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Management for the Society of the Future: New Trends in the Training for Civil Servants in Ukraine
Raisa Naumenko — Doctor of Science, Professor Kyiv National Trade and Economics University (Kyiv, Ukraine)
E-mail: naumenko_r@ukr.net
"The Society of the Future " as a futuristic project is a powerful source of modern management. The necessity of the new management for the society of the future is a paramount task for any country. In this article, we focus our attention on Ukraine. After the Revolution of Dignity, our country shows good dynamics of changes in the public sphere. However, these changes are hampered by old and ineffective management practices at the middle-level and lower-level of managers. Why is this happening? What strategies should be employed to remedy the situation? What are the new trends in training of civil servants in Ukraine? Research demonstrates that for various reasons a significant part of civil servants does not engage in the systematic development of their professional resource that is based on creativity. At the same time, a high level of tension existing in professional activity, specific difficulties in the public service system cause problems in the personal and professional development of civil servants, thus complicating the process of revealing this potential and, accordingly, obtaining the highest level of competence through the implementation of professional activities. This requires the establishment of an independent system evaluation of the managerial staff, based on personal merit and competence, in particular the development of competency profiles for senior managers in the Public Service system, as well as tools for evaluating candidates for management positions; the establishment of a network of independent evaluation centers for candidates for management positions.
Keywords: the society of the future, public administration, civil servants, professional competence, a new state management, Ukraine
Introduction
Modern man, like his distant ancestors, lives in a complex world, which is for him like a macrocosm, including the integral system of Inert, Living and Intelligent Matter, which is constantly in motion. Strategies for survival in a hostile world, which we inherited from distant centuries, can be divided into two large clusters: the first is connected with adaptation to the dynamic conditions of the external environment, and the second is based on mastering and subjugating the world of human will. With the development of civilization, these dual approaches have begun to converge, losing immanent antagonism. There is thus an emerging phenomenon of "change management" [Kramer & Magee, 1990], which combines the vectors for both subject and object of Homo sapiens. However, in order to manage changes, we need to be able to predict them. It is noted that "since ancient times, one of the most weighty goals or even mythological dreams of humanity was the prediction of the future. If at the dawn of the human era, the dream to gain knowledge of the future was focused on
© Naumenko, Raisa, 2017
rituals and magic words, then later, with the course of history, the concept of "future scope" was increasingly mixed with other spheres of dominant cultural doctrines — myth, religion, science" [Terepyshchyi, 2015: 64].
"The Society of the Future" as a futuristic project is a powerful source of modern management. What we will "see" tomorrow depends on what we are doing "today." This circumstance in many respects predetermined a kind of "fashion" for futurology as an intellectual tradition in order to rationally establish the contours of the future society. Many of the authors worked in this direction. It is worth mentioning one of the most famous authors—Alvin Toffler, an American writer, futurist and sociologist, the author of the idea of the Third Wave. He wrote his first book, Future Shock, in 1970, in which he predicted a series of economic and social changes in most of the developed world [Toffler, 1970]. Many of his predictions were justified with astonishing accuracy.
However, "tomorrow" does not come by itself. We are doomed to live all the time in "today," if we do not change anything in our behavior. According to this apt expression of Albert Einstein: "There is nothing that is a more certain sign of insanity than to do the same thing over and over and expect the results to be different." From this, it follows that in order to build the "society of the future," it is necessary to "manage the future," which will be more effective than the current management practices. A well-known scientist in the field of management, Piter Drucker noted that soon, the society would experience/see a rapid growth in demand in two directions. Firstly, the number of people receiving traditional charity has been increasing: they are poor, physically weak, disabled, orphans, victims of circumstances. Secondly, it also increased the demand for services aimed at changing the society and people [Drucker, 2004: 393].
Thus, the necessity of the new management for the society of the future is a paramount task for any country. In this article, we focus our attention on Ukraine. After the Revolution of Dignity, our country shows good dynamics of changes in the public sphere. However, these changes are hampered by old and ineffective management practices at the middle-level and lower-level of managers. Why is this happening? What strategies should be employed to remedy the situation? What are the new trends in training of civil servants in Ukraine? We will answer these questions in our research.
A methodological framework for research and analysis of the latest publications
In modern literature, on management issues in the public sector, the New Public Management (NPM) research as an innovative approach to providing services to the public is being intensified. The necessity to update management is due to the extremely low efficiency of the old approaches to management. Drucker highlighted that "none of the US programmes of the last 40 years in which we tried to tackle a social problem through government action has produced significant results. But independent non-profit agencies have had impressive results... To foster autonomous community organizations in the social sector is therefore an important step in turning around government and in making it perform again" [Drucker, 2004: 394-395].
