TALENT-MANAGEMENT IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: TEACHING METHODS
IN RUSSIA
MOLCHANOVA Olga, ANDREEVA Ksenia, SOLODOV Vladimir
Lomonosov Moscow State University, School of Public Administration
OMolchanova@spa.msu.ru, AndreevaKA@spa.msu.ru, Solodov@spa.msu.ru
Abstract
Talent management is interpreted in this article as a part of the HR strategic management
concerning those members of staff who are able to determine significantly the future
development of their organizations. In terms of public service reform in Russia it is extremely
important to be able to identify those public servants who have a high potential to develop the
vision, strategic objectives and the means to achieve them. Talent management in public
administration (institutionalized in Russia as administrative reserves) can be summarized in three
main components. The authors have focused on one of them - training programs for prospective
public servants. School of Public Administration at Lomonosov Moscow State University (SPA
MSU) is one of the key providers of educational services and communication activities for the
Russian Federal Program of training the administrative reserve. The authors analyze the basic
principles that determine the approach of SPA MSU to the implementation of this Program.
Human resource is the key resource in many industries and areas of activity in the
information society. And its role cannot be overestimated in such area as public service, because
we can say without exaggeration that it is the prevailing resource. It's safe to say that the level of
training and professionalism of civil servants are among the most important factors of efficiency
and quality of public administration. Analysis of the realization of the various initiatives in the
course of the public administration reform shows that often their low efficiency is related with
the competence, professionalism, discipline and responsibility, and other characteristics of the
performers of these initiatives. Therefore, the strengthening and development of the public
service staff is a key link in the chain of the modernization of public administration in Russia.
The urgency to address this issue in recent years has been repeatedly emphasized in
policy statements, the scientific discourse. The vivid example is President's address to the
Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation in 2008, in which D.A. Medvedev stressed the need
to create "a new system of forming the personnel reserve", which was aimed at attracting "the
most talented, creative thinking and professional people to the public service."1 The President
gave a special role in the formation of a new generation of civil servants to the Russian
educational system, noting its backwardness in recent years. With this political speech the
gradual implementation of a strategic approach to the management of personnel structure in the
public service began in Russia, which is designated as a work with the reserve managers. In this
article, we use the term "talent management" to describe this kind of strategic approach to the
use of various techniques of personnel management.
Strategic and operational levels could be allocated in the system of human resource
management (as well as for any other object of management). At present, many experts attribute
to the strategic level of HR management everything that is done for the hiring, training,
development, retention of employees, who can act as a locomotive of strategic change, i.e. make
1
Message from the President of Russia to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of November 5, 2008,
http://archive.kremlin.ru/appears/2008/11/05/1349_type63372type63374type63381type82634_208749.shtml
a significant contribution to the strategic goals. By the talent we are going to understand that
kind of strategic and leadership abilities that allow to make a significant contribution to the
organization.
Therefore, under the talent management in this article we refer to the set of personnel
management tools that enable an organization to recruit, train, retain and effectively utilize
employees who make a significant contribution to the strategic development of the organization
and the effective formulation and achievement of objectives.
In other words, we interpret “talent management” as a part of the HR strategic
management concerning those members of staff who are able to determine significantly the
future development of their organizations. It means that talent management can be figuratively
described as "squared strategy", because it is aimed at the strategic management of employees,
who will considerably affect the strategic development of the organization.
What is Talent Management in the public service (in public administration) then? In
conditions when the need of substantial changes is well understood, in terms of public service
reform it is extremely important to be able to identify those public servants who have a high
potential to develop the vision, strategic objectives and the means to achieve them, which would
significantly increase the effectiveness of their organizations.
Some results of research conducted by TalentEquityInstitute (the research division of
WardHowell) help us to show that the problem of efficiency in public administration is very
acute2. These studies have demonstrated that government agencies vary greatly in their ability to
use effectively the human resource. For example, there are 4 times more officials per thousand
inhabitants in Russia than in the UK (around 60 officials per 1000 residents in Russia, and about
15 in the UK). There is no reason to believe that such number of officials in Russia could be
explained by the higher level of the quality of governance than in the UK. Similarly, there are
five traffic police officers for every 1000 motorists in Russia, and in the European Union this
proportion is 50 times better due to effectiveness of the proper agencies. At the same time, ten
times more people are killed per 1,000 cars per year on the Russian roads.
