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Public Servants Training in the Republic of Belarus: Reality and Challenges
M.Ilyin, A.Kopats, A.Razumovski1
XXth century science made it possible to form an integral notion of a state as society
management system. Figure 1 shows a breakdown diagram of public administration by basic
spheres of social life.
Supreme bodies of state power and
public administration
Public
administration
system
Fields of social life
Administrative and
territorial bodies
Administrative
subsystem
Administrative and
political sphere
Political and economic
relations
Sociopolitical relations
Economic
subsystem
Economic sphere
Socioeconomic relations
Socio-cultural
environment
Social subsystem
Foreign policy relations
Foreign socio-cultural
relations
Foreign economic
relations
Output
Figure 1. Breakdown of public administration by social functions
The development of public administration is subject to state-building policy as part of the
national policy pursued in a country at the present stage of history. State-building policy focuses on
optimization of public administration system by cost/efficiency criteria, and its adaptation for
resolution of the most important and urgent social issues.
Schemes of public administration belong to a class of the most complex social systems.
Their subsystems are numerous and diverse. One of the most important principles of existence and
operation of such systems is integrity, which states that a complex system is to be considered as a
single whole. The concept of integrity is based on specific general-system properties. That scheme is
1
M.Ilyin, Deputy Director of Research Institute for Theory and Practice of Public Administration, Academy of Public
Administration under the aegis of the President of the Republic of Belarus, Minsk
A. Kopats, Director of Centre for International Cooperation and Educational Programmes, Academy of Public
Administration under the aegis of the President of the Republic of Belarus, Minsk
A.Razumovski, Director of the State Personnel Policy Center in Research Institute for Theory and Practice of Public
Administration, Academy of Public Administration under the aegis of the President of the Republic of Belarus, Minsk
not identical with any of its segments. Any scheme (as a whole) has its specific system properties
irrespectively of the way of its decomposition. System properties are formed by accumulation,
intensification and manifestation of some properties concurrently with relaxation and concealment
of others while interacting. Ultimately, a leap from quantity to quality takes place2.
World-wide studies in public administration, attempts to improve its efficiency and
optimization as well as exploration of specific features of public administration have given rise to a
new branch of knowledge such as public administration.
In the Republic of Belarus public administration is a field of activities for the researches in
law, economics, sociology, politics, psychology and others the synthesis of which is far from being
complete. Traditionally, the lawyers treat public administration within the framework of
administrative and constitutional law; economists restrict themselves to state regulation of economy,
sociologists focus on public administration in socio-cultural sphere, etc. At the same time general
theory of management, systems theory, system engineering, cybernetics, and other disciplines stay
within the limits of exclusively technical application, the attempts to “borrow from the humanities”
being superficial. Any attempt to formalize behaviour of a complex social system gives rise to
inadequate mathematical models of little practical value.
We believe that the most successful interdisciplinary synthesis approaches should be
implemented by researchers in public administration within the categories of political science by
virtue of the fact that public administration is a system-forming component and the framework of
political system of society.
Insufficient study of the unified scientific conception and methodology adversely affects
training and professional activity of personnel in public administration bodies.
As public administration developed to form a separate type of activity, the demand for
professionals possessing proper knowledge and skills became obvious. In particular the public
administration bodies personnel that implement the goals and functions of a state by using specific
methods and technologies within their power. They are the primary bearers, sources and consumers
of information for making administrative decisions, they make decisions, work out and exercise
control actions, and are responsible for the performance. Ultimately, they create the environment for
forming national ideology that is a definite combination of theories, views, and values inherent in a
particular state and society at any stage of its history. Efficiency, stability and security of public
administration system as well as formation and implementation of state policy depend to a large
extent on their loyalty, professionalism and responsibility.
Awareness of the need of training, nomination, ranking and use of professional personnel in
public administration bodies called for development and implementation of state personnel policy
that is a component of national state policy correlated with state building policy.
State personnel policy implies actions taken by public administration bodies with a view to
“establish an integrated system of formation and efficient use of human resources, development of
personnel reserves for public administration bodies and local administration, various sectors of
economy and fields of business…».
The said system is aimed at implementation of the main lines of state personnel policy:
- developing of up-to-date requirements to personnel in different activities and managerial levels;
- personnel supply allowing for their professional, moral and psychological qualities;
- creation of effective managerial personnel reserve and regular work with them;
- improvement of the forms and methods of personnel performance assessment;
- motivation labour efficiency, rational employment of human resources, creation of favourable
working and career conditions;
- further development of personnel training and in-service training system.
Below, we will touch on a narrower concept of state personnel policy as activity aimed at
creation of a system of formation, effective use and development of personnel reserve for public
administration bodies.
2
M. Ilyin, A. Razumovski (2004). Public Administration: Tutorial. Minsk, Institute of Management and
Entrepreneurship.
The personnel reserve management system for public administration bodies has the
following properties:
- it is a subsystem of the public administration system;
- it belongs to a group of complex social systems;
- it is a management system with its inherent objectives, principles, functions, methods,
organizational structure, technologies, etc.;
- the objectives of its activity logically follow from those of the public administration system since
state personnel policy is a component of state policy.
Unfortunately, one can observe a tendency towards autonomy of individual components of
complex scientific and educational systems in recent years. For example, management of an
organization is decomposed into business management and personnel management. The first one is
usually factored out while the second one becomes an object of research and study regardless of
specific objectives, methods, functions, principles, and technologies of the said organization. Such
an approach is applied to the personnel component of public administration system that exists as if
in autonomy without regard for functioning and current state of the whole complex system3.
Another approach deals with public administration personnel training in the same way as
business managers’. This is the case in the United Kingdom where state bodies are treated as
organizations offering specific services to population. We deem it hardly reasonable to reduce the
impelling motives and objectives of state bodies to those of trade organization regardless of their
apparent similarity in activity.
Any attempts of formation, use and development of personnel reserve management system
of public administration bodies outside the framework of specific (unique) system of public
administration would inevitably contradict a system-based approach. This is true in full measure to
borrowing foreign experience that has not been adapted to specific state.
The process of the personnel vacancy infill, training, and in-service training for managerial
staff of public administration bodies seem to have been the key role in state personnel policy
implementation. The process model is shown in Figure 2.
The existence of managerial personnel is highly dynamic: some people move up, others
change their occupation, retire, find themselves discharged from office due to inadequate
qualification, etc. Thus the process of managerial personnel selection and training is dynamic to a
great extent.
Managerial personnel reserve should be created aiming at prompt filling a vacancy and
ensuring continuity and succession of public administration. It is an easy matter to notice that
personnel reserve development is a subprocess of vacancy infill, training, and in-service training of
managerial personnel for public administration bodies.
In line with state personnel policy, an appropriate personnel training system is created for
training (retraining) and in-service training of managerial personnel of public administration bodies
that turns to be a subsystem of management system for public administration bodies personnel
reserve.
Teaching occupies a prominent place in training and in-service training of managerial
personnel of governing bodies. Organization of educational process is based on curricula and
syllabi. They expose the substantial aspects of training and in-service training. The personnel
training system can neither exist without logic connection with state educational system nor can
state personnel policy stay outside the state policy in education. Educational system and the policy
pursued in this field have immediate influence on the subject-matter of training and in-service
training of managerial personnel of governing bodies. Eventually, educational system establishes
public educational standards for training of professionals in public administration in compliance
with official duties4.
3
M.Ilyin (2004). Management Processes and Technologies: A Course of Lectures. Minsk: Academy of Public
Administration under the aegis of the President of the Republic of Belarus, Minsk.
4
S.Knyazev, M.Ilyin, and A.Razumovski. Systemic Updating of State Personnel Policy, Problemy upravlenija No.3 (12)
(July-September 2004):3
It should be noted that there is no government standard so far for “public administration”
discipline in the Republic of Belarus and the acting higher education standard for full-time
postgraduate students is not indisputable. In the Ukraine, for instance, have not only been introduced
the said discipline and its retraining standard, but also an administrative rule that prevents
appointments to any managerial position without completion of a retraining course at Academy of
Public Administration or any of its branches has been established.
1. Estimating current and future demand for
managerial personnel
2. Elaboration of requirements to candidates’
personal qualities with account of the
functions of public administration bodies
3. Reserve management:
 creation of managerial personnel reserve
(nomination,
enrolment,
database
maintenance):
team estimation, review of references,
interviewing, questionning, testing, expert
judgement

