AN ERA OF CHANGE IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE?


It is no secret that many of the leaders/managers of schools and other public sector agencies have gained their positions, either because of their years of service to the school/organisation or because of other factors that have nothing to do with their prowess at leadership/management/teaching. Like many other persons occupying top positions in the public service, they see their accession to senior positions as their just reward for their long service to the organisation. According to one such leader, having now reached the top of his organisation, it was now his time to relax. The idea that managers should actively lead the organisation towards achieving its goals was foreign to him. But then again, he was "leading" a public sector organisation in the Caribbean. So, what goals are we talking about? This person was aghast when I suggested that being at the top of the organisation required more than a presence. He was adamant that he had paid his dues so it was his time to sit back and enjoy his "reward".

Now, in this period of our history when governments are putting in place strategies which they hope will lead to the development of a culture of efficiency, effectiveness, economy, transparency, accountability and responsiveness in the public sector, leaders/managers in this sector will need to abandon the idea that their senior position in their organisation is their reward for years of service, that they have no obligation to the organisation except to continue to maintain the status quo. Other members of staff in these public sector organisations also have a limited vision of their roles. They believe that they must fight to be promoted because a promotion brings with it several benefits – increased salaries, increased pension when they retire, status among their colleagues and the power to exact vengeance on those in the organisation whom they perceived to have wronged them in the past.

This is the story of many public sector organisations. And, in these organisations where people have been socialised into a culture of inefficiency, ineffectiveness, waste, lack of accountability, lack of transparency and non-responsiveness to the concerns of the public and, promotion is an end in itself, governments unloading all their “shiny”, new strategies to effect a change in culture may not realise the desired change, especially in the short and medium term. What is needed is a gradual change in the clichéd “values and attitudes” of workers in the public service. But, whoever is the manager/leader of this change needs to proceed with caution and be gentle in delivering whatever medicine he/she sees fit to administer in order to revive these organisations.

 

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