Introduction
Competencies are integral to employees understanding expectations in their roles, demonstrating key behaviours, and taking necessary steps to enhance their proficiency levels. Basic personal competencies differ from professional skills as they allude to personality traits, such as adaptability, dependability, problem-solving, motivation, and analytical skills, rather than technical skills needed to perform a specific role. Basic personal competencies enable employees to focus on training and development opportunities, which will facilitate them to grow and strive for excellence. The competencies are especially essential for those moving into a new job, especially employees with the ambition to grow in their careers.
Regardless of whether an organization is private or public, it is dependent on the effectiveness and efficiency of its people to meet its mission objectives. Civil servants play crucial roles as they perform the onerous role of administering entire countries and ensuring citizens receive attention and well-being at all times. Basic personal competencies refer to a unique set of skills, abilities, and qualities possessed by civil servants to effectively perform and deliver their roles and responsibilities.
There are several basic personal competencies that are integral to public sector employees successfully completing their tasks. For example, good communication skills facilitate effective collaboration, understanding, and conveying instructions or policies to others. Another basic competency is interpersonal skills, which refer to the ability to establish positive relationships and develop synergy with colleagues, superiors, and other stakeholders. Interpersonal skills enable civil servants to demonstrate empathy and respect towards others and promote teamwork, cooperation, and effective engagement with the public. Another aspect is problem-solving and critical thinking, which is the capacity to analyze complex issues, identify root causes, and develop creative and logical solutions. Strong problem-solving and critical thinking skills enable civil servants to make informed decisions and overcome challenges. Adaptability and flexibility refer to the ability to adjust to changing circumstances, work in diverse environments, and embrace new technologies or procedures. Adaptability and flexibility help civil servants navigate dynamic situations and respond to evolving needs. Time management and organization is the skill to manage tasks, set priorities, and meet deadlines efficiently. Effective time management and organizational skills ensure productivity, timely completion of projects, and the ability to handle multiple responsibilities. Ethical behaviour and integrity refer to the commitment to act ethically, maintain high moral standards, and demonstrate honesty, transparency, and impartiality. Ethical behaviour and integrity are crucial for civil servants to uphold public trust and maintain credibility. Resilience and stress management is another basic personal competency that refers to the ability to cope with pressure, setbacks, and challenging situations while maintaining focus and emotional stability. Resilience and stress management skills help civil servants handle demanding work environments and maintain well-being. Finally, self-motivation and initiative which is the drive to take responsibility, show initiative, and strive for continuous improvement. Self-motivation and initiative enable civil servants to go beyond their assigned tasks, identify opportunities for improvement, and contribute positively to their organizations.
In recent years, the public administration literature on employees’ basic competencies’ influence on daily activities outcomes has been growing, focusing on the construct’s antecedents and the implications on employees and their organizations. The studies provide sound theoretical and practical contributions to understanding the importance of basic personal competencies and their influence on their activities outcomes. The dynamic nature of today’s workplaces means updating traditional frameworks to allow employees to fulfil their professional mandate as civil servants. The sector is experiencing challenges attracting the best talent from the private labour market as it is viewed as needing to be more flexible and responsive to employees’ needs. The modern labour market requires civil servants who exhibit high professionalism and are constantly willing to update and enrich their knowledge, abilities, and skills (Vernon, 2014). The effective functioning of any government department requires proper organizational structure combined with professionals who utilize their basic personal competencies to ensure the successful fulfilment of their roles. There is an urgent need for enhanced efficiency in the public sector, which can be achieved by optimizing the personal competencies of civil servants.
Problem Statement
The solution to the professional development needs of employees working in the government sector should begin with studying the person as a personality. Several researchers define personality differently, with one school of thought considering the concept as the combination of distinct properties and social roles designated to a specific individual. Conversely, other researchers understand a person as a construct of the social environment, which is achieved through inculcating socially significant traits developed during direct and indirect interaction with other people (Kalenichenko & Vlasova, 2019). The definition makes a person subject to work, communication, and cognition. Deducing on the definitions, personality can be described as the stable socially developed psychological traits, which determine moral actions, manifest in relationships and public relations, and are essential to the individual and others.
