The Personnel of the Semi-Public Services

Abstract

It is essential to a comparison between standards in the Civil Service and comparable employments in the semi-public corporations. The last few years have witnessed the rise and development of the so-called "semi-public corporations". These constitute a type of enterprise with public responsibilities, but so formed as to preserve certain of the qualities of private business. The public service, as embodied in the Civil Service, has a purpose defined for it in some detail from the outside. An almost rigid "establishment," and certain standards of employment, have been rigorously fixed. The new intermediate bodies like the Central Electricity Board, the Electricity Commissioners, the London Passenger Transport Board, the Port of London Authority, and the British Broadcasting Corporation have been established to operate with more flexibility and a more subtle adaptation of all the factors of production to the character of their enterprise.