The Present Status Of Civil Service Reform

The authors of this book contend that the civil service system, which was devised to create a uniform process for recruiting high-quality workers to government, is no longer uniform or a system. Nor does it help government find and retain the workers it needs to build a government that works. The current civil service system was designed for a government in which federal agencies directly delivered most public services. But over the last generation, privatization and devolution have increased the number and importance of government's partnerships with private companies, nonprofit organizations, and state and local governments. Government workers today spend much of their time managing these partnerships, not delivering services, and this trend will only accelerate in the future. The authors contend that the current system poorly develops government workers who can effectively manage these partnerships, resulting too often in a gap between promise and performance. This short, lively, and bipartisan volume, authored by the nation's leading experts on government management, describes what the government of the future will look like, what it will need to work well, and how in particular the nation can build the next generation of workers required to lead it.

Assesses recent civil service reforms undertaken by state governments.

Civil service modernisation is a key priority in Kazakhstan. This report examine how Kazakhstan’s practices compare against OECD countries and suggests areas for further improvement.

This collection of papers was presented at the World Bank Conference on 'Civil service reform in Latin America and the Caribbean', held in 1993. The goal of the conference was to promote the flow of ideas among researchers and practitioners in the civil s

Inefficient civil service administrations are jeopardizing future development in many African countries. The reforms suggested in this paper would make these administrations more accountable, enforce the rule of law, and reward bureaucrats solely on their

"Passage of the Civil Service Reform Act was controversial, and there is still controversy over its effectiveness. A book of this sort will be well received and anxiously read by specialists in public administration, public policy, and public personnel administration."-H. George Frederickson, University of Kansas The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 was the most far reaching reform of the federal government personnel system since the merit system was created in 1883. The Future of Merit reviews the aims and rates the accomplishments of the 1978 law and assesses the status of the civil service. How has it held up in the light of the National Performance Review? What will become of it in a globalizing international system or in a government that regards people as customers rather than citizens? Contributors examine the Senior Executive Service, whose members serve between presidential appointees and the rest of the civil service. These crucial executives must transform legislative and administrative goals into administrative reality, but are often caught between opposing pressures for change and continuity. In the concluding chapter Hugh Heclo, many of whose ideas informed the 1978 reform act, argues that the system today is often more responsive to the ambitions of political appointees and the presidents they serve than to the longer term needs of the polity. On the other hand, the ambition of creating a government-wide cadre of career general managers with highly developed leadership skills has not been fulfilled. Other contributors helped to frame the 1978 act, helped to implement it, or study it as scholars of public administration: Dwight Ink, Carolyn Ban, Joel D. Aberbach, Bert A. Rockman, Patricia W. Ingraham, Donald P. Moynihan, Hal G. Rainey, Ed Kellough, Barbara S. Romzek, Mark W. Huddleston, Chester A. Newland, and Hugh Heclo. Six former directors of the Office of Personnel Management commented on early versions of these chapters at a 1998 conference.