Existing empirical and theoretical studies differentiate between the methodological and theoretical premises of professional and personal development in civil servants. The studies enable the definition of professionally important qualities, which are integral to the development of the psychological system of activity. The professionally essential qualities can be described as the internal psychological characteristics of the individual, which reflect the distinct influences of a specific work process (Aamodt, 2022). The professional requirements for personality reflect the primary characteristics of the personality structure, which are essential in determining the motivational value, psychomotor, cognitive, and emotional-volitional psychological foundations of the system activity.
Modern theoretical analysis enables the drawing of the conclusion that personal traits required for professional activity can be divided into several groups (Henderson et al., 2021). The first group is the psychological characteristics, such as mental states, memory, attention, and emotional traits, that allow for the appropriateness of the profession. The second distinction is the psychological traits, for example, commitment, initiative, and perseverance, among others, correlated to the attitude and performance of the activity. The third category is the psychological characteristics, such as proper emotional management, the ability to self-evaluate, and self-criticism, which are related to self-attitude. Professional activities of civil servants are peculiar as they are characterized by distinct essential qualities, which are critical to professional competency, for example, emotional leadership, adaptability, social roles integration, stress management, interaction, and desire for dominance.
Perry and Wise initially conceptualized the concept of public service motivation (PSM) in 1990 as distinct from the construct of work motivation (Meng et al., 2019). As proponents of public service motivation, they argue that the drawing factor for individuals to the public service sector is the altruistic motives that are not present among employees in the private sector. Similarly, they argue that public sector employees display unique motives because the public sector exhibits unique characteristics. The differences between the public and private sectors, such as market forces and bureaucratization, impact the orientation of the workplaces in many ways. For instance, public service employees tend to be subject to legal and political constraints, which private organization employees may not be placed on, leading to the perception of decreased job contentment and diminished control over their careers in the civil service sector.
Furthermore, employees in the civil service do not enjoy huge economic gains compared to their counterparts in the private sector, which can be a factor that determines their incentive to be more productive (Vidè et al., 2022). As a result of these challenges in the public sector, civil servants exhibit a unique set of basic personal competencies that enable them to remain engaged in their roles. Consequently, it is challenging to determine the true nature of the impact of basic personal competencies of civil servants on the outcome of their activities, enabling scholars to derive conclusions on the antecedents and consequences.
Research Methods
The current study utilized secondary research methods to conclude whether civil servants’ basic personal competencies impact their activities’ outcomes. The studies focused on the impact of the five main personality factors, including agreeableness, extraversion, consciousness, neuroticism, and openness, on the outcome of their activities. The self-development readiness test developed by VI. Pavlov helps determine the readiness to engage in self-development, indicated by the motivation to understand oneself better and the actions taken to self-develop. The self-development readiness test contains fourteen questions, which must be answered with “yes” or “no.” The test for diagnosis of achievement motivation is designed to deduce two common personality motives. It includes the motivation to pursue success and the intention to avoid failure. The test is vital in assessing which of the two motives are dominant among civil servants.
Results and Discussion
The study by Kalenichenko and Vlasova (2019) focused on discerning how the personality characteristics of employees of the State Employment Service of Ukraine affected their motivation to develop themselves. They utilized the five main personality factors presented in the current study. Using the Big Five methodology, the minimum number of points scored in each questionnaire section was fifteen, while the maximum score was seventy-five points. The extraversion factor scale was used to indicate the level of extraversion among civil servants. The public sector employees included in the study were found to have an average level of extraversion of forty-seven, which has been established to be a high score. The score indicates that the employees are sociable and enjoy collective activities and entertainment.
Additionally, the high score on the extraversion test indicates that public service employees have many friends and acquaintances, need to communicate and enjoy good times with other people, and prefer to work on their studies. They tend to be acute, risk, and act impulsively and recklessly (Jaracz et al., 2017). The level of extraversion test scores indicate these individuals exhibit weakened control over their actions and feelings; hence they are prone to aggression and inflammation. These people are more concerned with how fast they can accomplish the task at hand, transforming monotonous tasks into a faster state of monotony. In most cases, the individual tends to burn out quickly (Irawan et al., 2018). They are jovial in the evening and are most productive in the afternoon.
