Civil Service Management in Development Countries: What …

1 Civil Service Management in developing countries: what works? EVIDENCE FROM A SURVEY WITH 23,000 Civil SERVANTS IN. AFRICA, ASIA, EASTERN EUROPE AND LATIN AMERICA. Jan-Hinrik Meyer-Sahling (University of Nottingham). Christian Schuster (University College London). Kim Sass Mikkelsen (University of Southern Denmark). Report for the UK Department for International Development (DFID), Feb. 2018. Contact details of authors: Acknowledgments Acknowledgments This report draws on results from an international survey of 23,000 Civil servants in ten countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the British Academy UK Department for International Development (DFID) Anti-Corruption Evidence Programme ( ). Implementing a survey of Civil servants across ten countries and four continents was only possible thanks to the collaboration of a great many colleagues and government counterparts.

2 Our thanks extend to, first, our academic collaborators, who took the lead in or collaborated in implementing the survey in their respective country of expertise: Adam Harris (Uganda), Brigitte Seim (Malawi), Rachel Sigman (Ghana), Tiina Randma-Liiv and Cerlin Pesto (Estonia), Izabela Correa (Brazil), Shreekrishna Shrestha (Nepal), Hamit Qeriqi (Kosovo), Ansi Shundi (Albania) and Taiabur Rahman, Kazi Marful Islam and Ahmed Shafiql Huque (Bangladesh). Our academic country collaborators have also lead-authored a series of country reports on Civil Service Management , which complement this cross-country report with country-specific findings and are (or will shortly become) available for download from the project's website: These reports also duly acknowledge the dozens of research assistants whose excellent research assistance was central to running and analysing the survey.

3 Further, we are grateful for the support and authorization of the survey by government institutions in the ten countries studied. Civil Service surveys not only provide an evidence basis for Civil Service reform. They also put a transparency spotlight on public employment. We appreciate the governments' support for this endeavour. Finally, we would like to thank the over 23,000 Civil servants who took the time to complete the survey and share their experiences in public Service . Without them , there would have been no report. The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of any government, funding agency or university. Executive Summary Civil Service reforms require Executive Summary tailoring to the Civil servants are central to effective governance in developing countries.

4 They deliver realities of each essential services to citizens, commission infrastructure, regulate economic activity and engage in diplomacy with foreign countries to name just a few tasks. This puts a institution . premium on understanding how to manage Civil servants in developing countries effectively. Yet, to-date, there are scarcely any quantitative studies which deliver robust findings across developing countries let alone regions on what works in Civil Service Management . To address this gap, this report draws on data from an original survey of 23,000 Civil servants in ten countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America the, to our knowledge, largest original cross-country survey of Civil servants ever conducted in the developing world. Drawing on this data, the report assesses the effects of a range of Civil Service Management practices from recruitment to promotion, pay and performance Management practices on the attitudes and behaviour of Civil servants.

5 To understand the desirability of these practices, our survey covers a spectrum of Civil servant attitudes and behaviour which are core to Civil Service effectiveness: work motivation, job satisfaction, public Service motivation, commitment to remaining in the public sector, performance and integrity. With these indicators, we can identify which Civil Service Management practices tend to have positive effects and which do not . thus providing a foundation for evidence-based Civil Service reform designs. What can be learned from the data? First of all, that effects of Civil Service Management practices need to be understood within countries and institutions. The attitudes and behaviour of Civil servants sharply vary across and within countries and institutions. The resulting pattern bears little resemblance to conventional wisdoms about developing country states.

6 Many prior studies had construed them as dichotomies between islands of excellence' and seas of mediocrity. Top performers and basket cases certainly exist in our data. Most institutions, however, are neither. Instead, they sit in between. Gradual differences rather than dichotomies between poor and strong performance mark most institutions in developing country Civil services. Moreover, institutions (and Civil servants) which score highly in one attitude or behaviour ( work motivation) often do not do so in another ( commitment of Civil servants to remain in public sector). Institutions may thus have strengths in some dimensions of Civil servant behaviour and attitudes, while having weaknesses in others. These findings underscore that Civil Service reforms ultimately require tailoring to the realities of each institution and, at times, the realities of each unit or group of professionals within institutions.

7 To tailor to local realities thereby requires an Executive Summary understanding of both existing Civil Service Management practices in an institution, Four Civil and of the attitudes and behaviour of Civil servants that are being shaped by them (for Service instance via staff surveys). Country-level one-size-fits-all Civil Service reform programs would do well to keep this in mind. Management practices had Once these local realities are understood, reforms can be tailored to them . Of course, positive effects a panoply of reforms might be effective in any given context. Notwithstanding, our survey identified four reforms which had positive effects in most of the countries we in almost all studied. In other words, they tended to lead to more motivated, committed, satisfied, surveyed performing and ethical Civil servants: 1. countries: depoliticization, #1: Depoliticize Civil Service Management curbing Having political connections matters for the recruitment, promotion and pay of a nepotism, significant minority of Civil servants across all surveyed countries.

8 Its incidence is associated with lower work motivation, job dissatisfaction, public Service demotivation, ensuring that poor performance and corruption of Civil servants. This underscores the importance of performance Civil Service de-politicization. How can de-politicization be attained? The data suggests matters, and that formally meritocratic Civil Service Management practices such as oral and paying written exams to recruit Civil servants and consistent advertisements for positions . are one important set of practices. sufficiently to retain motivated #2: Curb nepotism in Civil Service Management staff. As with political connections, having personal connections inside the state helps a significant minority of Civil servants obtain recruitment, promotions and pay rises across countries studied. In fact, the incidence of personal connections is more widespread than politicization.

9 Our data shows it is equally pernicious, adversely affecting the work motivation, job satisfaction, public Service motivation, performance and integrity of Civil servants. Curbing the incidence of personal connections (nepotism) in Civil Service Management thus constitutes a second reform priority. Formally meritocratic Civil Service Management practices such as public advertisements of positions and written exams are, on average (though not always). effective in doing so. #3: Ensure that performance matters in Civil Service Management Civil services vary significantly in the extent to which performance is perceived by Civil servants to matter for their promotion, pay and dismissal prospects. Contrary to popular stereotypes, Civil servants are more satisfied with greater perceived performance orientation in Civil Service Management ; they are also more committed and, at times, motivated to serve the public, work hard and perform.

10 Making sure that performance matters in Civil Service Management decisions thus brings important 1 Many Civil Service reforms beyond these four may, of course, be beneficial in any given country. We selected these four given their relatively consistent effects across countries. Executive Summary Institutions payoffs. Formal performance Management practices such as performance frequently do not evaluations can foster perceptions of performance orientation. However, they can also achieve the opposite. For example, where performance objectives are not adopt Civil identified beforehand and evaluation results are not perceived by Civil servants to Service matter for their promotion, pay and promotion prospects, evaluations have Management counterproductive effects. Formal performance Management systems thus need to be practices which designed and implemented well to have positive effects.