The Big Questions

1. What is Professionalization of Public Service?

2. What are the values, beliefs and interests involved in this concept?

3. Who will be harmed or helped by professionalism?

4. How do we make sure that professionalism and democratic values are balanced?

Institutional Forms

Characteristics of Sectors

Principles of Professionalism in PA • Responsibilities

• Exercise sensitive professional and moral judgment in our professional activities

• Public Interest

• Serve the public interest

• Honor the public trust

• Demonstrate commitment to professionalism

• Integrity

• Maintain and broaden public confidence

• Do what is right and just in the absence of rules

• Maintain a sense of integrity

Expectations for Professional PA • Objectivity and Independence

• In Fact – In Appearance – In Mental Attitude

• The Quest for Excellence

• Competent technically and ethically

• Provide high quality Public Service

• Continue professional responsibility

• Care for clients’ and citizens’ needs and desire

Professionalism & Public Administrators

• Advocate for democratic values based on diversity and inclusiveness • Disclose and resolve any conflict of interests • Respect citizens’ vulnerability and desire • Respect cultural and emotional needs of citizens • Care for the minority, the old, the weak and those marginalized by

society Commitment to : Competence, honesty, confidentiality, appropriate relations, improving quality, improve access, allocation of resources, scientific knowledge, professional responsibility

How Do We Achieve Professionalism?

• PROFESSIONALS SHOULD BE ABLE TO:

• Understand the working of the organization

• Be able to recognize an ethical situation

• Be able to identify the issues involved

• Be able to identify ALL the stakeholders

• Reach a reasoned ethical position AND be able to defend it.

Strengths: What are our

strengths?

Weaknesses: What are our weaknesses?

Opportunities: What are new opportunities?

Threats: What are new threats?

So that we can anticipate what’s coming and what needs to be done

Self-Analysis of SWOT

Modern Day Requirement for Professionals

Understanding of Organization

& Mission

Understanding of Financial

Management

Understanding of Project

Management

Understanding of Legal

Knowledge

Understanding of Human Resources

Understanding of IT

• Vision, Mission and Policies of the Orgs • Public services or products offered • Understanding of sector • Understanding of environment and surrounding –

Both Domestic and International • Competitive Intelligence • Applicable Laws • Future Outlook – short term/long term goal of

Orgs

Understanding of Organization & Mission

• Capital and budget management • Understanding of fiscal year and budget

appropriation process • Analysis of budget execution and investment

proposals • Understanding of accounting systems • Budgetary controls and rules

Understanding of Financial Management

• Budgeting, accounting and cost control • Procurement and contracting out • Planning of timescales and other operating

conditions • Managing contractors and Coordination of

subcontractors’ work • Inspection and quality control • Achieving results and meeting deadlines

Understanding of Project Management

• Organization’s rules and regulation • Civil Rights • Labor and industrial laws • Fiscal laws • Economic and business laws • Specific industry laws (banking, insurance, telecom

& privacy related) • Environmental laws and many others…..

Understanding of Legal Knowledge

• Compliance of Labor Laws • Motivation and compensation Strategies • Organizational Change Management • Performance Appraisal • Employee Safety and Working Conditions • Sectoral Relations • Working within office/bureau/department/local

govs/federal govs

Understanding of Human Resources

• Development of Management Information System (MIS) • Understanding of Cyber Laws • Electronic Records and Online Filing • Software Copyright and Licensing • Information System Audit • Control Policy and Internal Code of Conduct • Information Risk Management (privacy/ transparency/

bleach)

Understanding of IT

Personal Evaluation of Professionalism

Is the action you have arrived at one that lives up to your sense of moral integrity? [Could I do this and still look at myself in the mirror]

Would it be the action chosen by someone you consider a moral model? [Could I feel good about telling my mother (father, minister, spiritual advisor, spouse, etc.) I took this action]

Would you be comfortable if the action or its results were made public? [What if this became headline news?]

Professionalism in your Practice

• “Do the right thing” vs. “Do the smart thing”

• “Do it by the book” vs. “Do what needs to be done”

• “The buck stops here” vs. “Pass the buck”

• “Why me?” vs. “If not me, who?”

• Understand that community members are drawn from a wide variety of backgrounds, employment, roles and motivations.

• Demonstrate dedication, enthusiasm, expertise and deep knowledge and expertise around all aspects of public service and strive to excel

• Respond to the personal and cultural experiences of the different citizens and provide social and emotional support to help them achieve their goals

• Form tradition of practice that can acknowledge new knowledge, changing circumstances and innovation

Democratic Professionalism

1. Competence: Professionals need to learn from experience and update their competences and ensure that their knowledge, skills and understanding are up to date.

2. Respect: an ability to listen, to help and to empower; to attempt to achieve greater equality and mutual understanding and give validity to citizens’ situation and circumstances

3. Integrity: a self-awareness and a realisation of one’s own values, prejudices, beliefs, limitations and fallibility

4. Responsibility: an acceptance of dilemmas inherent in professional work and the increased complexity of the current and future public administration and public service

Values for Democratic Professionalism

• Develops from ’the open flow of ideas, regardless of their popularity which enable people to be as fully informed as possible’ – rests on notions of citizen participation and engagement .

• Built around belief in individual and collective capacity of people to create possibilities and opportunities for resolving individual and collective problems and issues.

• Uses critical reflection and analysis to evaluate ideas, problems and policies. Concerned for the welfare of others and “the common good”

• Includes the professional being creative and innovative and working with value and respecting and behaving in a reciprocal manner with other professionals

Practicing Democratic Professionalism

• Develops alongside and from communities of practice to develop which are based in wider contexts – historical, social, cultural, and institutional and identify the constraints.

• Communities of practice need to be sustained through active engagement, discussion and debate to share meanings about creating the conditions and opportunities for democratic professional practice.

• Communities of practice and an activist identity exist alongside one another. They reinforce and support each other.

• Recognition that professional practice is situated in the wider contexts. This is also a recognition of the complexity, contradictions and sheer messiness of public administration and public service

Practicing Democratic Professionalism

Reflective Practices

A New Administrative Culture • Whether public administration moves beyond its current

crossroads, it is likely that a new administrative culture will emerge.

• Public administrators of the future will have to be more at ease with complexity, law, and flexibility.

• They will be performance oriented, have a strong service ethic, span boundaries, and be adroit at conflict avoidance and resolution.

• The public sector will increasingly manage without managers.

Honesty: This is the most basic level of ethics. Everyone has the responsibility to be truthful, straightforward and sincere in their dealings with others.

Integrity: Integrity requires the courage to act on one’s values, beliefs and convictions, and to do what is right rather than what is expedient.

Keeping promises: The ethical public official must live up to the spirit as well as the letter of agreements and commitments that have been made.

Public Service Values (once again!)

Fidelity: The trustworthy public official is loyal to the organization and the principles of public service.

Fairness: Because the public official is in a position to exercise discretion, it is imperative that the decision making process be fair. There must be a commitment to justice, equal treatment, and tolerance. The public official must be open-minded and willing to consider diverse opinions.

Caring: The ethical public official manifest an attitude of concern for the well being of others and conducts the affairs of the organization with compassion and kindness.

Public Service Values

Respect: It is imperative that public officials demonstrate respect for human dignity and privacy.

Citizenship: Public officials have the responsibility to serve as role models for others to encourage participation in and respect for the democratic process of decision making.

Excellence: Public officials must be well informed and prepared to carry out their responsibilities. They must be diligent, reliable and committed. They must insist that the organization strive for excellence in carrying out its activities.

Public Service Values