1. STRENGTHENING WORKPLACE INTEGRITY Notes prepared for a Forum arranged by the Philippine Civil Service Commission and The British Council, Manila © Denis Osborne, 2007

2. Strengthening Workplace Integrity 2 WHY?  Because there are rights and wrongs…  Because without integrity we are not trust-worthy  And trust is very important. Why?  Because politicians want to win people’s votes  Because trust promotes workplace harmony and brings efficiency and economic advantages  But integrity is not enough to win trust  We need competence, transparency, accountability  And once lost it is very difficult to win trust back

3. Strengthening Workplace Integrity 3 THE CONCERNS OF GOVERNMENTS  Everywhere, concern about loss of trust  In governments, companies, by citizens, clients, investors  Citizens increasingly educated and informed  Discontent with governments shown by numbers voting, media comment, protests, tax-evasion, etc  Wanting services as well as products  Which private sector provides with standards raised by competition (though not trusted?)

4. Strengthening Workplace Integrity 4 UK CONCERN: Customer confidence CABINET OFFICE FINDINGS 2003 ‘Customer confidence in the ability of the public service to deliver effectively declined from 54% in 2001 to 31% in 2003’ (‘Delivery and Reform: Progress and plans for the future’ 2003) and that was despite efforts at continuing reform and improvement including ‘an unprecedented and sustained rise in investment in public services’ Concern about competence and integrity

5. Strengthening Workplace Integrity 5 HENCE, THE CIVIL SERVICE … must deliver ‘better services either directly to the public or through others in the public, voluntary and private sectors’. This would require officials to demonstrate skills and expertise that fitted the needs of the job with first ‘leadership’ skill for top managers as being ‘visible leaders who inspire trust’

6. Strengthening Workplace Integrity 6 PUBLIC SERVICE TRENDS  Traditional bureaucracy focused on RULES Needed to protect citizens from exploitation by ‘governors’  ‘20 th Century’ reforms focused more on RESULTS Often with many targets that had to be met Meeting target mattered more than meeting people’s needs Employees stressed, public poorly served  Now a new focus on RELATIONSHIPS: To build trust diversify employment Aim at peace-making, conflict-resolution, etc  Changing concepts of INTEGRITY

7. Strengthening Workplace Integrity 7 UK CONCERN: Targets RISKS WRONG DIRECTIONS?  target measurable activities rather than the important? INFLEXIBLE?  ‘I must meet my target’ rather than ‘I must do my best to meet this customer’s needs’ CORRUPTION?  Hospital waiting lists  As elsewhere for state farms, factories PERFORMANCE?

8. Strengthening Workplace Integrity 8 TARGETS: AN EXAMPLE FINDINGS IN BRITAIN Report to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee that ‘several managers made untrue claims of achieving shorter waiting lists for health care’. In one hospital ‘A controlling mechanism delayed putting patients on the waiting list’ so that it appeared shorter than it was (Comptroller and Auditor General 2001) Those who do this often justify their actions  targets are unfair, set by politicians or bosses who don’t know situation or why delays arise  more important to treat serious cases than trivial

9. Strengthening Workplace Integrity 9 THE NEED FOR DIVERSITY PUBLIC COMPLAINT ABOUT OFFICIALS (in UK) ‘They’ don’t understand’, especially if ethnic minority Therefore get a more diverse workforce to  ‘achieve a Civil Service better equipped to deliver, adapt and innovate’ – and perhaps  win confidence of all sections of the population Diversity for gender, ethnicity and ‘disability’  targets set, initially for 2008 for percentage of Senior Civil Service to be women, and from ethnic minorities or disabled

10. Strengthening Workplace Integrity 10 PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS Treat Staff As People! Death of ‘long hours culture’ Aim to be ‘family friendly’, have ‘work-life balance’ Diversity of working practices & times, career breaks 1985 – staff protected by unions 1995 – performance criteria: to get promoted produce much, get noticed, come early, work late 2005 – career breaks, job-share, 11 month year ‘Late again? Not on top of work? Don’t you delegate enough’ Now ‘policy’, but implementation ‘patchy’

11. Strengthening Workplace Integrity 11 STAFF CONFIDENCE & COMMITMENT Office environment – social and physical  Interactions, space, meetings, decor Management style  MBWA, MBGA, supportive, watch for weaknesses, etc Flexitime  How do staff travel? Core day and flexible start/finish?  ‘Clock-in’? No! ‘Trust but verify’ = random checks TOIL: Time Off In Lieu…  Also transport issues…  Family-friendly, but how can we avoid abuse?

