Improving culture of the Public Service

THE EDITOR: I write to wish Ministers Stuart Young and Edmund Dillon well on their transfer to new ministries. However, I must at the same time remind them that although we have been placed in the information age we continue to operate in industrial age mode.

As a result, organisations in the society are not driven by healthy core values. Indeed, leadership, management, and administration, assisted by technology and improved information gathering and application, do not seem to be the order of the day.

As I see things, both the public service and the private sector need to revisit the importance of such core values as integrity, effectiveness and efficiency, national development, an ongoing developmental organisational spirit, employee empowerment, and employee appreciation.

Indeed, I am convinced that core values help to promote priorities for creating organisational vision, strategic plans, making decisions, and establishing standards for governing behaviours and accountability.

Further, if core values and employee values are not aligned, we will continue to suffer from the lack of national productivity of which we so often complain.

Clearly, the bottom line lies not in shifting ministers but in focusing more on plans and commitment for improved organisational development.

We have to stop our ad hoc approach to managing the public service. Greater attention must be directed to public service culture. Yes! It is not about the minister but about the culture she or he creates, develops, and sustains. The maximum leader and the godfather images must be removed.

RAYMOND S HACKETT, Curepe

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"Improving culture of the Public Service"

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