Problems of local government personnel quality

Territory Years 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Russian Federation 8 8 9 9 9 10 11 11 12 North-West federal district 8 8 9 9 9 11 11 12 12 Republic of Karelia 10 9 11 11 11 12 13 14 14 Republic of Komi 9 9 10 11 11 13 14 15 15 Arkhangelsk region 9 9 10 10 11 12 13 13 13 including the Nenets autonomous okrug 20 20 24 25 26 28 30 32 31 Vologda region 9 9 10 10 11 12 14 15 15 Kaliningrad region 9 9 11 12 12 13 14 15 15 Leningrad region 8 8 9 9 9 9 9 9 10 Murmansk region 8 9 10 10 11 12 13 14 14 Novgorod region 10 10 11 12 12 13 15 16 16 Pskov region 11 11 13 14 14 16 17 17 17 St. Petersburg 5 5 6 6 6 7 8 8 8 Source: [Electronic resource]. – Access mode: the guidance and orders from above” [3]. To solve this task, municipalities and all local governments require professionals who possess a spatial economic thinking, who can see the specifics of their territory’s evolution as an integral complex system capable of evaluating the socio-economic, natural resources, scientific and technical, demographic, information potential, who are able to manage innovation processes and property [14].

Territory Executive authorities of the RF subjects Local government with the executive and administrative functions people staffing, % people staffing, % Russian Federation 200179 94.9 333487 95.9 Central rederal district 57117 95.1 78188 93.7 North-West federal district 21991 94.4 28198 94.4 Southern federal district 32429 95.7 46693 97.4 Volga federal district 37512 94.4 73356 96.9 Ural federal district 15819 96.3 30411 96.8 Siberian federal district 24460 94.4 55532 96.9 Far Eastern federal district 10851 94.0 21110 96.4 Source: [Electronic resource]. – Access mode:

Source: [Electronic resource]. – Access mode:

Total number of personnel of local governments that received additional professional training in 2008 amounted to 2.7 thousand people, i. e. 19% of the total number of state civil (municipal) employees of relevant authorities (tab. 5).

Table 5. Additional vocational training of employees having state and municipal positions (according to one-time survey)

Employees having state and municipal positions, positions of state civil and municipal services in state and local authorities	Received additional professional education
	People	% of the government (municipal) employees number
	2008	2008
Total employees	2720	18.9
Including in the bodies: state	2174	25.8
legislative	12	12.1
executive	2009	28.1
including: terr. bodies of federal ministries and departments	1624	36.5
regional	385	14.3
judiciary and prosecution services	146	13.2
other public bodies	7	7.8
local government	546	9.2
including: representative	13	12.0
local administration (executive and administrative)	432	9.3
control	1	5.6
other bodies	100	8.6

Source: Labor and employment in the Vologda region in 2008: bulletin / Vologdastat. – Vologda, 2009. – Pp. 111.

In the Vologda region Department of Civil Service and Personnel of the Government, together with a subsidiary of the North-West Academy of Public Service covered more than 1.5 thousand people by training in 2007. The branch trained 101 federal employees, 170 civil servants, 332 municipal employees. However, as can be seen from table 6 , training and education is characterized by short-form, there is no proper phasing and sequencing, active methods are poorly used. This is especially true of heads of rural settlements and municipal officials at district level.

The heads of local governments recognize that their own knowledge in certain areas is not enough, and estimate the level of their skills as

“satisfactory”: only 23% of heads of rural settlements, 44% of urban and 57% of municipal districts responded that it is sufficient to manage the municipality (tab. 7) . Moreover, despite the training and knowledge level, a significant number of governors (36%) have difficulty with the practical application of acquired knowledge.

Their lack of knowledge, as identified on the basis of the surveys, is most strongly felt in dealing with the legal and economic issues, in the field of state and municipal government, and in information technology use (tab. 8) .

Most of the local government heads (about 72% in rural areas, 89% in urban and 55% in

Table 6. Professional development of local government in the Vologda region in 2007

Forms of professional development	Heads of municipalities		Municipal employees
	people	% of total number	people	% of total number
Studied at the universities on specialty related to the execution of powers of the municipal office	14	3.8	332	6.2
Had a short professional development course (not less than 72 hours of training)	8	2.1	1500	28.0
Participated in the 1-2-day workshops, conferences, etc. on professional development	294	79.0	502	9.4
Received training abroad	-	-	12	0.2

Source: Reporting material of the Vologda region municipal authorities in 2007.

