Public Service Values: Enduring, Adapting or Competing? Dr Muiris MacCarthaigh Research Division, IPA

Public Service Values Project commissioned by Committee for Public Management Research (ww.cpmr.gov.ie) Values – the most important topic in public administration and policy? But notoriously difficult to analyse Official & secondary sources Workshops with senior civil servants and local government officials

Defining values The individual principles or qualities that guide judgement and behaviour Often confused with ethics Ethics = what we view as right/wrong or good/bad Canadian Office for Public Service Values and Ethics Values are ‘neutral’ Values also distinct from culture, ethos & conduct

Why values ? Concept of values fundamental to all aspects of government and administration Shape and inform behaviour All decisions are value driven Different types of organisation will employ and encourage different types of value sets Key part of organisational culture Absence leads to dilemmas - ethical, organisational, political

Why values ? Determine the success or failure of reform Significant changes over last decade Enduring, Adapting or Competing? What can the different parts of the service tell us? Local v. central Higher v. lower grades Administrative v. technical etc

Values and public service Traditional value sets for public services internationally: Impartiality Neutrality Fairness Honesty Integrity Accountability Legality

Canada – public service values Table 1: Categories of Public Service Values EthicalDemocratic Professiona l People IntegrityRule of lawEffectivenessCaring FairnessNeutralityEfficiencyFairness Accountability ServiceTolerance Loyalty LeadershipDecency ExcellenceOpennessExcellenceCompassion RespectResponsivenessInnovationCourage HonestyRepresentative- ness QualityBenevolence ProbityLegalityCreativityHumanity

Value conflicts Inevitable Growing number of tasks and expectations Frequent ambiguity of goals and relationships Occur in relation to Maintaining standards v. Adapting to new circumstances Responding to needs of different stakeholders Need for control v. need for discretion ‘Managing up’ vs ‘Managing down’ Conflicts are normal – coping with them is the issue

Challenges to traditional values New modes of governance – state and market Greater fluidity, stakeholders NPM or market-based reforms Politicisation Agencies HRM and recruitment ICT

Codes/Standards of Conduct Response to ethical dilemmas Offer guidance Increasingly fragmented Combine values with expected standards, principles, and methods of resolving conflicts

Values in the Irish Public Service – secondary and official Devlin (1970) Efficiency, Impartiality, Honesty, Loyalty, Deference Barrington (1980) Integrity, Honesty, Hierarchy Chubb (1990) ‘incorrputible, non-partisan and usually anonymous corps’ Delivering Better Government (1996) ‘Equity and integrity’

Values in the Irish Public Service - secondary and official OECD (2000) Impartiality Political neutrality Recruitment and promotion on merit Proper disclosure of information Sympathetic, efficient and courteous dealings with the public Efficicney and diligence in work Avoidance of the use of improper influence Avoidance of conflict of interest

Values workshops Honesty, Impartiality, Integrity, Fairness But also: Accountability of much greater significance ‘Defensive’ values? Efficiency, effectiveness (VFM) and flexibility also arose Reputation (LG)

Where do values come from? ‘Osmosis’ – formal and informal, positive and negative Line managers Induction Codes Politicians?

What’s driving change? Reforms (emphasing market principles) Social EU and domestic legislation Political expectation

Future values The old ones… …or other new ones? Flexibility Innovation Integrity

Bringing values back in How best to establish a set of shared values in context of physical and functional (technical) fragmentation

Bringing values back in How best to establish a set of shared values in context of physical and functional (technical) fragmentation Identification Expression Treatment Training

Thank you

Public Service Values: Enduring, Adapting or Competing? Dr Muiris MacCarthaigh Research Division, IPA