Stanisława BorkowskaandBogusława Urbaniak

Dept. of Labour and Social Policy

University of Łódź

Poland

The civil service training system in Poland

1/ The historyof changes

Following socio-political transition that took place in Poland after 1989,public administration have assumed a new role and its significance changed. It is an important determinant of the pace of socio-economic transformation in the country. At the outset of the 21stc. we can observe how the role and position of a civil servant takes a new meaning, accompanied by modifications in the concept of civil service itself. According to M. Dębicki,the paradigm of bureaucracy based on anonymity, neutral and professional application of the law and loyal implementation of policies prescribed by every new government moves towards a public management paradigm deriving from a managerial approach, improved performance and lower costs. This new approach to public management is enhanced by a new paradigm of ethical management based upon public welfare. As a consequence, the model of favouredbehaviours, attitudes and competencies of the civil servants is evolving (Kudrycka (ed.), 2001). All the new challenges have to be handled by a training system that prepares the servants and continuously fosterstheir development under the strategic concept pursued.

What model of civil service is functioning[1]in Poland? There are no rules governing public administration and civil service in the Member States at the Community level. Theseareas are the domain of sovereign states and each country determines its respective regulations on the basis of its own tradition, culture and history. The occurring tendency to Europeanize reveals itself in standardized rules, behaviours and procedures. In the practice of the developed democratic countries two basic models have evolved – a closed model oriented at pursuing a career (the career model) and an open model of positions(called a model of positions) focused on task fulfilment. In most cases, thetwo models merge into a mixed model combining features of the above extreme solutions. The career model assumes employee’s gradual movement up the ladder of administrative hierarchy, starting from the lowest post in the civil service corps or from the lowest position in a given category within the corps. What the State guarantees is the stability of employment and adequate compensation. In the EU the closest to that model is one that has evolved, for instance, inAustria, Belgium, France, Greece, Spain, Ireland, Luxembourg, Germany and Portugal. In contrast, in the model of positions a person is not employed to join the civil service corps, but to take a specific position, without any promises of stable employment. A unit of administration recruits a person on the basis of his or her qualifications and experience that can be useful in the office’s work. This approach is represented by the civil service model operated in Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and Italy(see Annex 1). Extreme forms of the solutions are specific to the private sector (e.g. New Zealand). In practice, however, the most common is the mixed model, typical of Japan, USAand Canada. It can be assumed that this is the same model we are working toward also in Poland. As J. Czaputowicz observed, the Polish civil service model comprises elements of a closed model based on the career model with elements of the open model (Kudrycka (ed.), 2001). But solutions to the appearing dilemmas are still remote:how to create an image of employment in government administration as a service for the State, how to make civil servants impartial and to enhance their professionalism. Higher-ranking servants are therefore required to manage not only their staff, but also a new quality of social life and the social education processes.

As for its civil service,Polandhas adopted modern normative solutions that have triggered a change in the way the administration operates:on 18 December 1998the civil service law was published that specifies its place and role in the building of a modern democratic state[2]. Some believe (Rydlewski, 2001) that the practical solutions are far from those prescribed in the legislation.

2/ Main responsibilities of the civil service

The most important responsibility of the civilservice is formation of socially acceptable and recognised government administration personnel, perceived as a guarantee ofrighteousness, reliability and professionalism. To attain these goals, the civil serviceethos has to be created, meantas an impeccable ethical attitude,on the one hand, and reliability combined with professionalism characterising its members, on the other. The civil service exerts a significant influence on the long-term socio-economic development in a country and on its global position by creating tools that enable efficient implementation of programmes developed by the political parties in power,by drafting laws and supervising their implementation. Its mission is concern for public interest and smooth functioning of the state, irrespective of political changes and switching governments. It collaborates with successive governments independent of their political orientation. It serves them as a neutral expert and adviser, and partly as a midwife to changes, managing them and supervising their realisation. At the same time, it is there to serve the customers: citizens and institutions. Despite its political impartiality it has relationships with the every government. This gives rise to dilemmas such as: how toregulate the issue of continuity and change in the government administration, when the powerbase in the country is changeable, what kind of relationships should characterise the political and the administrative sphere as regards the formation of the staff, or how to manage human resources (Rydlewski, 2001). Is it possible at all in real life to have political neutrality as the main principle in the functioning of the administration?As T.G. Grosse observed, implementation of the civil service law enacted in 1998 (Dz.U.,1999) may become „only a smoke screen for informal political manipulations in the administration, or even a convenient tool used to introduce „our own people” to the corps and to managerial positions” (Grosse, 2001, p.85). To prevent this, we should strive towards civil service being a politically impartial, professional, stable and incorruptible body of servants. An important condition for this mission’s success is providing a permanent training system for civil service to make it a high quality body of servants able to react effectively to new challenges. Apart from implementation and improvement of the recruitmentmechanisms in the civil service corps, introduction of effective motivating mechanisms based on the appraisal of performance and promotions,conduct as prescribed by the professional code of ethics of state administration, it is the effective training system, meeting the strategic needs of the Polish reason of state, that should ensure the attainment of the paramount goal of creatingan apolitical, professional, stable and incorruptible body of servants.