Table 7. The municipalities’ heads evaluation of their qualification level (in% of respondents)

Reply option	2006			2007			2008
	Urban settlements	Rural settlements	Municipal areas	Urban settlements	Rural settlements	Municipal areas	Urban settlements	Rural settlements	Municipal areas
Sufficient	33.3	20.8	50.0	50.0	22.8	68.8	44.4	23.3	57.1
Satisfactory	66.7	60.4	50.0	50.0	56.7	31.2	50.0	65.1	28.6
Insufficient	-	18.8	-	-	20.5	-	5.6	11.6	14.3

Source: Results of the Vologda region municipalities’ heads surveys, conducted by ITSED RAS in 2007 – 2009.

Table 8. The municipalities heads’ evaluation of municipal employees’ knowledge (% of respondents)

Response options to the question: “In what area do you think there is a lack of knowledge of municipal employees?”	2006			2007			2008
	Urban settlements	Rural settlements	Municipal areas	Urban settlements	Rural settlements	Municipal areas	Urban settlements	Rural settlements	Municipal areas
Economy	33.3	31.8	12.5	46.2	29.3	56.3	33.3	28.3	38.1
Legal issues	41.7	86.0	50.0	46.2	84.5	37.5	61.1	83.1	47.6
Personnel Management	-	8.4	-	-	5.0	37.5	16.7	8.7	14.3
State and municipal government	16.7	18.7	37.5	30.8	16.0	6.3	27.8	21.0	23.8
Information technology	41.7	37.4	37.5	38.5	44.2	50.0	50.0	34.2	33.3
Land and property management	-	-	-	-	-	-	22.2	46.2	33.3

Source: Results of surveys of the Vologda region municipalities’ heads conducted by ITSED RAS in 2007 – 2009.

Table 9. The municipalities heads’ evaluation of municipal employees’ skill level? (% of respondents)

Response option	Years
	2006			2007			2008
	Urban settlements	Rural settlements	Municipal areas	Urban settlements	Rural settlements	Municipal areas	Urban settlements	Rural settlements	Municipal areas
Sufficient	41.7	17.8	25.0	30.8	15.6	12.5	42.0	17.8	45.0
Satisfactory	58.3	69.1	75.0	61.5	70.0	75.0	58.0	72.2	55.0
Insufficient	-	13.1	-	7.7	14.4	12.5	-	10.0	-

Source: Results of surveys of the Vologda region municipalities’ heads conducted by ITSED RAS in 2007 – 2009.

municipal areas) estimate the level of professionalism of municipal employees (tab. 9) only as satisfactory.

Any management system should include assessment of management decisions effectiveness. In 2008 by Presidential Decree № 607 “On the evaluation of urban districts and municipal districts local authorities’ performance” was adopted with a list of relevant indicators. As a separate criterion it marked “population” satisfaction of the local authorities of urban district (municipal district)” [11].

Monitoring studies conducted by ITSED RAS from 2005 to 2009 in the North-West federal district2, provide an overview of the attitude

Table 10. Responses to the question: “How do you assess the current activities of... (% of the respondents, 2009)

Region	Response option
	Approve completely and mostly		Do not approve completely and mostly		Unfamiliar with the activity		Difficult to answer
	Heads of the local administration	Local government council	Heads of the local administration	Local government council	Heads of the local administration	Local government council	Heads of the local administration	Local government council
Leningrad region	39.5	29.7	36.0	20.2	9.4	21.4	15.1	28.7
Republic of Karelia	22.2	23.8	57.7	47.1	7.1	10.1	13.0	19.0
Vologda region	37.0	34.1	30.7	27.5	7.7	9.3	24.6	29.1
Arkhangelsk region	27.9	18.2	37.2	35.4	6.7	11.2	24.4	35.2
Saint Petersburg	20.4	15.0	33.7	28.9	18.2	21.4	27.7	34.7
Komi Republic	26.4	17.5	41.9	30.7	8.7	18.7	22.9	33.2
Murmansk region	31.7	25.0	31.5	25.6	9.8	15.1	27.0	34.3
Novgorod region	22.3	12.8	40.8	32.5	5.0	11.3	32.0	43.5
Pskov region	21.9	14.0	25.2	20.0	13.5	21.2	39.4	44.9
Kaliningrad region	10.5	7.8	44.8	41.8	20.0	17.3	24.8	33.3
NWFD average	26.0	20.4	38.0	32.0	11.0	14.8	25.1	32.9

Source: Public opinion monitoring ITSED RAS.

