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Commentary: Does “Radical Civil Service Reform” Really Abandon Merit?
Author(s) -
Hausser Doris
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
public administration review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.721
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1540-6210
pISSN - 0033-3352
DOI - 10.1111/puar.12093
Subject(s) - civil service , service (business) , administration (probate law) , citation , management , officer , public administration , political science , sociology , public service , law , public relations , library science , business , computer science , economics , marketing
Public administration scholars have long been fascinated by the ebb and fl ow of merit-based human resource management (HRM) systems in the public sector and their relationships to our democratic institutions. Robert J. McGrath’s article “Th e Rise and Fall of Radical Civil Service Reform in the U.S. States” advances an analysis of political and institutional dynamics that increase or decrease the probability of states adopting “radical civil service reform” (i.e., the diminution of protections for classifi ed civil service employees). Using previous research fi ndings concerning the continued advent of radical civil service reform since the landmark 1996 changes in Georgia, he tests various ideas about the impact of such drivers as divided government, strong activist governors, ideology, and economic health. As a practitioner who lived through and even contributed at the federal level to alterations (and attempted alterations) of civil service HRM systems, including those elements that provide employee protections— which McGrath and others label as “merit”—I found several themes and characterizations in this research rather troubling, if not misguided. Simply put, McGrath and many of his predecessors seem to confl ate HRM program decentralization and the imposition of at-will employment status. A key variable in the model McGrath uses is “whether a state had adopted radical civil service reform (as indicated by a signifi cant decentralization of their HR system).” He notes that other researchers have identifi ed “decentralization as an important underlying dimension of reform away from merit protection for civil servants.” Many civil Does “Radical Civil Service Reform” Really Abandon Merit? Commentary