The most senior servants have a very special position in the civil service. They provide a bridge between politicians and the servants they control. Because of their positions, they can exert a strong influence on politicians, deterring them from party particularisms (Kudrycka, 2002, p.22), and their experience and professional skills may become a basis for their being advisers to the rather swiftly changing governments. Their competence and professional profile should be the subject of in-depth studies and then it should be intentionally developed by way of multi-directional actions.

3/ Training setup and goals

The civil service law of 1998 in force provides for the development of the servants’ professionalknowledge. Training and professional improvementare regulated in chapter 8 of the law; articles 98 and 99 describe the role of training in the civil service and define its types. For each civil servant the availability of an individual professional development programme is provided for, including also a training plan – career paths for particular positions are clearly mapped (Zarządzanie..., 2002, pp.77-78). Every year Head of the Civil Service announces the central training plan that sets training priorities and types of training that are particularlyimportant in that year.[3]In a longer strategic perspective training is treated as primary instrument allowing a given institution to attain its internal goals. Particular ministries and government agencies are obliged to draw their training plans in line with the organisational goals and the political strategy pursuedby the government. Consequently, the basic directions and training priorities should be designed for periods extending beyond one year. In addition, they should define the basic training standards to be complied with by the civil service, both at the central level and at lower levels, in relation to operational goals of a given organisation and to objectives established at the government level, such as training in the system change management, integration into EU structures, implementation of EU technologies.

The conditions for setting up and conducting training in the civil service are specified in the Regulation by the President of the Council of Ministers of 22 March 2000 r. (Dz. U., 2000) that refers to article104 of the civil service law of 1998. The regulation provides for training types and forms and indicates groups entities authorized to train civil servants.

The Civil Service Office has theCivil Service Training and Development Department in its structure with responsibilities such as:

  • setting the training policy goals for the civil service,
  • development and implementation of organisational and financial solutions related to the civil service training,
  • budgeting and supervising funds allocated to the civil servants’ training within a scope defined by the civil service law,
  • formulation of training priorities,
  • cooperation with Polish and foreign entities providing and conducting training,
  • cooperation with the government administration’ agencies in respect of the training for civil servants,
  • initiating and monitoring ethics-related actions in the civil service corps,
  • dissemination of information and giving explanations regarding the training and professional improvement system in the civil service.

Training goals are obviously complex and varying in time, common to the service (general) and specialist, adjusted to the specificity of work in a given part of the administration, or to a group of positions, e.g. managerial, or even to single positions (training under individual professional development programme).In addition, since 1998 the goals have formed the basis for distinguishing types of training that comprise the permanent educationsystemavailable to the civil servants. The system has the following components(Rozporządzenie..., 2000,§§ 9 – 13):

  • central training(CT); it has been distinguishedon account of the level at which it is organised and the target group of trainees; it is used to impart knowledge and to enhance skills indicated in the training priorities for civil servants; its particular goals are: a) teaching the teamwork skills, b) coordination of work in the office and across the administration, c) dissemination of the administration’s working standards.The training specifically targets senior civil servants, those at the middle management level, coordinators and independent personnel,
  • general training(GT);its purpose is to enhance the civil servants’ knowledge and skills necessary for them to correctly fulfil their tasks;it covers topics common to the administration, with particular emphasis put on IT, foreign languages, administrative law, public procurement, general issues in the European integration, protection of confidential information and of personal data, standards underlying effective and efficient work of an organisation and the rules of correct citizen service,
  • training under individual professional development programme of a civil servant (IPDP); it is available through the participation in central, general or specialist training,
  • strategic management school for directors general (SMS); it is a type of specialist courses that aim at expanding participants’ knowledge and skills and at exchangingtheir experiences,
  • specialist training (ST); it helps expand and updatecivil servants’knowledge and skills in fields specific to their official responsibilities; the target trainees are, in particular, members of the civil service corps that hold specialist positions.

In addition, the system provides for the preparatory service (PS)purposed to give all new staff members an equal start and to prepare them to take up a specific position in a concrete office.

The general training goals, shared by all the civil service, include:

  • Improving the quality of customer service,
  • Serving those in power as an impartial expert,
  • Efficient functioning of the civil service in theEuropean administrative sphere (taking up challenges arising from Poland’s being a MemberState),
  • Managing the administrationefficientlyin order to attain the above goals and overseeing the implementation of solutions approved by the government.