Table 11. Responses to the question “How do you assess the current activities of ... (position “approve completely and mostly”; % of respondents)

Authorities institute 2000 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 President of Russia 66.0 65.4 70.0 75.3 73.4 62.9 Region’s governor 56.1 51.1 48.8 55.8 56.5 44.8 Head of local administration 45.9 41.4 39.3 41.1 44.1 40.8 Regional Legislative Assembly 30.6 34.7 35.7 39.3 40.5 34.3 Local government council (municipal, regional Duma) 28.0 33.7 34.6 37.7 37.7 35.7 Source: Public opinion monitoring ITSED RAS. of the district’s subjects inhabitants to the work of local executive bodies. Prevailing among the inhabitants of NWFD is the proportion of those who “fully and basically do not approve” the work of local authorities (tab. 10).

NWFD regions can be divided into three groups according to the population’s estimates of the local administrations heads’ work:

– regions where the approving evaluations prevail over negative (Leningrad region, Vologda region);

– regions where the residents’ evaluations divided approximately equally (Murmansk region, Kaliningrad region, Pskov region);

– regions where the proportion of negative evaluations is more than positive (it’s the majority: Saint Petersburg, Komi Republic, Republic of Karelia, Arkhangelsk region, Novgorod region).

According to the research3 conducted by ITSED RAS, population’s estimate of the

Table 12. Key statistical indicators of the authorities’ approval

Power structure 2000 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 RF President’s The expectation 2.94 2.90 3.02 3.12 3.11 2.94 Standard deviation 0.71 0.76 0.69 0.68 0.66 0.73 Region’s governor’s The expectation 2.84 2.65 2.64 2.77 2.79 2.66 Standard deviation 0.77 0.79 0.76 0.73 0.73 0.79 Local administration head’s The expectation 2.62 2.49 2.46 2.52 2.59 2.58 Standard deviation 0.83 0.83 0.79 0.78 0.81 0.83 Regional Legislative Assembly’s The expectation 2.50 2.45 2.50 2.60 2.68 2.60 Standard deviation 0.77 0.80 0.74 0.71 0.71 0.77 Government council’s (municipal, regional Duma) The expectation 2.48 2.47 2.47 2.53 2.58 2.55 Standard deviation 0.83 0.83 0.78 0.76 0.78 0.81 Source: Public opinion monitoring ITSED RAS. power structures of regional and local levels in the Vologda region for many years is lower than the evaluation of the federal authorities. Thus, the proportion of people endorsing the local administration heads’ work and local government councils is less than 50% (tab. 11).

The conversion of qualitative characteristics of the people’s approval of the power structures to a quantitative four-point scale (1 point – do not fully approve, 2 points – basically do not approve, 3 points – mostly approve, 4 points – fully approve) allowed evaluating not only the level of approval, but the degree of consensus towards the authorities. The calculation results showed that in the period from 2000 to 2009 the level of approval of the government institutions has increased, as evidenced by the increase in the expectation⁴ (tab. 12) , primarily in assessing the work of the government councils and heads of local administration. Besides the differences of population’s opinion are much higher in the estimates of local government than in the regional and federal authorities, as confirmed by high values of standard deviation.

One reason for the low level of the local government approval is, in our opinion, a very low level of the population’s awareness on the Local Government activities: survey results show (tab. 13) that only 7 – 14% of the population consider themselves fully informed.

Most of the region’s inhabitants have partial information about the activities of management structures, while a quarter of the inhabitants of the region are not completely informed about their activities. Increasing awareness of citizens in local government’s activity increases the level of confidence in government, forms an active life position of the population, and reduces social tensions. Not accidentally, one of the priorities for improving local government’s effectiveness is its openness and close authority’s collaboration with civil society [4].

The municipality management development effectiveness monitoring held by ITSED RAS during several years in the city of Vologda, shows that the majority of the population is dissatisfied with the moral status of the urban government staff . The population sees them primarily as people for whom the authority is the most important thing (22% of respondents) and the privileges given by this authority (23%). While

Table 13. Responses to the question: “Are you enough informed about the activities of local government bodies?” (% of respondents)

Response options	Date	Vologda	Cherepovets	Districts	Region
Fully informed	June 09	14.0	8.4	8.1	9.6
	August 08	7.1	14.1	9.4	10.1
Partially informed	June 09	60.8	71.1	66.6	66.3
	August 08	57.1	64.4	66.4	63.7
Not informed	June 09	24.4	20.5	25.3	23.9
	August 08	35.4	20.7	23.7	25.7
Difficult to answer	June 09	0.8	0.0	0.0	0.2
	August 08	0.3	0.8	0.5	0.5
Source: Public opinion monitoring ITSED RAS.

