Image and attractivity of central government administrations in Europe.

Desk review

Joint TUNED / EUPAE ProjectWorking group meeting. Brussels 29 March 2012

dr Robert Sobiech

Institute of Applied Social Sciences

Warsaw University

The aim

The desk review is the first part of TUNED / EUPAE project and is aimed at :Reconstructing of key dimensions of the image of central government administrations. Presentation of changes in public perception of central government administrations in the period of 2000-2011.

The aim

Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Spain, the UK

Overview of public perception, employees and employers of central government administrations in the following 13 EU member-states:

Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary,

Two perspectives

A) Public administration from the perspective of citizens/users. – Citizens’ trust in the public administration. Opinions on

functioning of public administration.– Citizens/users evaluations of public services.– Opinions on competencies, performance and integrity of

civil servants.– Citizens/users opinions on what functioning well and

what is not functioning.

Two perspectives

B) Perception of attractiveness of public administration as a workplace.– Social status of public administration employees. – Perception of attractiveness of public administration as a

workplace (citizens/civil servants opinions). – Job satisfaction in public administration (key motivators

and de-motivators).

Image of public administration institutional messages

Review of the main messages concerning the image of public administrations and recommendations for necessary improvements conveyed by the European Commission and international organizations.

Key communication problem

“As a form of governance, bureaucracy has had such great success in transforming the world that most citizens of industrial nations may have difficulty imagining a world without it. But just as bureaucracy has tamed the world, the world now seeks to tame bureaucracy. Bureaucracy seems to have few friends and millions of critics”.

• Bozeman

Perspective of citizens-users

Citizens’ trust in the public administration. Opinions on functioning of public administration.

Confidence – key problem

In most of countries less than 50% of citizens trust their civil service

Only in Luxemburg, France and Belgium confidence in the civil service declared around 55%-70% citizens

Trust in public administration is positively related with level of GDP, disparities in national wealth distribution, level of social capital as well as with approval for democratic institutions and norms

How is public administration run?Only in 5 countries more than 50% of citizens trust their civil service and have a positive opinion on the way public administration is run

The worst image in Greece and Romania

Evaluation of public administration

6,9%

4,6%

20,7%

16,6%

40,3%

40,2%

26,4%

31,4%

3,4%

3,6%3,7%

2,3%state

administrationoffices

self-governmentadministration

offices

very bad

rather bad

neither bad or good

rather good

very good

difficult to say

ITALYEvaluation of work of:

POLAND

Positive 30%Negative28%

Evaluation of public administrationHas situation in state government offices changed

in last 5 years?

rather worsened8,9%

neither improved nor

worsened46,5%

improved a lot3,5%

worsened a lot1,7%

difficult to say17,6%

rather improved21,9%

ITALY POLAND

Citizens/users evaluations of public services.

Satisfaction with public services citizens’ opinions

NORWAY

Satisfaction with public services citizens’ opinions

SPAIN

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Justice Unemployment benefits

Management

Pensions Infrastructure Services related with public

safety

Social Services Education Public Hospitals Health Centers Public Transportation

Satisfied Disatisfied

Source: AEVAL (2011): Public Administration on Citizens’ Judgment (forthcoming).

Satisfaction with public services in Spain (2010)

State actions vs. service delivery citizens vs. users

FRANCE

State activites / l'action de l'Etat Users satisfaction / Usagers satisfaction globale

Satisfaction with public services users’ opinions The UKPublic Sector Service Satisfaction Index

(SSI)

Opinions on competencies, performance and integrity of civil servants

Public opinion about civil servants France

Respondents who had contact with the civil servants honest (75%) competent (69%)dedicated to the public service (67%) attentive (63%)

TNS Sofres 2011

General public - positive opinion on:state civil servants (71%) local civil servants (74%)hospital civil servants (91%)

IPSOS 2011

Public opinion about civil servantsPoland

General public opinion competent (54%) friendly to the clients (50%)not enough committed (35%)diligent (42%)impartial (36%) politically neutral (30%)

ARC 2011

Opinions on civil servants met during last visit to the office competent (83%)friendly and helpful (81%)served in professional and diligent way (81%)efficiently conducted all formalities (79%)

ARC 2011

Attractiveness of public administration as a workplace

Social status of public administration employees

Public opinion on attractiveness of public administration

Is state government administration as an attractive workplace for young people?

total „yes” answers in 2011

61%

FRANCE POLAND

Imagine your child wants to become a civil servant, would you encourage him/her?

Total „yes” answers

2006 – 82%

2007 – 77%

2008 – 68%

IPSOS

Would advise your friend to take a job in state government administration office?

total „yes” answers in 2011

48%

No opinion – 40%

ARC

Attractiveness of public administration among civil servants

Civil servants (employees, line managers and top

managers)Demmke 2008

Total „yes” answers 61%

40% respondents - career development policies are better in the private sector

25% respondents -career development policies are better in the private sector

Public vs. private sector

Finnish civil servants: job security (68% vs. 3%)balancing work and private life (37% vs. 17%)possibility to influence on society’s development (36% vs. 10%)flexible working time (33% vs. 18%) equality between sexes (32% vs. 11%).

