The Civil Service: Personnel Policies

Abstract

New public management is the name given to the reforms within the public sector that are aimed at reducing the size and cost of the public service, encouraging interchange of personnel between the public and private sectors, introducing more private sector practices, and diminishing insignificant government activities or assets. In Hong Kong, reforms of the public sector were the results of the reaction to the political and economical difficulties encountered by the government rather than an attempt to converge the advocacies of the new public management. In Hong Kong, new public management was related mainly to the conditions of employment of civil servants, to attempts to improve their efficiency and productivity, and to several ways of using the private sector to perform public functions. This chapter discusses how the key principles shaping the status and behaviour of civil servants have been affected by the attempts to implement public sector reforms. This chapter examines the consequences of the reforms in four major areas of human management. These are recruitment, selection and terms of service, pay and fringe benefits, disciplinary procedures and performance management and training. The chapter also discusses the effects of the shift from the policy of corruption to promotion of integrity in the civil service of Hong Kong.