Table 14. City dwellers’ opinion about Administration employees in Vologda (% of respondents with the exception of ‘difficult to answer’ response)

Indicators 2003 – 2004 (average) 2005 – 2006 (average) 2007 2008 2009 These are educated, competent specialists 10.1 6.3 5.8 7.0 6.9 These are people who care about the welfare of the city’s population 8.6 6.7 6.8 5.9 5.5 These are organizers-practitioners, who can work with people 8.9 11.3 2.9 10.8 11.8 For these people the main thing is the power 21.5 29.5 23.8 19.6 22.3 These are people that are concerned about their privileges only attitudes 26.4 19.8 29.9 20.3 23.0 These are defenders of the “old”, pre-reform 1.4 2.7 2.6 3.1 5.5 Source: Development of ways of socio-economic development effectiveness increasing of the Vologda region in crisis: report / ITSED RAS, 2009. the proportion of people who believe that the city administration officials are concerned about the welfare of the population accounts for only 6% (tab. 14).However, the proportion of citizens, characterizing the members of the administration as the practitioners-organizers and experienced in working with people is increasing every year.

It appears that this situation may be quite typical for many Russian territories.

In modern conditions management personnel’s professional competence becomes determining. Social competence and high qualifications should be at the heart of the modern Russian municipal official’s professionalism. It is obvious that if the clerk knows his business, shows composure and efficiency in the performance of official duties, his work is estimated by the population at the true worth and maintains the authority of the entire local government body.

By virtue of national characteristics and differences in the level of economic development each country has its own image of the ideal manager (tab. 15) .

In Russia which set the task of transition to an innovative way of development, the demand for executives of a new type will continue to grow [15]. The most important characteristics of these executives are the following qualities:

• •    commitment to continuous innovation;

• •    readiness for processing and evaluation of information as a permanent component of the work;

• •    ability to operate in extreme conditions, to make non-standard decisions, to analyze problems;

• •    inclusion in the system of continuous education;

• •    willingness to mix personal and group interests, establish contacts within their group and with other groups;

Table 15. Comparative characteristics of managers’ professional qualities in different countries

Countries Good manager’s most important qualities USA Development of mind, honesty, consistency, possession of technique, breadth of knowledge, availability, sociability, character integrity, leadership, ability to delegate authority, speaking skills, ability to make decisions, hardness, ability to concentrate, ability to educate, sense of humor, ability and desire to listen, objectivity, organizational skills. Great Britain Ability to delegate power, communication, accessibility, ability to listen, authoritativeness, competence, possession of technique, honesty, firmness, interest in people, positivity, resolution, humor, breadth of capabilities, efficiency, friendliness, diligence, sociability, specialty knowledge, the lack of indiscretion France Abilities and skills of interpersonal communication, originality, experience, technical competence, authority, appearance Finland Assertiveness, including aggressiveness (in the positive meaning), purposefulness, striving to achieve the goals, completing the started business Japan Energetic initiative and determination, including risky conditions, long-term vision and flexibility, open-mindedness, global approach, ability to correct personnel placement and fair sanctions, willingness and ability to listen to others’ opinions, personal charm, use of an open management style, welcoming cooperation, ability to form clear objectives and aims Russia Responsiveness, attentiveness, politeness, technological literacy, will, perseverance, determination, intelligence, quickwittedness, and organizational skills Source: Sutovich, E. Manager’s professionally significant qualities. View yesterday and today [Electronic resource] / E. Sutovich. – Access mode: (15.01.2010).

• •    initiative and entrepreneurship;

• •    combination of technical and humanitarian culture;

• •    professional, qualification, geographical mobility.

In the characteristics of the new type managers the following qualities are observed:

• -    availability of innovative strategic thinking;

• -    ability to influence the relationships of many people and structures;

• -    skills in managing mixed teams of representatives of various sectors and groups;

• -    high level of work with information and communication in virtual space.

Another important competency which is urgently required in the structures of power and relevance of which becomes more pronounced, is the ability to work under time constraints [2].

Thus, in the sphere of local government there is a lack of personnel (almost one in five head appreciated the provision of local administration with staff as low and very low). In addition, the professional level of the local government staff, according to research data is insufficient to effectively address the issues of local importance (only 23% of rural settlements heads responded that they have appropriate qualifications). Lack of necessary knowledge and skills of municipal employees leads to low efficiency of management decisions and, consequently, to decrease of the local governments’ authority in the eyes of the population.

Studies conducted on the territory of NWFD show that the level of approval of the local government in the regions is rather low. Now the real system of local government is seen by most of the population as the form of official authority, rather than the form of democracy, initiated by citizens.

Consequently, the problem of municipal managers’ preparation and the personnel reserve formation require increased attention from the state and civil society.