PROFESSIONAL
CIVIL SERVANT
Do I fit the bill?
YB Datuk Amar Haji Hamid Bugo, State
Secretary, has oftentimes reminded civil servants on the need to uphold and
demonstrate professionalism in the civil service. If there is one description
that should sum up the qualities of the Sarawak Civil Service that he has envisioned,
professionalism is the word. In defining professionalism as it applies
to the Civil Service, the State Secretary mentioned three integral components:
- Attitude
- Technical Competence
- Making use of one's ability
with care, compassion and consideration for others.
THE RIGHT ATTIUDE
Being a real professional stems from
one's attitude towards his or her tasks. As the State Secretary explains, "
the birth of professionalism begins when one brings loads of enthusiasm into
his tasks. Thus, a professional can be likened to achild who, while engrossed
in the consuming task of discovering his environment, is having loads of fun.
The key to being a professional is to do your job well and do it with enthusiasm,
eventually spreading that sense of delight around you."
Without doubt, a person who epitomised
real professionalism was Mother Teresa. She lived with nary wealth nor possessions
but just a consumate devotion to helping the poor, the dying spreading he example
and message of love and compassion around the world. She was the most influential
person in the world and had access to the doors of the wealthy and powerful,
an ironic turn of events considering that she sought neither fame nor fortune
for herself. Her life brings to mind a certain quote from a Greek philosopher:
"Do well in that which is committed to thy charge, and praise shall remain
upon thee."
TECHNICAL COMPETENCE
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It is a commonly accepted view that
technical competence refer to the skills and qualifications that an individual
is expected to bring into a particular task he was recruited to perform. Quite
often, a person's technical competence is measured in terms of his academic
qualifications and his previous work experiences. It is safe to say that within
the civil service ranks are among the most qualified individuals in terms of
their educational attainment. But while its ranks maybe filled with a roster
of academically qualified lawyers, economists, MBAs, development studies experts,
engineers, architects, geologists, surveyors, nurses, doctors and educators,
such qualifications do not necessarily make each and everyone of them wholly
technically-competent.
To be able to fit into the description of a "technically competent civil servant",
an individual must necessarily possess the following characteristics, in addition
to his proven competence in his particular area of expertise.
- Information-communication
capabilities: (see
related story on 'high communicators' on page 3)
- Ability to enhance group performance:
The
civil service primarily exists to serve others. However, it does not mean that
it is subservient to any one sector or any of the publics that it serves. Instead,
the civil service plays an "elitist" role, which Datuk Amar Hj Hamid Bugo describes
as "a natural consequence of our administrative, executive and developmental roles.
We can confidently fulfil the multiple roles of being an adviser, leader, technocrat
and stakeholder in our communities. As a respected member of the community, we
are naturally thrust into leadership positions."
Being thrust into a leadership position,
civil servants must then be able to perform their tasks and functions in a smooth
and harmonious environment, free of discord and pettiness among its ranks.
It is a primary characteristic then of a professional civil servant, no matter
his rank nor assigned functions, to be able to work well with others (in the
spirit of "intergrated functions"). No one civil servant can decide ant act
in isolation because his or her actions will necessarily have an impact on the
whole organisation as well as on the external communities that it serves.
It has long been an accepted notion
that a "creative" individual belongs to fields of endeavour such as the arts,
architecture, theater, designing, film and the performing arts. But times have
changed. With rapid changer and crumbling physical and geographical boundaries
brought about by the pervasice influence of information technology, creativity
is no longer confined within the realm of the artistic endeavours. The civil services
is one organisation that is subjected by dramatic changes. From a purely administrative
and regulatory role, it has now become an active partner of the private sector
in managing the conuntry's resources and people to reap socio-economic benefits
through Sarawak Inc. This shift in the role that they play compels every civil
servant to tap their creative juices in order to meet the ever-changing demands
of the private sector. Processes, tools, procedures and structures which have
worked effectively in the present may suddenly become obsolete or irrelevant.
In the face of such constant changes, a civil servant will have to rely on his
abilities to devise and create new methods and processes, even be forced to invent
new tools or new applications of the systems and tools at his disposal in order
to, in the words of the Prime Minister, "make himself relevant".
- Initiative taking capability:
Profesional work depends to a great
extent on the self-direction of the person assigned to do the task. Being able
to act independently, with the overall good of the organisation as his primary
goal, is a prerequisite quality of any professional worker. Such a worker realizes
that his or her job does not involve controlling his subordinates or his co-workers.
Rather, he/she knows that empowering his colleagues to initiate requisite actions
or decisions, will rebound to the overall good of the organisation. As the numbers
of competent, initiative-taking profesionals increase within the civil service
ranks, the more effective and dynamic an institution it will be, able to make
itself relevant in the face of constant change.
- Self-development and renewal
over time:
A true professional is someone who has
the innate desire to continually learn new knowledge and acquire new skills and
capabilities. To have individuals who have started off as brilliant performers
in their careers, only to have their brilliance dimmed by obsolescence and burnout,
is one of the more problematic situations that can happen within an organisation.
A competent professional will not allow himself or herself to suffer that fate.
Instead, he or she will remain open to new information, new ideas and new possibilities.
CARE AND COMPASSION
When all is said and done, being
a professional boils down to the question of "for whom and for what it is all
for?" The State Secretary has this to say: Professional competence must
be applied in the service of others. For him, a real professional is a "technician
who care", someone who applies his knowledge and his abilities to help others.
As Albert Einstein once said, "A man's value to the community depends primarily
on how far his feelings, thoughts and actions are directed towards promoting
the good of his fellow".
For a professional who is a civil servant, this carries even more significance.
By virtue of their close interaction with the people, civil servants are in
a position to educate by example, inform with understanding influence
through goodwill.
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