This Public Service Course will empower you adequate knowledge and awareness to be able to drive standard setting within your organisation to ensure better service delivery to citizens, ultimately resulting in higher customer satisfaction.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
- The necessary understanding and information of principles and concepts related to standard setting in the public services
- The capability and confidence to drive the setting of standards for various aspects of the organisation
- Adequate skill and knowledge to not only ensure standard-setting and implementation but also audit adherence to the same across all employees in the organisation
- Exposure, experience and information to review standards and make relevant changes, when needed
- The required experience, exposure and confidence to undertake additional roles and responsibilities concerning standard-setting and adherence within the organisation and outside
- A sense of pride in delivering consistently high-quality services to citizens, thus contributing to an improvement in their quality of life
COURSE OUTLINE
The Good Governance in Public Service course will cover the following areas that are critical for appropriate and successful standard setting in the public services:
Types of Standards
- Ethical
- Performance
- Accounting
- Financial management
Seven Principles Supporting Standard Setting
- Selflessness
- Integrity
- Objectivity
- Accountability
- Transparency
- Truthfulness
- Leadership
Sources of Information for Defining Standards
- Management
- Employees
- Existing and potential customers
- Lost customers
- Competitors
- Regulatory authorities
Advantages of Good Ethical Standards
- Better outcome for society with fair public spending
- Low levels of corruption
- Benefits to the economy and increase in economic efficiency
- Consistent and customer-oriented work culture
Good Governance Standards
- Focus on organisational objectives and outcome for citizens
- Effective performance across roles and functions
- Demonstration of value through good behaviour
- Informed, transparent decisions
- Managed risks
- Enhanced organisational capacity and capability
Government as a Standard Setter
- Advantages
- No conflict of interest
- Better compliance because of the rule of law backing
- More responsiveness to public interest
- Disadvantages
- Political influence
- Lengthy and rigid standard regulation process
- Lack of objectivity in standards set
Private Sector as a Standard Setter
- Advantages
- High-quality talent for standard-setting
- No political influence or interference
- Increased flexibility and faster responsiveness
- Disadvantages
- Susceptibility to inefficiency
- Influence of vested individual interests
- No backing of rule of law for enforcement
Agencies as a Standard Setter
- Advantages
- Support of government and legislature
- Availability of technical expertise with professionals
- High efficiency
- Reduced costs
- More accountability towards society
- Disadvantages
- Arbitrary functioning
- Careless staff/personnel
- Political and government pressure and influence
