Values - Village Magazine

April 2015 41

UBLIC-sector services are diﬀer-

ent: they are supposed to serve the

public good and its values. The cit-

izen should have a sense of ownership

of, and entitlement to, them. Cutbacks

and public-sector reform have, however,

crowded out any sense of diﬀerence. The

clamour for aggressive reorientation,

led by certain quarters of the press and

their pundits, has been cacophonous.

In 2008, just before the crisis took

hold, an Institute of Public Adminis-

tration paper by Muiris MacCarthaigh

identiﬁed a range of values associated

with public service. These were “eﬃ-

ciency, impartiality, honesty, loyalty,

risk-aversion, equity, hierarchy, integ-

rity, accountability and fairness”. He

found that new non-traditional values

were occasionally identiﬁed by public-

sector oﬃcials, including ﬂexibility,

value for money and eﬀectiveness. Some

values, such as innovation, that he

expected in the context of modernisa-

tion did not emerge. The ‘pecking order’

of values was seen to have changed

as part of the modernisation of the

public services. Many public servants

reported that accountability was now

the dominant value in their work. Eﬃ-

ciency, in the sense of speedy service

delivery, had grown in importance.

Public-sector reform has never been

too explicit about what new values it

oﬀers. Yet it is, more than anything else,

an exercise in changing public sector’s

values. Modernisation has involved the

incorporation of private-sector values

and the pursuit of a market-led public

sector. As the new values associated with

this modernisation take hold other more

traditional public-sector values inevita-

bly give way and disappear.

Public-sector reform and its private-

sector value-base predate austerity.

The 1996 ‘Delivering Better Govern-

ment’ strategy identiﬁed ‘equity’ and

‘integrity’ as core values of the public

service; and at the apex. However, it

noted that values of professionalism,

openness, ﬂexibility, impartiality and

customer orientation are integral to the

public service. Austerity has provided

the cover for a further reinforcement of

such values. The Public Sector Reform

Plan 2011-2014 emphasises eﬃciency,

productivity and cost-reduction. Value-

for-money has been established as the

dominant public-sector value.

This shifting ethic makes a diﬀerence.

Every decision that an organisation

makes and every action taken by its

employees will reﬂect the value system

of that organisation. Values are central

to the development of the culture of an

organisation, what it stands for, how it

operates, and what it might prioritise.

New and old values can end up in con-

ﬂict with each other. Value for money,

for example, that is concerned with pro-

ductivity, can diminish values of equity

and fairness. The voguish move to rec-

ognising its public as ‘customers’ can be

to the detriment to seeing them as the

holders of rights.

MacCarthaigh concluded that “what-

ever values are deemed to be appropriate

for the public service, the evidence sug-

gests that performance will be enhanced

through their meaningful integration

into all aspects of the work of the serv-

ice”. He captures the importance of

values, however, he is mistaken to be so

agnostic about what those values might

be.

We need to move away from mar-

ket-based values for public service if

we are to secure public services that

better match and meet the needs of our

diverse citizenry. Public sector reform

has addressed values head-on. Now we

need public-sector renewal to address

the damage that the reform has done.

The renewal too must be value-driven.

The recent introduction of obligations

of equality and human rights for the

public bodies should be central to this

renewal. Section 42 of the Irish Human

Rights and Equality Commission Act

2014 requires public bodies, including

government departments, to pro-ac-

tively consider and address equality and

human rights issues that are relevant to

their functions.

The values of dignity, inclusion,

autonomy, social justice and democracy

underpin equality and human rights. A

strategic and and funded drive is now

required to centralise and implement

this public-sector duty. This would

refresh and bolster a public service

that could stand central to a more equal

Ireland. •

Refreshing damaging public-sector reform, with renewal. By Rachel Mullen

Values

Many public

servants

reported that

accountability

was now the

dominant

value –

eﬃciency

had grown in

importance

“

POLITICS Public Sector