Balancing Narrow and Broad Public Service Professionalism: Experience With the New Zealand G-REG Qualifications Framework

For many years, governments around the globe have been called on to increase the professionalism of their public services. The New Zealand Government Regulatory Practice Initiative (G-REG) is an illustrative example of a network of government agencies responding to this call by providing a program of standardized training for public servants. This article maps, explores, and interrogates this example to obtain a better understanding of whether a standardized program can help to nurture and increase the professionalism of a community of public servants. It finds that the main challenge of such an undertaking is finding a balance between narrow professionalism (technical expertise and knowledge) and broad professionalism (acting proficiently and ethically).