The problem of inefficiency of Russian public service has repeatedly raised and discussed
at various levels. At the political level, efficiency of public service staff was negatively evaluated
for example in the Concept of reforming the civil service system of the Russian Federation
(2009-2013). It was noted that the quality of professional training of civil servants is not
sufficient to meet the needs of the public service, and the level of public service, in turn, lagged
behind the "increased demands from civil society." It sounds paradoxically, that the reform of
public administration, which are constantly being implemented in Russia since 2002, does not
lead to a noticeable increase of efficiency. Furthermore, the reform initiatives are often leading
to the opposite result, decreasing the efficiency. For example, the statistics witnessed the growth
of the number of civil servants in Russia for the period 2000 - 2009. The most significant jump
in numbers occurred in 2004 and coincided with the active phase of administrative reform, one
of the main goals of which was declared the efficiency of public administration with a reduction
in the number of civil servants.
The reasons for inefficiency of the reforms should be sought right in the lack of a
strategic approach to the management of human resources of public service and focusing on
solving tactical problems. As a consequence, it can be concluded that problems of talent
management are very actual for the public administration.
Under talent management in public administration we mean the range of management
tools that allow to attract, train, retain and effectively use public service employees who are able
to make a significant contribution to the strategic development of the civil service, to the
effective formulation and achievement of goals that allows greatly improve efficiency. To
indicate the community of this kind of civil servants in Russia it has become common to use the
2
"Talent management: the experience of business and government», WardHowel http://www.wardhowell.ru/upload/iblock/a7f/Talent%20Equity%20Institute_07.08%20FINAL.pdf
term "administrative reserve". In other words, the term "talent management" (adopted in
management theory) has an analogue of "administrative reserve" in practice of Russian
government.
In the most general sense, talent management in public administration (or administrative
reserves) can be summarized in three main components:
(1) attracting the most perspective personnel to the public service,
(2) the development and training of prospective employees, the disclosure of optimal
directions of their use, and
(3) promotion and retention of key personnel for the effective functioning of state
institutions.
Obviously, the failure of at least one element of the triad marked above could lead to the
destruction of the talent management system, and as a consequence, inefficiency of HR policy in
public service as a whole. For example, the involvement of the strongest personnel and
significant efforts for further their professional development could turn to ashes if appropriate
conditions for their retention in the public service are not be created. The system of training and
promoting the most effective public servants will have no effect, unless there is flow of highly
qualified personnel "input" to the public service, etc.
In this article, the main attention from all the tasks of the talent management is focused
on the problems of education. But it should be mentioned once again that the lack of a systematic
approach to solving the problem of strategic talent management could significantly reduce the
effect of educating administrative reserves, which could potentially be achieved.
Today considerable attention is paid to education of administrative reserves in Russia,
and problems in this sphere are considered to have the political importance. In practice, one of
the key initiatives was the development and further implementation of the Federal Program of
training the administrative reserve (hereinafter - the Program), which was launched in 2011
under the auspices of the Government of the Russian Federation.
School of Public Administration at Lomonosov Moscow State University (SPA MSU) is
one of the key providers of educational services and communication activities for this Russian
Federal Program. School of Public Administration, MSU has won the right to retrain 180 public
servants (participants of Federal Administrative Reserve) annually as the result of the national
competition between the leading universities in Public Administration in Russia.
The Program realized by SPA MSU for the participant of Federal Administrative
Reserve is comprehensive and includes a variety of activities with the use of modern educational
technologies. The Program includes 3 basic types of these activities:
 Educational events (504 learning hours), including:
 Lectures of leading Russian and foreign experts in the theory and practice of
public administration;
 professional courses based on the new theoretical concepts in management
(studied on the basis of modern distance learning technologies);
 some special courses;
 training sessions to develop the necessary skills and competencies;
 group projects aimed at implementing the public administration tools.
 Communication activities, including
 round tables with leading experts in public administration;
 national and international conferences (including distance conferences), etc.
 The two-week internship in the leading foreign schools of public administration.
Before the beginning of the Program the participants take an input-test. The results are
taken into account while forming the individual development plans. One of the problems of the
Program fulfillment is to find a compromise between the individual approach to retraining and
the required level of economies of scale, that allows to maintain the necessary level of the
Program costs. The choice of the criteria to form the groups largely determines the approach to
this problem solution.
The basic principles that determine the approach of School of Public Administration
(Lomonosov Moscow State University) to the implementation of this Program can be describe in
the following:
1) The program is a combination of a broad interdisciplinary training (expanding
horizons, aimed at developing the ability to formulate effectively strategic goals)
with a specialized, focused training (aimed at improving the skills and abilities to
apply the best practices and new management technologies).
