Philippine Christian University

Graduate School of Business and Management

Masters in Management

SUBJECT: THEORY AND PRACTICE IN PUBLIC

ADMINISTRATION

Presented by:
ELMER L. MANALO

August 21, 2020

 Civil Service Reimagined

Organizations are bound to their goals. The government as well are bound

towards its Kaizen or continuous development. Fundamental to this is the constant

fortification of the civil service system that we have.

Civil Service Essence

Civil Service as defined in Rao (2013) is the core permanent administrative arm

of the government. He further indentified and quoted Schiavo-Campo and

Sundaram (2001)'s outline of the importance of civil service as: governance, public

goods and services, economic policy improvements, management of public

expenditure and revenue, fiscal sustainability, and institutional development.

Good governance is founded on skilled, motivated, and efficient civil service

with a professional ethos. The provision of public goods and services are likewise

dependent on the skills and motivation of the civil servants administering them.

Competency is highly necessary in improving economic policies too. Civil service

are also beneficial in sustainability of public finances. In a wider scale, this is

tantamount to the institutional development.

The Challenges to Civil Service

The same reference further emphasized that the civil service system needs

reformation. Some predicaments enumerated are concerning honesty of public

servants, responsiveness of the government to the needs of the people, affordability

of government services, and closeness of the government services to the grassroots

of the nation.

Interventions on the civil service can ripple positive or negative effects upon

the system on a wider scale. Understanding the context is highly fundamental

among the policymakers. It is good to note that the government is looking at means

to improve the system as the Civil Service Commission called on government

agencies to step up their human resource management and competencies to achieve

the nation’s collective vision. This is evident in the steps enacted by the Civil Service

Commission (CSC, 2019). CSC, as the central HR agency of the Philippine

government, has aligned its programs with the goals of the Philippine Development

Plan (PDP) 2017-2022, under Pillar 1 or “Enhancing the Social Fabric (Malasakit)”,

which aims to ensure “people-centered, clean, and efficient governance.”

Jagg (n.d.) exemplified that an organization is more than just a random

collection of individuals. They need to communicate and coordinate with each

other. With effective communication, efficiency likewise follows. A well-organized

workplace features transparency and everyone is clear about his role and purpose.

It is good to note that aside from these challenges, the call for transparency and

good governance should be inculcated in the roots of the government workers.

Their true dedication towards service to the people is the key in fostering and

developing its human relations and the services/goods that it gives out to its

people. Despite the challenges that it is facing especially now that there are

stringent investigation on some governmental agencies, the CSC must continue to

empower the public servants not to just be competent for the job rather than true to

their nature of service: to the public.

References cited

Civil Service Commission. (2019). CSC seeks better HR management in the

government. Retrieved from: http://www.csc.gov.ph/new-updates/1786-
csc-seeks-better-hr-management-in-gov’t.html

Jagg, X. (n.d.). Organizational Behavior and Communication in the Workplace.

Retrieved from: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/organizational-behavior-
communication-workplace-20370.html

Rao, S. (2013). Civil service reform: Topic guide. Birmingham, UK: GSDRC,
University of Birmingham. Retrieved from:
http://gsdrc.org/docs/open/csr_topicguide_2013.pdf