reserve training

reserve monitoring
4. Examination of candidates’ personal
qualities for management positions, appraisal
of their performance
5.
 drawing up recommendations on possible
nominations to management positions (an
alternative basis)
 submission of proposals on assignment
(approval of assignment)
6. Verification of candidate’s personal data,
finalizing an opinion
7.
Extra
examinations
certification,


management model
competence model
Reserve training









Educational process stages

professional training
self-training in view of future
management position
participation in the
elaboration of proposals on
improvement of a state body
performance
working out analytical
reviews
probation
temporary position filling
encouraging teaching practice
work on a dissertation
proactive adaptation






estimating the demand for
training
testing of candidates for
training
selection of the form of training
(full-time,
correspondence,
combined, remote, etc.);
selection of the type of training
(retraining, in-service training,
etc.)
drawing up syllabi:
combinatory integrity
structural unity
technological flexibility
training
quality
and
efficiency monitoring
proposals on improvement
of teaching process
Proposal on assignment (coordination of assignment):
 submission of body, unbiased opinion, and reference
 for those entered in Personnel Register of the Head of State – opinions by the Council of Ministers,
Administration Office of the President of the Republic of Belarus, State Control Committee,
State Secretary of Security Council, etc.
 draft decree (regulation, order, and instruction) on assignment
 notice of top-secret clearance
 extract from the resolution of a special medical examination board
 income statement
qualification
Figure 2. Model of competition-based nomination, training and in-service training of managerial personnel for governing bodies in
the Republic of Belarus
The actual state of affairs within governing bodies at the interfaces between disciplines,
education and personnel training issues calls for prompt handling of a number of the personnel
policy implementation problems that would hardly be adequately handled outside systematic model.
A review of the national public administration scheme indicates that it hosts education and a
public administration personnel reserve monitoring systems as subsystems. The latter includes
personnel training which overlaps education (by objectives, structures, methods, principles, etc.).
All the systems are based on the state policy in state-building, education and state personnel policy
that should be logically coordinated in between (Figure 3).
Public policy
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM
State-building policy
Scheme for formation and efficient use of
personnel reserve in governing bodies
Public manpower policy
Education
Public education policy
Personnel training and in-service
training
Figure.4. System and logical relations between state policy and administration
Regretful as it might be the policies in state-building, education and manpower have not yet
been fully coordinated in between. That is why lack of agreement (even opposition) seems to be
inevitable and any attempts to improve the efficiency within the framework of any subsystem will
not necessarily involve improvement of efficiency of the whole system.
Therefore the practical way out could be the arrangement of system coordination of public
policies in state-building, education, and personnel training based on scientific study of the national
system of public administration.