Equipping Men for Career Growth in the Public Service

Abstract

IT is assuredly a propitious time to take stock of the variety of efforts being made, in and out of government, to develop men and women for top jobs in the public service. The persistent growth in government-federal, state, and local-recent pay raises in the federal and some state and local governments that mnay make them more effective in competition for talent, more frequent assignment of mature staff members to universities for advanced training either in short courses or for year-long programs, the launching of the Princeton program of education for public affairs, the Institute of Public Affairs proposals for a Federal Staff College and a National Foreign Service Academy, and the competitive offering by universities of training-pre-entry and post-entry-for the public service, all makes 1963 a propitious time for stock taking. The need is for joint re-evaluation-by governmental executives and training officials, on the one hand, and by university deans and faculties, on the other. The need is for reconsideration of what a public official does and, hence, of the relevance of the intellectual menu offered as in-service training and in the universities as pre-entry and post-entry training. This paper seeks to stimulate such re-evaluation. It is addressed to those in government and in the universities who should give their attention to the task: the public officials, who have a prime stake in the development of their staffs, and the university deans and faculty members, who train men and women for the profession. > A re-evaluation of pre-service education for public administration and post-entry training for public executives is needed, according to the author of this article. He argues that these programs must be re-designed to fit the progressive levels of understanding required as the public executive moves upward along his career path.