Considering the Public Administration and New Public Management, it should be noted that an analysis of a number of research studies makes it possible to assert that there are fundamental differences between these concepts. Thus, the researchers David Osborne and Ted Gaebler propose to consider the "New Public Management" as the "global transformation paradigm" and "reformist movement" of public managers that is focused on providing services to the public and satisfying the needs of customers or consumers, who are the citizens. [Osborne & Gaebler, 1992: 325-328].
The researchers of "New Public Management" consider complex and dynamic changes in public services, a critical review of NPM through analysis of debates, projects and policy actors, the impact and development of NPM. In particular, Helen Gunter and her colleagues study the problem how policy reforms can suggest a more subtle and complex picture of NPM in the states with different political traditions and goals [Gunter et al., 2016].
In one of the latest publications on this issue, Adam Eckerd and Keith Snider compare the two concepts: Public Management (PM) h New Public Management (NPM). "We conclude with two points. First, regarding accountability: If PMs indeed can have little influence over program outcomes, it is unreasonable to hold them fully accountable for those outcomes; however, this opposes NPM's approach that has guided defense acquisition for more than two decades. Reformers have treated the PM as an object for improvement, believing that, if the PM's experience and training could be improved, then program outcomes would improve. This has the effect of deflecting accountability from its proper place — those in the realms of politics and law — and onto an easy target — the PM. Second, regarding costs and benefits: It seems inherently logical that better trained PMs should have a positive influence in some way on outcomes. However, our analysis did not find much of a relationship. Our results suggest that any improvement based on PM attributes is small at best, but it is also worth noting that our analysis suggests that PM improvements do not worsen outcomes either. Thus, policy makers should perhaps choose to invest scarce reform resources on other factors of acquisition beyond just the PM" [Eckerd & Snider, 2017].
Hansen Rosenberg and Ewan Ferlie consider the value of two different approaches of strategic management among various types of public organizations, including modern public organizations based on public management that is Porter's strategic positioning model and the concept of resource-based strategy. "The overall argument developed here is that two generic models of strategy (Porter's strategic positioning model and also RBV) can fruitfully be applied (albeit still with care) to the study of the strategic behaviour of NPM rich organizations. We examined the two concrete cases of the UK and Denmark, giving examples from their health and education sectors. We further argued that usefulness of these generic strategic management theories depends on three key dimensions, namely the higher the degree of (i) administrative autonomy, (ii) performance-based budgets and (iii) marketlike conditions found in public services organizations, the more likely it is that generic strategic management models can usefully be applied" [Rosenberg & Ferlie, 2016].
Thus, from the methodological perspective of NPM, the approach to implementing government officials' functions has changed:
- Departure from bureaucratic procedure;
- Increasing responsibility for providing services to the population;
- Improving the management service quality;
- The state delegates its functions and powers to local authorities and territorial institutions;
- The conclusion of management services agreements offered to the public between the state and private organizations;
- The privatization of certain types of utilities.
New challenges in public administration: the case of Ukraine
At the beginning of the systemic reforms in Ukraine, there was a problem of quality in training and professional competence of managerial staff, taking into account the need for substantial reform in public management and development of civil society. It should be noted
that today in our country we lack staff who understand the need for change in Ukraine, who have acquired appropriate analytical knowledge and can adapt the legal regulations of the European Union to Ukrainian realities.
In Ukraine, government officials have fully felt the scale of changes of the ongoing reforms. The delegation of authority to provide public services from the highest to the lowest level of managers caused the separation of executive functions from the highest level of managers and the transfer of competencies to the executive agencies. This approach to the implementation of functions significantly changed the forms of officials' activities, in particular, focusing not on bureaucratic procedures, but the achievement results, and increased their responsibility for the quality of public service provision [Solovyov, 2014: 82].
In Ukraine, after the Revolution of Dignity, the role of public policy and administration was becoming increasingly important in the context of the vigorous public sector activity that allowed to ensure the stakeholders to represent and coordinate their positions in political, political and administrative decisions, and suggested the interaction between state, nongovernmental and supranational structures. Such a mechanism forms public platforms on the adoption of political decisions aimed at achieving socially significant goals with the participation of all involved stakeholders in the sociopolitical and public life of the country.
The Strategy for Sustainable Development "Ukraine 2020" specifies that the state policy, aimed at introducing European standards of living in Ukraine and taking on leadership positions in the world, is focused on such vectors [The Strategy, 2015]:
- The development vector is the provision of sustainable development of the state, the implementation of structural reforms and, as a result, the rise in the standards of living;
- The provision of security guarantees of the state, business and citizens, the security of investments and private property.
- The responsibility vector is the provision of guarantees that each and every citizen, irrespective of race, color, religion, political or other opinion, sex, ethnic or social origin, economic status, residence, language or other characteristics, will have access to high-quality education, the health care service and other services in the public and private sectors.
