American Public Service: Radical Reform and the Merit System pot

[...]... Employment and Racial Equality in the Public Sector: The Demise of a Niche? 219 George Wilson Introduction 219 The Public Sector as a Niche for African Americans 220 The Nature and Benefits of Work in the Public Sector 223 Working in the Public Sector 223 Benefits of Working in the Public Sector 224 The Rise of at-Will Employment in the Public Sector 225 Disproportionate... in the public sector despite its historic abuse during the spoils system of the 19th century [2] and when its use is questioned in the private sector [3] A priceless asset in American governance, a nonpartisan public service acts as a vital link between governmental institutions and the populace Understanding the effects of radical change on public personnel systems is critically important both now and. .. empirical selection of the latest work on radical reform and the merit system This collection of original studies is the AU0534_C000.fm Page xxvi Tuesday, September 12, 2006 9:52 AM xxvi Ⅲ American Public Service product of a 2004 nationwide call for papers, and the resulting Review of Public Personnel Administration and International Journal of Public Administration symposia This volume, then, offers fresh... and the Merit System First, of course, gratitude is extended to the chapter authors, who educated us with their thoughtful papers They worked to produce a book representative of contemporary thinking on this essential topic Their readiness to revise and resubmit their initial manuscripts attests to their respect for the subject matter and their skill in mastering it The task was facilitated by the. .. scholars, and citizens interested in civil service reform and atwill employment Overall, then, the book provides a baseline of data on reforms, as well as an account of their current promise and pitfalls CONCLUSION Throughout, the collection offers an examination of the innovations, strategies, and issues found in the contemporary civil service r eform debate As such, it represents the state of the art and. .. U.S Code, which defines the merit system In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Transportation Security Agency established at-will employment for its personnel, and subsequently the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense were authorized to create new human resource management systems that strengthened administrative discretion and diminished employee protections The Bush administration... departments or jurisdictions, and the means used to implement change The problems with existing personnel systems and the expected advantages of change are discussed They find that the at-will doctrine is not well understood, and the tension between political responsiveness and managerial effectiveness is downplayed The authors conclude that the dismissive attitude among many of the interviewees about possible... employment relations is one of the more remarkable and worrisome findings of this study.” Any reform debate, they maintain, must anticipate the presence of an impatience with merit systems as well as the inherent “politicality” of public management The controversies over civil service have spawned a variety of significant ramifications and implications of reform Therefore, Part 4, “Future Reform Issues,” identifies... changes [8] In the process, both the legal and psychological contracts between public employees and their employers have been substantially altered Clearly the American public service confronts a turbulent environment, the outlines of which are described by the existing literature LITERATURE REVIEW A useful body of civil service reform literature has emerged in the last decade Kettl and his colleagues... ramifications of this sea change in the way public employees are recruited and managed More dialogue is required to understand what remains of the personnel as we know it in the public sector and whether these changes serve the greater good of governance in the United States This chapter presents exploratory findings on the current state of human resource management in state government in the United States, with . Pinkowski 130. Handbook of Globalization and the Environment, edited by Khi V. Thai, Dianne Rahm and Jerrell D. Coggburn 131. American Public Service: Radical Reform. public service : radical reform and the merit system / edited by James S. Bowman, Jonathan P. West. p. cm. (Public administration and public policy ; 131) Includes