The Singapore administrative service is the premier service of The Singapore Civil Service. Young officers are actively groomed on-the-job, and are expected to learn fast. They will make many hard decisions that would have far-reaching impact on on Singapore's national interests. Career Central talks to a few administrative officers to learn more.

By John Yip

What is the Administrative Service? To put it simply, the Administrative Service is the premier service of the Civil Service who are actively groomed to become the leaders of public service. The top talents of the Administrative Service go on to become the Permanent Secretaries of the various Ministries, or the CEOs of government statutory boards.

There are about 230 Administrative Officers, out of the 60,000 people in the Civil Service. The Administrative Service comprises a number of Public Service Commission (PSC) scholars. Given the rigorous selection process for all PSC Scholars, it’s no surprise that many of them will possess the traits and competencies that are deemed to make them strong leaders.

Learn fast, adapt quickly

Administrative Officers play multiple roles. They are visionaries, intellectuals, implementers, and above all else, leaders. What does this description boil down to, in practise? A huge amount of personal initiative – the defining characteristic of all good leaders.

Take the example of Alex Yeo, currently the General Manager of Southeast CDC. Alex was first posted to the Ministry of Education (MOE) in 2002. He recalls that his most challenging project at MOE was to manage a $6-8 million component of a huge HR IT system, with a group of five other officers.

Being a graduate in political science from the University Michigan at Ann-Arbor, Alex had very little direct experience with IT. “I was involved in a lot of negotiations with vendors while managing this project, and I had to learn on the spot what these IT terms were. I kept in mind that nothing’s beyond me – I am given this job and am expected to learn very fast.”

Different routes of entry

Remember that not all Admin Officers are PSC Scholars. A number of them were absorbed into the Service from either the private or public sectors.

Christopher Koh went to the United States to study chemical engineering at John Hopkins University. His education was funded purely by his parents. He started applying for jobs towards the end of his National Service.

“My NS boss suggested that I also try out for the Administrative Service,” Chris says. “I’d never heard of the Administrative Service previously. I thought it was a long-shot, but I gave it a try since I had nothing to lose.”

As it turned out, he somehow “stumbled through” the interviews, and got accepted into the Service in 2000, at the age of 25. “I think what is important is whether you have national interests at heart and whether you bother to find out about things affecting national welfare,” Chris muses.

In other words, it’s not just about how well you’ve fared in your studies, or about what you’ve accomplished so far. It’s also about whether you have a position on how public affairs are run. And, more importantly, about whether you think that things can be done better.

Chris now serves in the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), having previously served in the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) and the Ministry of National Development (MND).

The Management Associates Programme

All potential candidates for the Administrative Service, be they scholars or non-scholars, are first put through the four-year Management Associates Programme (MAP). They will typically be posted to two different Ministries during these four years, where they will get a taste of how public service works. Their performance throughout the MAP determines whether they are offered a place in the Administrative Service at the end of their fourth year. However, this applies only to younger officers, as senior officers may instead be absorbed directly into the service without going through the MAP.

Within the Civil Service, the various Ministries and government statutory boards are grouped into various ‘clusters’, such as the:

• Social cluster
• Economic cluster
• Security cluster
• Central government/corporate function cluster

Note that these are informal groupings – there are no hard and fast rules that determine where each Ministry “fits” per se.

The PSD aims to rotate Administrative Officers through at least three of the four clusters before they reach their mid-30s. The objective is to give young Administrative Officers the broadest possible foundation in all aspects of government, before they move on to more senior appointments.

Foundation Course

There are usually about 50 new Management Associates every year, and they will be sent on a three-month Foundation Course within their first year of service.

During this course, the associates are attached to various grassroots organisations, Public Works Organisations (PWOs) and other ministries, to widen their exposure to public service. In addition, they will get to visit their counterparts in ASEAN.

Keith Tan, a graduate in English and Russian Literature from Princeton University, who currently leads a team of research analysts at the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF), tells me how the ASEAN trips proved to be an eye-opener for many young officers, “because people begin to understand that there is much more to our neighbours than what you read in the papers.”

The greatest benefit of the Foundation Course however, is that it gives the young officers an opportunity to meet other officers, and to establish informal relationships, what Alex refers to as a “networked government”. Such informal support networks become an important part of the Administrative Officers’ careers, because it facilitates co-operation across the multiple Ministries in which they work.

The challenges of leadership

Administrative Officers cannot achieve success on their own. In most cases, young Admin Officers are put in charge of teams that are vastly more experienced than them.

“I listen to their views,” says Keith. “I make it clear that I’m new. I don’t have their background and experience. I make sure that if I do hear good and credible views, that these are floated upwards to higher levels. I become an advocate for their ideas.”

Alex agrees. He adds that “we’re never going to know as much as somebody who has been here for 20 to 25 years. What we bring in are fresh perspectives, an ability to ask questions, to challenge the status quo. And I think this will help people perform better, by challenging them and stretching them further.”

There is also a keen awareness among the Administrative Officers of the danger of succumbing to “groupthink”, especially because the Service is dominated by PSC Scholars. Keith acknowledges this danger, but points out that Administrative Officers do bring out such concerns within their own forums, so that is an encouraging sign that they are personally aware of the pitfalls of succumbing to the cons of group dynamics.

At the end of the day, the main function of Administrative Officers is to serve the public. If they begin to lose touch with the ground, it will become very apparent, because their overall performance will suffer. And the system is robust enough to weed out the officers that don’t perform.

Making an impact

Alex sums it up best. “For me, to know that what I’m doing has the ability to impact other people’s lives for the better, even when I have to make hard decisions, is very satisfying,” he says.

“You have to be rational and very pragmatic, in some ways, very businessman-like in the way you do things. On top of that, you also need to take into consideration social, economic and community objectives. Having that mix of decisions is what makes public service so challenging, which is why I find it very engaging. I can’t see myself doing this in the private sector.”