To improve the quality of service, but also to adjust to the EU, in the early period of the civil service (established in 1998), the following training needs of the civil servants came to the forefront: a) good knowledge of foreign languages, b) open communication and e-information skills, c) teamwork within the civil service, d) the Internet skills, e) high level of professional ethics, f) good knowledge of the Polish and EU legislations. The reflection of the needs were the 2001 training priorities set by Head of the Civil Serviceforthe central training: a) support for activities building the civil service ethos, b) implementation of harmonised personnel management standards in the government administration (the training was targeted to civil servants employed in the human resource management offices and departments and to managers at higher and middle levels, c) organisation of work in the government administration and selected public managementtools allowing to learn about and to apply European standards of work and thus preparingthe servants to operate after Poland becomes a Member State.

Being an expert requires a series of additional training courses –apart from those indicated – covering also socio-economic policy, market determinants of development, strategic planning, knowledge and change management and others. At the same time, management-related training is necessary to attain goal four, i.e.efficient management of the administration. In fact, broader management knowledge is important, including the management of human resources (HRM), finance, understanding of the profit and loss account, etc.In other words, the target is a sensible application of the new public managementconcept with its three values: effectiveness, efficiency and economy.

In the „Civil Service Training Strategy for the Years 2004-2007” (Biuletyn...2004, p. 29) four priorities have been set:

  1. Counteracting corruption – strengthening the civil service ethos;
  2. Ensuring a high level of knowledge and skills regarding the general standards of work, management, monitoring and control;
  3. Ensuring efficient functioning of the civil service in the administrative sphere of Europe;
  4. Training management and effective training policy.

The „Strategy” concerns the whole body of civil servants, but it specifically targets those holding positions that are the key to the attainment of the strategic goals. Senior servants in the public administration draw a variety of opinions (Gintowt-Jankowicz, 2001/2002). On one hand, they are appreciated as a guarantor of the continuity of administration and of the state’s policy, irrespective of whatever changes in the government take place; they are also recognized for their mobility and for their conclusive role in overcoming divisions in the civil service, in developing and improving the leadership skills and initiating the implementation of new technologies. On the other hand, some concerns arise from the standardisation risk related to the emergence of a group of persons who think alike and thus run a risk of losing their innovativeness and creativity, who act in a stable environment and, by assumption, are safe from any turbulences caused by the changing governments. Also the senior civil servants’ developing the clientele attitude and treating the society exclusively as aclient for some type of services may give rise to certain concerns. Consequently, the range of courses offered to civil servants within the training system should be put together in view of lifting barriers that can become a threat to new public management.

Among the training priorities for years 2004-2007 we can find counteracting corruption, as an important element of shaping professional ethics and an essential step towards the implementation of the ethical management modelin the civil service,and the training policy. The pursuance of the two goals is expected to improve the civil service quality of work in its substantial and ethical aspects. The first priority supports the democratisation processes, since „...where public administrationis guided by the concept of universal values in adopting solutions, there it pursues the ideals of democracy„ (Rawls 1994, pp .76-77). The other indicates that training activities move to a higher level,where a training strategy defines priorities and allocates sets of training courses to each priority, assignsindividual courses to a target group of civil servants and fixes the dates for the courses to be conducted (see Annex 2). This stage is considerably different from the previous one, where the general (elementary)training prevailed, consuming over 81% of the total training expenditures in the civil service in 2000, and 68% and 69%in the years 2001 and 2002, respectively (see Table 1), (foreign languages and IT training were taught). It is also different in its accentuating the need for efficient organisation and comprehensive evaluationof training effectiveness and management of training funds based on cost effectiveness. On one hand, the amount of the funds is somewhat growing and, on the other, courses address servants that have already met the basic quality standards and now have to comply with more demanding standards and to face new challenges. Priorities two and three expand the previously discussed general goals, but their sets of courses are modified. This is particularly the case of priority three, as a consequence of Poland’s membership in the EU and her participation in Community decisions, access to the aid funds, etc.It becomes necessary therefore to learn about the mechanisms that govern the processes and about appropriate procedures.

Table 1. The civil service training, years 2001-2003

Specification / 2001 / 2002 / 2003
1. Average number of staff / 77 492 / 44 000 / 39 096
2. Number of training courses / 6 714 / 15 306 / 18 462
3. Number of civil servants covered by central training / 43 905 / 89 161 / 109 896
4. Persons trained under the preparatory service / . / 1 471 / 1 677
incl. central training / . / 1 380 / 1 527
5. Training expenditures as a % of the wage fund / 1.2 / 1.25 / 1.69
6. Expenditures on general training (% of the total training money) / 81 / 68 / 69
7. Training budget per person (PLN):
central administration / 570 / 503 / 699
regional administration / 254 / 249 / 317.8
8. % of expenditures on foreign languages teaching in the training
budget
headquarters / 30 / 15.2 / 20.0
regions / . / 6.5 / 6.5
9. % of the training budget allocated to IT and computer training:
headquarters / 9.5 / 5 / 5
regions / . / 1.8 / 4.1

Source: Head of the Civil ServiceReports, years 2001-2003.