- The vector of pride is the provision of mutual respect and tolerance in society, pride in one's own state, its history, culture, science, and sport.
According to the development vectors defined by the Strategy, one of the most important places takes the civil service reform and optimization of the system of state bodies, which provides a departure from the centralized model of public administration, the self-sufficiency of local self-governments, and the development of an effective system of territorial organization of Ukraine. Ukraine is transformed into a kind of service provider, creating the necessary services in accordance with the needs of an individual citizen and society, responding promptly to changes in the political system of the country, the social and economic life, taking into account the public nature of politics as well as the political and administrative processes [Davydova et al., 2016; Bondar-Pidhurska & Solovyov, 2017; Prydatko & Pasnak, 2017].
The competence model of professional for the future
Peter Drucker noted that in the 21st century, the main management objective is "...To survive and succeed, every organization will have to turn itself into a change agent. The most effective way to manage successfully is to create it. ... The point of becoming a change agent is that it changes the mind-set of the entire organization" [Drucker, 2015]. The change
agent considers each change as a new opportunity. The change agent purposefully searches for useful changes for itself and knows how to make them as effective as possible for the organization's internal and the external activities. According to Drucker, the organization needs the following requirements:
1. Policies to make the future.
2. Systematic methods to look for and anticipate change.
3. To know the right way to introduce change.
4. Policies to balance change and continuity.
Researchers rightly consider that the staff training for civil service should be multifaceted. For example, Matthew Stafford, analyzing the training practices for civil servants in the US, notes [Stafford, 2016]:
"In essence, there are three types of training within the United States Civil Service:
- Job-specific — 'technical training';
- That common to all federal employees — 'recurring training' — covering such topics as diversity, computer security and ethics;
- Training specific to leadership growth."
The European experience, in particular, the public service in the countries of Europe is studied by Koen Becking and his colleagues. They cite seven basic characteristics for managers in the public sector [Becking & Hopman, 2005]:
1. Critical thinking — flexibility, ability to learn, versatility;
2. Virtue — honesty, transparency, responsibility, good faith;
3. Innovativeness — invention, innovation, creativeness, courage; — social skills
4. Communication, establishment of communications, negotiation skills;
5. Results-orientation — information-processing capacity, judgments, resoluteness, problem-solving; — organizational skills.
6. Planning and evaluation, staff development, delegation, team building;
7. Knowledge at different levels — the world, European, and national levels.
American and European researchers agree that the key concept at this stage of development
of management is the concept of "competence." However, their opinions diverge in the understanding of the essence of this concept, much less a single list of necessary competencies.
For example, Graham Cheetham and Geoff Chivers proposed a holistic model of professional competence [Cheetham & Chivers, 1996]:
- Cognitive competence, including underpinning theory and concepts, as well as informal tacit knowledge gained experientially. Knowledge (know-that), underpinned by understanding (know-why), is distinguished from competence.
- Functional competences (skills or know-how), those things that 'a person who works in a given occupational area should be able to do... [and] able to demonstrate'.
- Personal competency (behavioural competencies, 'know how to behave'), defined as a 'relatively enduring characteristic of a person causally related to effective or superior performance in a job'.
- Ethical competencies, defined as 'the possession of appropriate personal and professional values and the ability to make sound judgments based upon these in work-related situations'.
- Meta-competencies, concerned with the ability to cope with uncertainty, as well as with learning and reflection.
Another approach involves the SHL Model. The model includes the following types of competencies [Bartram, 2006: 7]:
- Leading and Deciding (Takes control and exercises leadership. Initiates action, gives direction and takes responsibility).
- Supporting and Co-operating (Supports others and shows respect and positive regard for them in social situations. Puts people first, working effectively with individuals and teams, clients and staff. Behaves consistently with clear personal values that complement those of the organisation).
- Interacting and Presenting (Communicates and networks effectively. Successfully persuades and influences others. Relates to others in a confident and relaxed manner).
- Analysing and Interpreting (Shows evidence of clear analytical thinking. Gets to the heart of complex problems and issues. Applies own expertise effectively. Quickly learns new technology. Communicates well in writing).
- Creating and Conceptualising (Open to new ideas and experiences. Seeks out learning opportunities. Handles situations and problems with innovation and creativity. Thinks broadly and strategically. Supports and drives organisational change).
- Organising and Executing (Plans ahead and works in a systematic and organised way. Follows directions and procedures. Focuses on customer satisfaction and delivers a quality service or product to the agreed standards).
- Adapting and Coping (Adapts and responds well to change. Manages pressure effectively and copes with setbacks).
- Enterprising and Performing (Focuses on results and achieving personal work objectives. Works best when work is related closely to results and the impact of personal efforts is obvious. Shows an understanding of business, commerce and finance. Seeks opportunities for self-development and career advancement).