12. Strengthening Workplace Integrity 12 A CHANGING WORK ETHIC From  rulers to servants of the people  patronage and favours to equity (no discrimination)  anonymity to ‘name label’ responsibility  secrecy to ‘freedom of information’ from ‘tell nothing unless authorised’ to ‘tell everything unless’  management to drive, control, to encourage, protect  deciding at the top to delegation, devolution  flattery, subservience; to ‘telling truth to power’  because ‘Leaders need to know what they do not want to hear’

13. Strengthening Workplace Integrity 13 SABOTAGED BY CORRUPTION BY ‘VHF’ CORRUPTION MORE THAN ‘LF’ (corruption comes in many forms, all sizes, but two frequencies) To reduce the risks to integrity from corruption we need to  Recognise the problem  Understand VHF corruption  Choose our objectives  Balance our methods to ‘Trust but Verify’

14. Strengthening Workplace Integrity 14 RESTRAINT AND OPPORTUNITY  Change gives opportunity for corrupt practices  Rapid changes reduce effective restraints  Compare one-off deals with having ‘regular customers’  Countries with developing and transitional economies as ‘Areas of Rapid Social Change’  Hence especially vulnerable…  Initially much corruption came from ‘outside’ – from developed countries  But with increasing collusion, ‘all to blame’

15. Strengthening Workplace Integrity 15 A CRIME OF OPPORTUNITY Consider the staff in an office One short of cash… makes fraudulent expense claim because he thinks he can get away with it ‘just for once’ He does Then he does it again, and again… he tells his friend, who tells her friends… until ‘everybody does it’ That is VHF corruption

16. Strengthening Workplace Integrity 16 THE CORRUPTION TRAP! Then somebody new joins the office staff… If they don’t do the same, a problem…  that may expose the crime of those who do They are urged to join in  and perhaps threatened if they don’t as for the police recruits in Hong Kong… Many trapped in patterns of corrupt activity  If corrupt acts escape censure, many do it!  Without restraints VHF corruption is normal  Need to explain integrity rather than corruption

17. Strengthening Workplace Integrity 17 BUT BEWARE …  Nowhere is corruption zero, nowhere 100%  Perception may not reflect reality  Perceptions and experience differ for surveys in South Africa, Malaysia, Nigeria, elsewhere…  But perception is important, for …  trust, despair, encouraging the corrupt  And many stakeholders gain when corruption exaggerated (think who!)

18. Strengthening Workplace Integrity 18 LF BRIBERY VHF Strong Restraints: LF  A few people bribe to get unfair advantage  Few employees abuse position, take bribes  Seldom discussed  People, complacent  Bribery shameful  Guilty fear penalty, prison  if not  vhf Few Restraints: VHF  ‘Everybody’ pays to get fair treatment  Employees learn, justify, demand  Much discussed  People complain, pay  No shame  Fear ‘group’  Trapped (HK)

19. Strengthening Workplace Integrity 19 OBJECTIVES, AIMS, PRIORITIES LOW FREQUENCY, LF  Maintain integrity, trust  Prevent corruption (outsiders try to subvert)  Sustain good behaviour  Beware complacency  Warn of risks  Analogies  Immunize, inoculate  Repair, strengthen  Defend against invader HIGH FREQUENCY, ‘VHF’  Restore integrity, trust  Reduce corruption though risk never zero  Help change behaviour  Beware despair, disillusion  Give people hope  Analogies  Cure, relieve pain!  Rebuild  Attack/war? Rescue!

20. Strengthening Workplace Integrity 20 COMBAT OBJECTIVES?  Where VHF, what measures of success?  Not to fill prisons with all who act corruptly  But nobody in prison for ‘corruption’ because nobody continues to act corruptly  Objectives?  Help people escape ‘corruption trap’  Help them change behaviour  Strategy? Hard/soft; tough/gentle  To deter any tempted to act corruptly  To encourage all to help reduce corruption

21. Strengthening Workplace Integrity 21 ACTION TO DETER Clarify laws, regulations, codes  to speed the courts, strengthen Public Service discipline Chase the money  remember, usually those who pay get the big benefits Set up stings when corruption expected  and offer rewards for catching those who pay or demand  but warn ‘corrupt’ beforehand because  aim is not ‘prison’, but change of behaviour Test integrity

22. Strengthening Workplace Integrity 22 ACTION TO ENCOURAGE  Sell the idea – ‘social marketing’ aiming to improve and strengthen…  Awareness  The damage done by corrupt acts  The success in some campaigns to reduce it  Attitudes  Wanting change  Wanting to help bring it about  And for that, make it easy to report  Action

23. Strengthening Workplace Integrity 23 STRENGTHENING STAFF INTEGRITY ‘TRUST BUT VERIFY’ Need to win support of staff to see need for integrity  Improve transparency and accountability with care  The best staff hate them – think them waste of time  But trust may matter more than efficiency  Avoid excess bureaucracy with random checks  Convincing staff of need for these to convince outsiders

24. Strengthening Workplace Integrity 24 PAPERS AT www.good-gov.info Published papers or recent notes ON  Corruption issues – Cambridge lecture (notes)  Transparency and Accountability  Integrity tests COMING SOON – by August 07…  Changing directions of Public Service Reform  Combating corruption: some unfamiliar truths?  Text-messaging to improve governance  New reviews Better readability, better access, new home page