Balancing Narrow and Broad Public Service Professionalism: Experience With the New Zealand G-REG Qualifications Framework

• Date: 01 March 2021
• Author: Jeroen van der Heijden
• Published date: 01 March 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/0095399720949854
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399720949854

Administration & Society

2021, Vol. 53(3) 410 –438

© The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/0095399720949854

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Article

Balancing Narrow and

Broad Public Service

Professionalism:

Experience With the

New Zealand G-REG

Qualifications Framework

Jeroen van der Heijden1,2

Abstract

For many years, governments around the globe have been called on to

increase the professionalism of their public services. The New Zealand

Government Regulatory Practice Initiative (G-REG) is an illustrative

example of a network of government agencies responding to this call

by providing a program of standardized training for public servants. This

article maps, explores, and interrogates this example to obtain a better

understanding of whether a standardized program can help to nurture and

increase the professionalism of a community of public servants. It finds

that the main challenge of such an undertaking is finding a balance between

narrow professionalism (technical expertise and knowledge) and broad

professionalism (acting proficiently and ethically).

Keywords

regulatory delivery, regulatory practice, public service training, public service

skills, narrow professionalism, broad professionalism

1Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

2Australian National University, New Zealand

Corresponding Author:

Jeroen van der Heijden, Professor, Chair of Regulatory Practice, School of Government, Victoria

University of Wellington, 23 Lambton Quay, Pipitea Campus, Wellington 6011, New Zealand.

Email: jeroen.vanderheijden@vuw.ac.nz

949854AASXXX10.1177/0095399720949854Administration & Societyvan der Heijden

research-article2020

van der Heijden 411

Introduction

Over the last decade and around the globe, we have witnessed ongoing

calls from policymakers, public servants, and scholars for the increased

professionalism of public service delivery (Chen et al., 2019; Grugulis &

Vincent, 2009; Nhede, 2018; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and

Development [OECD], 2017; Wang et al., 2019). More and more, those

working in public services are expected to have specialized knowledge in

public service delivery and to apply this knowledge ethically for the good of

the broader society (Bøgh Andersen & Holm Pedersen, 2012; Dyer, 2018).

Such calls for increased public service professionalism fit well with the

broader calls for innovation, creativity, and continuous improvement in the

organization and functioning of government that have been dominating

public administration discourses since the 1980s—such as New Public

Management, New Public Governance, and Post-Bureaucracy (Budd, 2006;

Johnson et al., 2009; Osborne & Gaebler, 1992).

Although these normative calls for increased public service professional-

ism have been made repeatedly on the pages of public administration books

and journals, we lack insight into how governments around the globe are

living up to them (OECD, 1997, 2017). This article seeks to address this

knowledge gap through an in-depth case study of the G-REG qualifications

framework (G-REG is the New Zealand Government Regulatory Practice

Initiative, which is a network of government agencies that aims to increase the

professionalism of regulatory practice). Introduced in 2016, this framework is

a set of formal and standardized training programs for a broad group of public

servants engaged in regulatory practice in New Zealand. The framework is

illustrative of a response to the long-standing criticism that public servants

often have specialist training in a profession but lack professional knowledge

of government and public administration (cf. Wilson, 1893); it is also illustra-

tive of a response to the long-standing criticism that professional training is

often not an integrated part of the public service process (cf. Caldwell, 1962).

The central question addressed in this article is whether (and, if so, how) a

standardized program, such as the G-REG qualifications framework, can

help to nurture and increase the professionalism of a community of public

servants. In the remainder of this article, first, the link between formal train-

ing and professionalism in public service delivery is further explored. After

this, the background to the G-REG initiative and its qualifications framework

are discussed. A brief discussion of the research methodology is presented,

followed by the main insights from the case study. The article concludes with

a discussion and an overview of the main lessons learnt from this case study

for public administration scholarship and practice. In sum, the G-REG