Ethiopian Civil Service University

Institute of Leadership and Good

Governance

Unit – 5

Professionalism in the Civil Service

 Contents
• The evolution of civil service in Ethiopia
• The meaning of profession, professionals and
professionalism
• The characteristics of professional civil
services/servant
• The merits of professionalism
• Model of professional- client relationship
• Factors eroding professionalism in the civil service
The emergence of the concept of civil service in Ethiopia

• Established in 1907
• Dates back to 1960s when CPA was established to
administer government employees.
• The CPA was structured in line with the bureaucratic
principles
• That is “a strictly defined hierarchy governed by clearly
defined regulations and lines of authority”, which
demands
• specialization of tasks;
• appointment based on merit;
• provision of career development opportunities for members;
• routinization of activities; and
• a rational impersonal organizational climate.
Evolution of the ECS
 Civil Service during the Derg era (1974 – 1991)
• The military government (Derg) used it to effectively
promote communist ideology.
• Lots of instructions, rules and regulations were
passed to control the civil service.
• The civil service institutions operated within the
boundary of communist ideology.
• The system was too archaic/outdated and
» non-responsive to the technological and social
changes
» CPA itself had become a bottleneck to the
performance of other civil service organizations.
The Civil Service since 1991…
After the change of government in 1991,
– The civil service organizations have been
restructured in order to accommodate the new
political approach of federalism.
– Decentralization of power also took place in the
structure of the civil service.
• Strengthening of the management skills of all civil
service organizations.
• Professionalizing the civil servants to achieve its
national goals as spelled in the Growth and
Transformation Plan.
Profession and professionalism overview
– Today, the civil service organizations should
be
» agile/responsive and
» flexible in order
– To produce results and provide services to all
citizens efficiently.
– This is directly related with the current
concepts of good governance that in turn
demands
 professionalism in the civil service.
Profession defined
‘Profession’
is often used synonymously with ‘occupation’ to
refer to the job someone does, or
 a recognized type of work.
the term has additional connotations, relating to
» high level of social status,
» education,
» expertise,
» identity as occupational group and
» a certain type of self-consciousness about
ethics.
Professional defined…
A civil service professional is a person
who is;
• Educated, trained, competent,
• motivated
• impartial
• working in a system dedicated to
serving the public interest.
 (continued)
• Professionalization is connected with the
progress of knowledge – the process is
accelerated by scientific, technological and
industrial evolution.
• Reinforced by and reinforces social
mobility for individuals through their
occupations.
– Individuals can move to higher positions.
– Occupations can enhance status.
Professionals
 Professionalism defined
Professionalism is defined as
• Meticulous adherence to lasting
• courtesy,
• honesty, and
• responsibility in one's dealings with citizens
• a level of excellence that goes over and above the
commercial considerations and legal requirements.
• It means behaving in an ethical manner while assuming and
fulfilling your rightful responsibilities in every situation every
time, without fail.
• It manifests itself in the public service employees’ behavior at
work and in his /her constant effort.
• to improve, reinforce and update his /her knowledge,
• to refine the skills that are necessary for carrying out his /
her tasks and enhancing his /her output and productivity.
Professionalism Cont’d
• On the other hand professionalism resides in
• how skillfully and how well a public servant
performs his / her functions and duties
• Conducting your affairs in order to
engender/produce client trust and confidence in
every aspect of your work.
• Demonstrating the requisite ability to be worthy
of the confidence others place in you.
• Making the right choices to attract the right sort
of client through sound work ethical standards.
• Willfully taking responsibility for your actions.
 Characteristics of professional public servants
• Public service professionalism is defined as the
overall value that encompasses all other values
that guide the public service such as
• Loyalty,
• Neutrality,
• Transparency,
• diligence,
• punctuality,
• effectiveness,
• Impartiality etc
Illustration
Characteristics of professional public servants
 Give priority to the public interest over their
personal interest;
 Engage in learning the ethos of workmanship,
values, and ethical standards of conduct through
education and training to enhance civil service
culture in their workplace and outside the
workplace;
 Possess intellectual capacity to make fair
judgments towards their clients, work
independently, and take pride in their profession,
 Dedicate themselves to improving the quality of
their services.
Merits of professionalizing the civil service
Professionalizing the civil service has the
following benefits:
efficient and effective in their performance;
stable and long serving civil service despite
the fact that government might change;
 employees can easily adjust to different
organizational changes;
great intangible assets for any civil service
that aims to beat poverty; and
helps to attract lucrative direct foreign
investment.
Professional-client relationship types
– Involves determination of who makes what
decisions.
– Ethical models explain the different
configurations of authority and responsibility in
the decision-making processes of service
delivery and the manner in which the service is
ultimately delivered.
Cont’d
One may view the professional-client relationship as
one in which:
 The client has most authority and responsibility in
decision making, the professional being his
employee(Agency).
The professional and client are equals, either
dealing at arm's length or at a more personal
level(Friendship/Fiduciary)
The professional, in different degrees, has the
primary role (paternalism).
Each has some commonsense support.
 Agency
• According to this view,
– the client has most of the authority and responsibility for decisions;
– the professional is an expert acting at the direction of the client.
– The client hires a professional to protect or act for
some interest;
– the professional provides services to achieve the
client's goal.
– It is like bureaucratic employer-employee relation-
ships.
• For example purchase of a house, removal of a
gallbladder, design of a building.
• This conception is especially plausible for lawyers, in filing a complaint or arguing
for a client, a lawyer acts for and in behalf of the client.
Paternalism
• It accepts that the professional is to some extent in a
superior position to the client.
• Parents have knowledge and experience that children
lack, and it is often ethically appropriate for them to
exercise their judgment on behalf of their children.
• Similarly, as a professional has knowledge and
experience a client lacks and is hired to further the
client's interests, perhaps the relationship should be
viewed as one of paternalism.
• A person's conduct is paternalistic to the extent his or her
reasons are to do something to or in behalf of another
person for that person's well-being.
 Fiduciary
In a fiduciary relationship,
– both parties are responsible and their judgments
given consideration.
– Because one party is in a more advantageous
position, he or she has special obligations to the
other.
– The weaker party depends upon the stronger in
ways in which the other does not and so must
trust the stronger party.
– a client has more authority and responsibility in
decision making than in the paternalistic model.
 Factors that erode professionalism In Ethiopia
The following are some of the major factors that undermine
professionalism
 Backward beliefs and attitudes in the civil service:
 The we and they attitude
 Inadequate facilities and work environment
 When the politician dictates the solution that requires
professional involvement the professional becomes
neutral on the situation.
 when the politician interferes in the work of the
professional.
 When the professional resists political decision
 Salary which does not satisfy the basic personal needs.
Unprofessionalism
 Cont’d
Outlooks between the professional and the politician
The civil service in the eye of the politician
 Resists change
 The civil servants are there to fulfill the strategic objective of the
government
 Wants to interfere in my political work
The politician in the eye of the civil service
 He is a politician he doesn't know how to run a bureaucracy
 Interferes in my work
 Recruits politically affiliated personnel
 Changes are implemented as a result of political decision rather than as
a result of research.
 Sentimental and short sighted: Wants to see results quick, thinks always
about his political goal.
 Wants to make us busy, increase work load, in the name of change
Thank you !!!