed countries began to displace the traditional model of personnel administration in their public sector with the application of HRM principles. HRM in the public sector was argued to have been introduced when the sector experienced a shift from a ‘rule-bound’ culture to a ‘performance-based’ culture. The adoption of HRM paralleled the extensive public sector managerial restructuring and reform programs. Managerial objectives of greater efficiencies were expected to be achieved through effective human resource practices offered by adopting HRM principles.

The adoption of New Public Management (NPM) opened up vast possibilities of government officials acquiring or developing sophisticated HRM techniques. Thus, in developed countries, NPM principles allowed a more flexible and responsive approach to questions of recruitment, selection, retention, training and development of public sector employees.

In these countries, the public sector developed a distinctive approach to HRM over time and featured many innovations that delivered significant rights and entitlements to employees.

The public sector has been perceived as the ‘model employer’ and conditions of service have been at the forefront of employment reform and innovation. The notion of the model employer encapsulated the principles of best practice and succeeded to set an example to the private sector in terms of fair treatment of employees and providing good conditions of service including high levels of job security, superior leave entitlements and generous pensions.

In Sri Lanka, we still experience the traditional model of the public sector; a bureaucratic employment policy matched the operation of orthodox practices and principles of rule-governed rational action. Our public administrative system is subjected to a bureaucratization of procedures to ensure that decisions and actions were consistent, formalized and systematically addressed activities through a pre-defined application of rules and processes. Aspects of a rational-legal bureaucracy include specialization through functional responsibility, formalized rules to prevent arbitrary dismissal, a reliance on organizational position to confer authority, selection by seniority and, generally, a career service.

In this setting, the employment system is highly centralized and run by powerful central agencies that are responsible for all the hire decisions, setting establishment numbers and formulating rules for employment, training and career development. Employment in the public sector is based on the notion of a ‘career service’ of security of tenure and lifelong employment and was framed through the operation of an internal labour market. Employees are recruited to the public service at the lower ranks of departments and promotion to higher-level positions was restricted to internal public sector applicants, unless the position is highly specialized.

The public sector has service-wide remuneration and conditions, so that variation on the basis of performance was not allowed; payment was based on the job or position. Job positions are narrow, specific task-based and highly routinized, and administration is developed according to set work practices of separating constituent elements of work to achieve economies of scale. Strict seniority or length of service is the basis for promotion.

The introduction of New Public Management with an emphasis on transferring private sector management techniques into the public sector will shift the emphasis in the public sector from administration to management and will be a part of a broad strategy to achieve efficiency, effectiveness and quality of service. Changes to the public sector should be introduced in response to the perceived need to reduce government expenditure, provide more efficient services and decrease the scope and reach of government- provided public goods and services. Elements of NPM need to include managing for results, performance measurement, corporate planning, user pays, devolution of authority, decentralization of activities and risk management.

Managerial systems under a NPM model involve the application of physical, financial and human resources to realize government objectives. If planned well, our new model of public service management will transform to be a ‘flexible, market-based form’. These new business practices will also embrace new ways of managing public sector employees. Thus, professional human resource management will be included in the public sector reform agenda.