The agreeableness scale helps discern the level of commitment and, by extension, the individuality of the civil servants. Civil servants who score highly on the factor indicate that the person exhibits a positive attitude toward others (Sheldon et al., 2017). These individuals experience the need to have a close relationship with other people, and in most cases, they are sensitive and kind. The state employees take their time to connect with other people, take personal responsibility for other people’s well-being, are tolerant of colleagues ‘shortcomings, are capable of empathizing, feel responsibility for enhancing the common cause, and they consciousness and responsibility when carrying out assumed tasks (Grubert et al., 2022). They try not to be in conflict when interacting with other people, do not prefer competition, and would rather be cooperative than compete.
The third factor considered in this analysis is conscientiousness, which indicates self-control among civil servants. The sub-factors considered include the level of impulsiveness and self-control. They allude to the traits of civil servants, including perseverance, accuracy, restraint, prudence, and responsibility (Wright et al., 2022). Civil servants who show an average score in impulsiveness and self-control indicate that they do not exhibit willpower in most instances and try to avoid unnecessary complications in their lives. The personalities showcase carelessness and natural behaviours and tend to take ill-considered actions. In most cases, these people will not persist in pursuing their goals and will take one day at a time without considering their future.
The fourth factor this analysis considers is neuroticism, which points to emotional resilience or instability. Civil servants who exhibit a high level of neuroticism tend to be unable to control their emotions and have a high probability of acting impulsively (Antunes et al., 2020). They lack a sense of responsibility, evade their realities, and exhibit capriciousness. When civil servants who exhibit high levels of neuroticism encounter stressful situations, the outcomes of their activities tend to suffer because of the accompanying psychological stress (Serafini et al., 2020). They are more vulnerable to failure than their counterparts and tend to have low self-esteem.
The last factor that results were considered to determine the influence of essential personal competencies on the outcome of activities of civil servants is openness. The factor points to the level of practical expressiveness. Civil servants who exhibit high levels of openness tend to showcase a light attitude to life (Ciobanu et al., 2019). These personalities have a carefree attitude and are irresponsible in most instances. They tend to conflict with their colleagues who are more calculative in their actions or apply themselves in the pursuit of well-being (Fogaça et al., 2018). Persons with high levels of neuroticism regard life as a game, thereby performing their duties in a manner that can be described as lacking severe application. Although these persons can learn quickly, they tend not to be serious enough to contribute to scientific activity; hence they do not enjoy great success in the field. When high levels of neuroticism are combined with low behavioural flexibility, the person experiences difficulties adapting to change.
Conclusion
The profiles of civil servants are essential in determining the outcome of their activities, which plays an integral role in their personal development. Several classical and modern studies on the nature of integration and mediation have yielded evidence on the peculiar structure of human individuality (Sugiono et al., 2021). The studies emphasize the importance of acme logical development of persons to enable them to escape harmful emotional states and the accompanying destructive personalities, stress, and psychosomatic disorders. A limited number of studies have focused on determining the impact of essential personal competencies on the outcome of their activities, especially from the perspective of the civil servant. Due to the issues being understudied, there is a need for future research on this topic.
The results of the several studies in the current analysis indicate a need to support self-development among public sector employees. The civil servants included in the studies exhibit a reduced motivation to develop themselves, and most of them are motivated by the need to avoid failure but not the need to achieve success. Due to the low level of achievement motivation, the prediction is that it impacts the quality of their workflow (Godinić et al., 2020). The results indicate a high likelihood of employees working in the public sector having personality traits such as openness, sociability, light-hearted attitude to life, and high levels of impulsiveness. They tend to avoid competition, are not persistent in their activities, and show low self-esteem. They tend to doubt their abilities, especially in stressful situations and are sensitive to change as they experience difficulties adapting. These factors explain the civil servants’ low desire to invest in their self-development.
Self-motivation is crucial in optimizing the acme-logical development of the person and preventing harmful emotional states, reducing operating tension, anxiety, and annihilation of psychosomatic and personality disorders. The concerns discussed in the current study are understudied, especially from the perspective of civil servants, which shows the importance of future researchers focusing on the topic. Civil servants must receive the necessary support to develop themselves as a person’s identifying qualities, behaviour tenets, norms, societal roles, and values are cultivated throughout their lives. Understanding the competency profiles of each civil servant will enable management to match each employee to roles that are most suitable to them. The advantages include improved job performance and well-being of the civil servants. Individuals with high levels of emotional intelligence tend to be more empathic and actively oriented to the need of others. They are more likely to go out of their way to meet the needs of others and show a high commitment to the public interest.
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