Public Adminsitration and Professionalism

Public Administration and Professionalism
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PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND PROFESSIONALISM
Over the years since the introduction of the first graduate program in public administration, the field has gone through various scrutiny and evolutions. From the debate on whether to make it a profession or not to present where a local district has been forcing its employees in the public administration to choose between their job and the positions on elected school boards. This follows a policy prohibiting the government employees from taking political positions. Further, the policy prohibits employees from the municipal from serving on the associations in the local community, federal as well as the provincial constituency associations. Reeve said that the policy is in efforts to ensure put a clear distinction between the municipal district and the organizations it deals with in terms of finances and politics (Negoita, Palade, & KES. 2003).
Therefore, here in is a discussion on the policy of the municipal employees and its relevance in ensuring professionalism in the field of public administration in relation to aspects such as the traditional values of public administration, management values, new public management values, ethic of structure and ethic of neutrality, and ICMA code of ethics. The policy goes too far in prohibiting the employees from the municipal district to participate in other local community activities (Ranga, Sinha, & Indian Public Administration Association. 1987).
Despite the fact that over the years scholars have revised and considered various attributes of professions, there is no one common definition of professionalism and what elements constitute professions (Bowman, & Menzel, 1998). However, generally a profession refers to as a special kind of occupation where occupation is a kind of work that comprises various duties and tasks in various industries and organizations performed in order to earn a living by individuals with competence, ability and expertise that is based on education, personal attributes, experience and training. Therefore, it is vital for the government employees and civil servants especially the individuals in the public administration to be of high professionalism (Bowman, 2004). On the other hand, local government administration comprises of thousands of public servants who are employed by the local government in the country. Various members of the public department are in various levels and departments such as planners, engineers, librarians, lawyers and accountants among others. However, the question stands, is the implementation of the policy prohibiting government employees from having political stand and not engaging in the local community association effective in enhancing professionalism in the public administration field?
Talking of professionalism, people have a traditional model at the back of their minds, the traditional model that was used to establish occupations such as medicine and law among others. The traditional values are crucial in the enhancement of professionalism in the local governments (Ranga, Sinha, & Indian Public Administration Association. 1987). They include values such as accountability where all professionals are expected to be accountable in their fields and occupation, neutrality: this required the employees to have a neutral stand in relation to political opinions, responsiveness, representativeness, equity and consistency.
These traditional values are laid on several elements namely the mastery of relatively defined body of practical and theoretical skills and knowledge relevant to a specific occupation. The other value is the ability to apply that skill and knowledge in solving complex and important problems that may arise in the field of operation, and a system of controlling the profession and that regulates the education of new members in the field and the observing the code of ethic through sanctions upon the involved parties. Therefore, it is important for the government to invest on the development of these values among the members of the public service or rather public administration field in the municipal government. This will enable the public servants to commit themselves into becoming more of professions hence improving their service (Bowman, 2004). This is contrary to the policy prohibiting them from participating on the political affairs in the local government. Interaction of the public servants with the other organizations such as school boards, public health units, utility commissions and library boards among others, helps them in developing their skills further and gain experience. Further, most of these organizations are non-profit making and they partner with the local governments in order to improve and develop the society. Therefore, the implementation of the policy is not fair not only to the employees in the public service but also to the community and the local government.
The existence of the new public management values brought severe criticism on the traditional values to professionalism (Bowman, 2004). The concept of public management argued that in order to achieve the standard professionalism in the public administration, managers should be allowed to manage the projects within the public service (Ranga, Sinha, & Indian Public Administration Association. 1987). However, the concept started gaining support from the scholars and practitioners in the late twentieth century. The concept of new public management (NPM) advocated for reforms such as to clearly distinguishing betwe...