The implementation of this principle for training of civil servants from administrative
reserve is based on the modular structuring of the Program content and teaching disciplines of
four types. The development of learning modules was conducted in conjunction with the state
strategic documents, in particular such documents as “The main directions of activities of the
Government of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2018”.
Content structure of SPA MSU Program consists of 7 modules:
1) Module "The ideological issues of public administration" is aimed at gaining knowledge
about the basics and principles of the system of government, the theoretical models and
modern international practices of public administration, the basic mechanisms and
technologies of improving the efficiency of public administration in modern conditions,
as well as the priorities of the Government of the Russian Federation.
2) Module "Macroeconomics and Finance" is aimed at gaining knowledge about the
historical and modern purposes, the mechanisms of development of macroeconomic and
financial policy in the Russian Federation and foreign countries, as well as the latest
trends in the field of macroeconomics and finance.
3) Module "Managing the economic growth" is aimed at gaining knowledge about modern
purposes, directions and mechanisms of management of economic growth in the Russian
Federation and foreign countries, the successful experience of management of economic
growth in the Russian and international practice, national innovation systems and modern
institutions that contribute to the development of innovative economy.
4) Module "Human Capital Development" is aimed at gaining knowledge about current
goals, values and mechanisms of human capital management in the Russian Federation
and foreign countries, the successful experience of managing human capital in the
Russian and international practice.
5) Module "Regional Policy" aimed at gaining knowledge about approaches to the
construction of regional policy in the Russian Federation and foreign countries, the
development of strategies for regional development, as well as the specifics of
interactions between federal and regional managerial levels.
6) Module "International Economics and Politics" is aimed at gaining knowledge about the
institutions and mechanisms of the international economic and political relations.
7) Module "Best practices in Public Administration" is aimed at gaining knowledge about
the cultural and historical, modern experience and best practices of government in the
Russian Federation and foreign countries.
Regional
Policy
Best practices of
Public
Administration
International
Economics
and Politics
Human Capital
Development
Modular
training
The ideological
issues of Public
Administration
Managing the
economic
growth
Macroeconomic
s and Finance
Each module consists of 4 blocks of disciplines:
 expert lectures,
 professional discipline,
 specialized disciplines and
 trainings.
Participants of the Program can gain a broad strategic view of the problems of
governance by listening to expert lectures by the most renowned experts in their respective
fields, including the heads of subjects (regions) of the Russian Federation (for example, the
President of the Republic of Dagestan Ramadan Abdullatipov), deputies of the State Duma (e.g.,
Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Education Dr. Vyacheslav Nikonov), leading
representatives of the scientific community (academics N.Y. Petrakov, V.L.Makarov).
Professional disciplines are aimed at deeper understanding of theoretical issues of
management. The Program participants consider the evolution of theoretical approaches, key
trends and developments in the different areas of public administration. Among the professional
disciplines are the followings: "Information policy of the modern state," "International
accounting standards in the public sector", "Innovation Management", "Soft power in world
politics", "Public International Law", "Management of state programs", etc.).
Under this Program participants have the opportunity to develop specialized knowledge
and skills in management technologies, get acquainted with the best practices in specific areas.
This is the aim of the specialized disciplines that are taught mainly by the heads of federal,
regional governments and functional state agencies, and training sessions, allowing the
improvement of specific skills. Due to these kinds of focused training, the specific learning
needs of each Program participant could be taken into account more accurately. It helps to
develop more individualized educational trajectories. As examples of specialized disciplines
could be mentioned such as: "Public policies for improving the efficiency of public finance
management" taught by G.Kurrlyandskaya, CEO of the Center for Fiscal Policy; "State
procurements" taught by the Chairman of All-Russian public organization "Russian specialists
Guild on state and municipal procurements" Professor I.Kuznetsova; "Management of urban
agglomeration" taught by the General Director of "The Urban Institute," Professor A. Puzanov.
Training sessions (such as Teambuilding, Time management, Strategic Leadership, Project
Management, etc.) contribute to the development of learning-by-doing.
Strategic Leadership
Teambuilding
Time management
Skill formation
Simulation Modeling
in Administration
Technology of
rulemaking
Projects Management
As was mentioned above, all expert lectures, professional discipline, specialized courses
and trainings are divided into 7 modules. For example, this is how the content of the Module
"Managing economic growth" looks like:
Expert Lectures
• The theory of
economic reforms
• Actual problems of
modernization
Professional
disciplines
• Innovation
Management
• Taxes and Taxation
Specialized
disciplines
• Management of
strategic changes
• State Procurement
Trainings
• Strategic leadership
• Project Management
2) The Program is based on a wide variety of different types of educational
interactions.
