Public service as a calling: An exploration of a concept

Several years ago, the public administration faculty of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University issued their famous “Blacksburg Manifesto” the public Administration and the Governance Process: Refocusing the American Dialogue. In this document they call for a substantive change in the American Dialogue regarding the role of the public administrator. Nothing that the founding fathers viewed public service as a “calling”, as did the populists, Progressives, and New Dealers, they suggest that today’s government officials should percive themselves as “trustees” with a sense of a calling in serving for a cause. This call for a renewed convenant stimulated this researcher to speculate on the nature of the calling, its origins, definitions, applications, and its applicability as a psychological motivator for effective. productive performance in the public sector.

Our exploration for understanding starts with an examination of Western society’s earliest written record of man’s behaviour, the Bible, which is replete with stories of divine calls, first from God to the individual, and then to a group or society. We also review subsequent religious and secular calls, noting their universality and the reciprocal phenomena of “good” and “evil” which such calls exemplify. Thus, God’s call to Moses to lead the Jews out of Egypt is balanced by the fombat-driven calling of the city-state of Sparta.

We also not that the calling is subject to a hierarchy process. Plato writes about the natural endowments of individuals which creates three social classes that are called upon to serve the state; artisans, warriors, and philosopher-kings. Later on Eusebius defines a difference in the intensity and degree of suffering suffering between those professing a “high calling” and those following their“calling”.

This study also considers the meaning of the word “calling”. The researcher proposes a modification of its meaning which is less sacred and more secular in context. “Klesis Diakonis”, two separate Greek words, in combination, can be defined as a “call to joyous service”. This secular interpretation of the calling, frees it from its classic, religious association, and provides for its application to non-religious endeavor.

In conclusion, it is suggested that upon further research and study, the concept of a calling can be a vital and significant motivator, indded, part of the critical psychological and emotional makeup for those individuals in our society who are not fulfilled by material rewards. It is hypothesized here that the public-minded individual can find his or her calling through the medium of public service, can help restore the sacredness of public service as a public as a public trust, and can satisfy his or her search for self-fulfillment through the redefined concept of the calling.