Exploring The Employee Perspective of Competency development Practices in the Public Sector: A Case Study of the Indonesian Food and Drug Authority (BPOM)

Abstract

Following the end of the New Order regime and a series of reform initiatives pushed by the World Bank, the Indonesian government system increasingly shifted towards New Public Management (NPM). Along with implementing NPM, the skills and competencies of State Civil Apparatus as agents of bureaucratic reform must be improved to achieve organizational goals. However, organizational goals are not always congruent with differ from employee interests. So, it is important to listen to employee voices in interpreting competency development. This research explores employee perspectives in receiving competency development and the role of leaders in practice. It adopts qualitative methods by interviewing 12 public sector employees recruited through an exploratory survey. The findings suggest that competency development is often associated with achieving financial well-being. Apart from that, other meanings that describe competency development are still marginalized by other priorities. The practical implication is that the government still needs to contextualize its human resource policies and practices to achieve desirable outcomes.