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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.