Politics Harming Relationship Between Governments and Civil Servants: Report
Tensions between politically appointed government ministers and civil service employees are rising globally.
That’s the takeaway from new research by the Global Government Forum.
In its report, Making Government Work: Five pillars of a modern, effective civil service, former UK Cabinet Secretary Lord Gus O’Donnell interviewed 12 senior civil service leaders from governments around the world to get their thoughts on the state of the civil service. The interviewee from the United States was Dustin Brown, the now former Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Deputy Assistant Director for Management.
Five Pillars of a Modern, Effective Civil Service
The report identified five pillars that are key to making government work:
Strong leadership with mutual respect and alignment between ministers and senior officials.
Building a highly skilled, inclusive and thriving public sector workforce.
Fostering an agile, digital, and risk-taking culture focused on delivery.
Implementing working structures that transcend organizational silos.
Cultivating a service trusted by its users and the public.
However, the report found that politics is interfering with a variety of these pillars.
In fact, it found that populist politics is making it difficult to speak truth to power and is in turn straining the relationship between civil servants and ministers.
“Officials find themselves torn between serving the requests of ministers seeking quick political solutions and upholding their ‘stewardship’ function as public servants working in the nation’s long-term interest,” noted the report.
It also flagged global issues such as conflicts, the transition to net zero, ageing populations, and the post-COVID recovery as putting additional strains and pressures on the civil servant workforce.
“It’s a complicated working environment right now, honestly. It’s as complicated as anything I’ve seen in my professional career, and that has pretty significant effects,” said one unnamed survey participant.
Solutions
To improve the civil service/government relations, the report suggested a number of options.
Those include a need to dismantle structural barriers in the way government agencies are organized, a need to effectively utilize new technology such as artificial intelligence (AI), a need to push governments to continue to hire the best and brightest, and a need to reestablish trust with the public they serve. The report notes that taking some of these actions will break down silos and spur innovation.
“The role of Cabinet secretary and head of the civil service can be a lonely one as our only serving peers can be found abroad,” said Lord O’Donnell. “That is why this initiative is so important – it allows for these leaders to share their challenges and insights candidly to help each other. Now, more than ever, we need to build a public service that can deliver for elected politicians and build capabilities that are in the long-term, public interest.”