In the up-to-date educational environment the carriers of new knowledge and skills are
not only the teachers but also the students themselves. It is important to promote different types
of educational interactions to enrich the learning content with competencies both the experts
involved in the Program in the role of teachers and the Program participants. The latter are a
valuable source of knowledge and skills, as they are successful managers from more than 80
regions of the Russian Federation and different federal ministries and agencies. They have some
advanced competences that could be shared with their peers - other Program participants. In
particular, the Program participants are representatives of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of
the Russian Emergencies Ministry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Internal
Affairs, Vnesheconombank, Russian Federal Migration Service, etc. It is also important to note
that the Program is divided into 3 annual streams with 180 participants each, who are trained in
sequence. The knowledge transfer could take place not only within a single stream, but also
between different streams (for example, through couching or mentoring.) In general, the types of
learning interactions, implemented under the Program could be represented as follows:
Type of educational interactions
One-To-One
One-To-Many
Many-To-Many
The form of educational interactions
Individual interviews with experts, individual
counseling
Expert lectures, seminars
Analytical project sessions, group projects
The high level of interactivity is typical for Many-to-Many learning activities, it points
out their importance for educational process. Figuratively speaking, they allow students not just
"to absorb" the knowledge that teachers transfer, but act as generators of knowledge and skills
that could be improved through interactions with peers. Learning activities within the framework
of analytical project sessions and the group project development create a rich environment for
this type of interactions. These activities are aimed at strengthening the skills to develop joint
recommendations for decision making in complex situation, to solve system managerial
problems, evaluate the effects of major projects and programs, etc. In other words, via Many-toMany interactions the Program participants are able to:
get together acquainted with the context and essence of complex managerial
problems ("immersion in the context");
discuss with each other the possible methods of decision making, conduct a
comparative analysis, optimize technological choice;
carry out a series of workshops to develop a joint solution to the complex
problems of management on the basis of the chosen technology;
prepare jointly analytical notes (Policy Paper), containing practical
recommendations to address the problem;
discuss with leading experts developed recommendations for the possibility of
their practical application.
Another type of learning activities that promote Many-to-Many interactions is the
development of group projects. The group project is considered as an up-to-date version of
graduation work. The Program participants work in small groups throughout the study period.
They work together on current issues in the field of public administration. As example, there are
some topics of the group projects:
I. Projects aimed at the improving the quality of public administration:
 State programs as a tool of regional policy
 Regulatory Impact Assessment on the federal and regional levels
 Effective technologies of "Open Government"
 State strategic planning: new approaches and methods
 Outsourcing of government services
 Quality management in public organizations: international experience and prospects for
implementation in the Russian Federation
 Strengthening financial and economic stability, crisis management at the regional level
II. Projects aimed at the promotion of active interactions between the state, society and business:
 Formation of the image of civil service
 Public-private partnerships in infrastructure projects
 Financial mechanisms to support public-private partnership
 The mechanisms of state support for innovative business
 Managing the development of innovation clusters
III.
Projects aimed at assessing the effectiveness of the authorities:
 Evaluation of the effectiveness of government programs
 Evaluation of the effectiveness of federal executive bodies
IV.
Projects aimed at optimizing the measures of state control in some areas and sectors of
the economy:
 Modernization of the healthcare system at the regional level
 The development of network structures in scientific and educational spheres
 Efforts to create an international financial center in Russia
 Development of transport infrastructure as a key area of the state long-term economic
policy.
The structure of the group project includes:
 methodological part (e.g. a review of the evolution of theoretical approaches to
various aspects of the themes),
 methodical / instrumental section dedicated to the analysis and development of
management tools in the relevant subject areas, and
 recommendations of practical significance (e.g., the pilot / practical testing of
proper method / mechanism, etc. in a particular organization, government).
The most successful results of the group projects have been published in one of the
periodicals of the School of Public Administration (Moscow State University). It is also worth
mentioning that the quality of project results is a major criterion for the selection of participants
for internship at leading foreign schools.
3) The Program is based on the principle of blended learning, which consists of both
classroom (face-to-face) training sessions and distance learning.
In accordance with Russian legislation, every public servant should be trained on the
programs of continuing education (upgrading, re-training or internship) once every three years.