State outperforms private sector in:

Finnish citizens:job security (state 59% vs. 4%) possibility to influence society’s development (30% vs. 8%) equality between sexes (24% vs. 12%)

Public vs. private sector

Finnish state government

administration

Job satisfaction in the public sector

Belgium (2003) 72% of federal employees satisfied with their work. 51% satisfied with their employer (the federal public service). 58% proud of being employee of the public administration.

France (2011) 72% of state civil servants satisfied with a current job.Netherlands (2002) 70% of public employees satisfied with the content of their work.Austria (1999) 76% of federal public sector employees are satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs.

Motivation in the public sector

% very motivated + rather motivated

What is your level of motivation in your current job?

France – state civil servants

IPSOS (2011) comaparative research on 51 000 civil servants from 34 countries (Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brasil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, USA, Venezuela

Image of public administration - institutional messages

European CommissionModernisation of public administration is a key part of the Europe 2020 strategy and one of five priorities for 2012.Public administration is a determining element of competitiveness as well as an important productivity factor. Even in the times of austerity measures, modernisation of public administration shall continue in order to face existing challenges and ensure benefits from the advantages of EU membership for the citizens.

„Annual Growth Survey 2012”. European Commission COM(2011) 815

Image of public administration - institutional messages

European Commission

Room for an improvement:increase the efficiency in delivering public service.increase transparency of public administration activities. achieve a high level of quality of public administration.

„Annual Growth Survey 2012”. European Commission COM(2011) 815

Image of public administration - institutional messages

OECDRaising attractiveness of public administration needs „a comprehensive investment in building a positive and credible image of the public sector work and working conditions”.

„“Public Service as an Employer of Choice” (2000) OECD Policy Brief

Image of public administration - institutional messages

SIGMA (Support for Improvement in Governance and Management) -joint initiative of the OECD and the European Union. „The public sector as a whole (...), has been the target of merciless attacks from certain politicians, parts of academia, certain think tanks and media with the aim of weakening its legitimacy”.(...) this denigration [ of the state] has had a negative impact on the perception of the public bureaucracy and therefore on the attractiveness of the public service”.Rebuilding trust in the state requires fostering the legitimacy of the state as well as restoring the good reputation of the structures of the state”.

Cardona F „Attractiveness of the Public Service. A Matter of Good Public Governance” (2009). SIGMA. OECD

Image of public administration - institutional messages

United Nations Programme on Public Administration and Development .

Modern public administration maintains confidence in the stability and continuity of the state, ensure professionalism, integrity, impartiality, legality necessary to meet the state goals as well to implement the internationally agreed development goals.Focus on transparency, efficiency and effectiveness with a strong commitment to be accountable to their citizens. One of the key task is to counterbalance negative image of public administration, raise the image and prestige of public servants.

Conclusions

The key problem of the public image is relatively low level of trust in public administration. In majority of the studied countries less than half of citizens have trust in their administration. Trust in public administration is related, on one side with conditions of living, disparities in national wealth distribution, level of social capital, on the other side with trust in the government, approval for democratic institutions and norms.

Conclusions

Confidence in public administration seems to be deeply rooted in specific socio-economic context of each country and reflects complex citizens-state relations. Public trust should be perceived more as an effect of a long term processes than a result of sudden political or economic changes or turbulences. Negative opinions and public disappointment observed at the level of general opinions toward public administration as a part of the state machinery are modified in other dimensions of the public administration image.

Conclusions

The shorter the distance (both in symbolic space and in real conditions) between citizens and public administration, the better assessment of its performance, greater satisfaction from the service delivered and higher evaluation of the civil servants. Despite dominant negative stereotypes public administration enjoys a relatively high social prestige and it is perceived as a interesting, desirable place for professional career for family members and close friends as well as for the young people.

Conclusions

The review has revealed a high level of job satisfaction and strong public sector motivation for work among the public administration employees. Due to the limited availability of national studies and scarcity of comparative research in the area, the review was largely based on studies conducted in the EU old member states-countries, e.g. countries with well developed democratic system, high level of social capital, high level of national wealth and relatively low disparities in national income distribution Positive opinions on civil servants’ competencies, satisfaction with service delivery, attractiveness of public sector or high job satisfaction among public sector employees might be to some extent obscured by the non-representative selection of the reviewed studies.

Conclusions

The review was focused on quantitative data leaving aside the qualitative perspective, which usually offers in-depth understanding of the studied phenomena.The further study should provide an opportunity to deepen the knowledge on public perception as well on attitudes of public sector employees, enabling to discover key insights and undiscovered beliefs as well as explaining the impact of the intermediary institutions (media, politicians, trade unions) on image of public administration.