Steve Whiddett and Sarah Hoolyforde proposed another model. They distinguish the following competencies [Whiddett & Hoolyforde, 2000]:
- Business development (personal development, idea generation, and justification)
- Achievement results (planning, clarity in management decisions, goal setting);
- Analysis (working with information);
- Human resource management (teamwork, relationship management).
However, there is one more interesting model like "Society for Human Resource
Management," which is a specific competency model for human resource management: "This value-added reasoning is based on a five step causal logic which results in the defining competencies of HR professionals: (1) business conditions are changing dramatically; (2) organizations, to respond to turbulent conditions, must focus resources on sustained competitive advantage; (3) competitive advantage comes from generating sources of uniqueness not easily replicable by competitors; (4) organizational capability is a unique set of organizational attributes that provides values to buying customers and may not easily be replicated; (5) HR practices are central to the creation and maintenance of organizational capability" [Ulrich, et al., 1995].
Since there are many models, Françoise Le Deist and Johnatan Winterton set a challenge to develop a consistent and coherent typology of competence approaches. They distinguish four types of dominant approaches: "The challenge is to develop a consistent and coherent typology of competence in a context where even within countries there is apparent diversity in the approaches. Each of the four dominant approaches has particular strengths. The traditional American approach has demonstrated the importance of individual characteristics
and the use of behavioural competence as a means of developing superior performance. The mainstream UK approach has shown the value of occupationally defined standards of functional competence and their applicability to the workplace. The approach adopted in France and Germany demonstrates the potential of a multi-dimensional and more analytical concept of competence. Moreover, there are signs of convergence in national approaches to competence, not only within Europe but also between the European and American models, suggesting that there is value in a multi-dimensional approach for developing a more global understanding of the term" [Le Deist & Winterton, 2005].
The idea of a competence approach, developed by Western scientists, was also welcomed by Ukrainian scientists in the field of management and public administration. For example, Alla Mudrik believes that the following competence components are particularly relevant for Ukrainian civil servants [Mudrik, 2012]:
- Emotional regulation competence (determines a specialist's ability to self-regulation, self-control, assumes the possession of skills and abilities to manage and regulate emotional sphere, various technologies to overcome professional destruction).
- Behavioral activities competence (represented by psychological characteristics, reflecting the personality orientation, his work activity, his relationship to himself as well as his ability to develop strong-willed personality traits).
- Communicative competence (defined as a system of knowledge, linguistic and nonlinguistic skills, communication skills).
- Social-psychological competence (assumes a civil servant's ability to interact effectively with colleagues on formal level, as well as a personal and informal level).
- Special professional competence (represented by such features as professional knowledge, abilities, skills related to the professional personality orientation).
Based on the experience of foreign and Ukrainian researchers, we have developed an integral model of competence of civil servants in Ukraine. Professional competence is considered by us as:
- Advanced knowledge of the subject;
- A body of professional knowledge and professionally significant personal qualities that determine the independent and responsible activity of a person;
- The skills and ability to perform certain professional functions;
- The unity of professional and general culture;
- The ability to carry out successful professional activities;
- An important component of the subsystem of professional activity.
Discussion and Conclusions
Ukraine's prospects for European integration put forward the necessary requirements that civil service staff qualifications have to match the priority tasks and challenges of the development of Ukrainian society, to show professional competence, readiness to build a system of democratic public administration — a new state management.
The effectiveness of innovations in public administration is determined by the level of development of professional competence of civil servants (for example [Bazaluk & Blazhevych, 2016]). This is a key trend for a successful future of Ukraine: the modern, innovation process of public administration must necessarily be accompanied by technologies of the scientific provision of self-realization of the creative potential of a civil servant and
continuous improvement of professional competence (for example [Svyrydenko, 2015; Svetlov & Alymova, 2017; Dillon, 2017]).
From our point of view, one of the most effective trainings of civil servants and improvement of professional competence can be distinguished the development and justification of new criteria for assessing qualities, managerial effectiveness in the public service, promotion and improving the professional growth within the annual assessment process, and participation in public competitive examinations to fill vacant positions (for example [Khmil, 2016]).
Research demonstrates that for various reasons a significant part of civil servants does not engage in the systematic development of their professional resource that is based on creativity. At the same time, a high level of tension existing in professional activity, specific difficulties in the public service system cause problems in the personal and professional development of civil servants, thus complicating the process of revealing this potential and, accordingly, obtaining the highest level of competence through the implementation of professional activities (for example [Khmil & Korkh, 2014]).
Further research is determined by the possibility of improving the theoretical and methodological foundations of studying personal and professional competence of civil servants and the applied aspects of harmonization process of their professionalism, taking into account the modern requirements of the new state management.
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