However, it is not always possible to meet this requirement in the conditions of the public
service reform. On the one hand, the active reform requires the efficient civil service training to
acquire knowledge and skills needed for new approaches and methods of management. But on
the other hand, in the face of rapid changes the work load for a public servant usually increases
as an adaptation to new approaches and methods of management requires extra effort. The latter
fact often makes it impossible to divert public servant for training being discontinued. The active
use of distance learning technologies helps to alleviate this problem.
Figure: Website to support learning activities of Program participators at Moscow University
(Resev.spa.msu.ru)
Half of the learning process (calculating in learning hours) is provided on the basis of
distance technologies. For this purpose a special website has been developed (URLResev.spa.msu.ru). It is used for the information support of professional disciplines. Thus, the
Program participants are able to perform distantly assignments on some disciplines, to have
access to learning materials in the mode 24/7/365, to have remote consultations with the
teachers, etc. This website is used also to support the foreign internships, to develop group
projects, to organize distant group work, to support various communication activities (distance
conferences, round tables, etc.). Besides, the Program website is an excellent platform to support
the development of the Alumni Club for former participants of the Program.
4) The Program makes it possible to develop "soft" skills.
Most of the activities of public servants are carried out in the complex, multifactor
environment which is rich with interpersonal interactions. Therefore, it is often difficult to
formalize, codify administrative processes, to describe them in the language of business
processes. As a result, public servants should be able to adapt management technology in
accordance with unexpected changes. The skills of such adaptation can be attributed to "soft”
skills. These skills can increase the readiness for changes, which is important in the face of the
public service reform. Some trainings, workshops and communication activities are aimed at the
development of "soft" skills within the framework of Program.
Trainings
Communication
activities
Business Protocol
and Business
Etiquette
Meeting with the Prime Minister
of the Russian Federation
Communicative
competence
Round Table "Public
administration: Russian
Federation in the modern world"
Strategic Leadership
Round Table "The development
of the civil service system and
mechanisms for training
reserve of administrative
personnel"
Teambuilding
International Conference "20
years of training in the field of
public administration in Russia"
5) The Program is a platform for the development of innovations in the field of
public service.
The Program brings together the participants (civil servants) from different functional
areas and different regions. As it is well known, interdisciplinarity is one of the factors
contributing to innovation. The novation is more likely to appear at the junction of the
established kinds of activities.
Talented managers from different functional areas of the public service (personnel
officers, financiers, lawyers, etc.) and different regions (from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad - 9
time zones) jointly learn and collaborate as participants of the Program. It allows to enrich
significantly the context for awareness of management problems, and as a result, to generate
more effectively ideas for new ways to solve them. For these purposes, the work is focused on
project teams (from 3 to 7 people), whose task is to identify the most pressing current problems
of public service in Russia, making recommendations to address them.
It is important that the cooperation on the basis of Program activities contributes to the
formation and development of the interregional multifunctional community of promising young
civil servants. It provides a foundation for their further collaboration.
6) 6) The Program is a platform for the development of research and educational
community in the field of public administration.
The well-known experts from a variety of leading Russian and foreign schools of public
administration (including such schools as Moscow State Lomonosov University - Russia, the
Higher School of Economics - Russia, Maxwell School, Syracuse University - USA, London
School of Business and Finance - GB, Institute of Social Development and Public
Administration of Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou city, China, University of TampereFinland) are invited for teaching, internships and project supervising, communication activities
of the Program. They actively interact not only with Program participants, but also with other
teachers and professionals involved in the implementation of the Program. Thus, there is an
active exchange of best educational practices, including the content of training courses and
learning technologies.
The experience obtained in the framework of Program allows to upgrade, update,
improve other educational programs in the field of public administration (undergraduate,
graduate, postgraduate programs). It is interesting to mention that some Program participants,
who have completed the Program at MSU, were invited as lecturers for training program for
managers from the healthcare sector, act as experts in the master's programs, etc. Graduates of
the Program act as supervisors for students of various educational programs.
These facts show that the Program encourages cooperation among the various educational
and research institutions in the field of public administration, which, in turn, leads to the
development of Russian and international research and education community in the field of
public administration. It is evident that one of the most efficient ways to develop programs for
the Russian public servants is to explore the best practices on the basis of more active
cooperation with the foreign schools of Public Administration.
References
Message from the President of Russia to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of
November 5, 2008,
http://archive.kremlin.ru/appears/2008/11/05/1349_type63372type63374type63381type82634_2
08749.shtml
"Talent management: the experience of business and government», WardHowel http://www.wardhowell.ru/upload/iblock/a7f/Talent%20Equity%20Institute_07.08%20FINAL.p
df