Civil Service System Research Articles

Human resource management practices to improve quality: A case example of human resource management intervention in government

AbstractThis article describes the quality approach to management in government and contrasts it with the classic, often more bureaucratic, approach. It places particular focus on Project Pacer Share, a government total quality management effort underway at McClellan Air Force Base where, using quality tools and techniques, major reforms in the United States Civil Service System and human resource management are being tested. Specific human resource management initiatives that need to be undertaken to support organizationwide quality performance are presented.

Reforn of the Chinese Cadre System: Pitfalls, Issues and Implications of the Proposed Civil Service System

Reforn of the Chinese Cadre System: Pitfalls, Issues and Implications of the Proposed Civil Service System

Japan's Civil Service System: Its Structure, Personnel, and Politics

Introduction Japan's National Bureaucracy: Its Structure and Control The Japanese Recruitment System in the Public Sector A Profile of the Japanese Higher Civil Servant The Retirement System of the Japanese Higher Public Servants A Comparative Study Japan's Local Public Administration Japan's Bureaucratic Decision-Making Process: The Textbook Case The Role of Higher Civil Servants in the Defense Policy-Making Process Conclusion Bibliography Index

A Research and Investigative Report on the Pioneering Implementation of a Civil Service System in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone

The authors made, in the early part of this year, an investigation into some problems that have emerged from the attempt to implement, as a pioneering effort, a civil service system in Shenzhen. This investigative research report discusses the question of the feasibility of implementing the civil service system first in Shenzhen, and the goals and visions of such an effort. The report focuses on analyzing the primary problems and issues that urgently need to be resolved in order that the civil service system may be implemented. Finally, the report also makes several specific suggestions.

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:The Effective Public Manager: Achieving Success in Government By steven cohen.Wildlife and the Public Interest: Non‐Profit Organizations and Federal Wildlife Policy BY james a.Government Response to Financial Constraints: Budgetary Control in Canada By l.r. jones and jerry l. mccaffery.Diefenbaker's World: A Populist in Foreign Affairs By h. basil robinson.Aboriginal Peoples and Government Responsibility: Exploring Federal and Provincial Roles Edited by david c. hawkes.The Political Limits of Environmental Regulation: Tracking the Unicorn By bruce YANDLEJapan's Civil Service System: Its Structure, Personnel, and Politics BY pauls. kim.Petit traité de I'État De gÉrard Bergeron.Federalism and Political Community: Essays in Honour of Donald Smiley By DAVID P. SHUGARMAN and REG WHITAKER

Compensating Differentials and the Male-Female Wage Gap: Evidence from the New York State Comparable Worth Study

This article examines whether women are paid less than men because female-dominated jobs are characterized by more favorable working conditions than jobs dominated by men. We review evidence about whether differences in working conditions are responsible for a portion of the sex gap in wages, including pertinent data from a number of comparable worth studies. The heart of the article is an analysis of data on over 1,600 jobs in the New York State Civil Service System. Fourteen job-content indicators and 15 measures of working conditions are examined. Ourfindings are inconsistent with the expectations of the compensating differentials hypothesis. Prominent results include (1) both maleandfemale-dominated jobs are disadvantaged on a similar number of working-conditions indicators; (2) in general, neither men nor women receive wage premiums for working in unfavorable conditions, once other compensable characteristics are taken into account; (3) if female-dominated jobs had the same working conditions that characterize white male-dominated jobs, the sex gap in wages would grow slightly; and (4) femaledominated jobs would slightly improve their relative position if all wage penalties associated with working conditions were assigned a zero score. A power-based model of intraorganizational wage determination is discussed as an alternative to the neoclassical economic paradigm.

Proposing a Reform of the Cadre and Personnel System and the State (July 25, 1988)

Comrades: I am very happy to have this opportunity to report to you on the progress of the study regarding reform of the cadre and personnel system over the last two years. I hope that this report may be of use to you. I would like to talk about three issues: first, a brief review of the reform of the cadre and personnel system; second, a new trend of thought regarding the reform; and third, the question of what it means to establish a state civil service system that has Chinese characteristics.

Categorical Imperatives: The Structure of Job Titles in California State Agencies

The division of labor in formal organizations has important consequences for the distribution of opportunities and rewards. This paper examines variations in job title structures across work roles. Analyzing 3,173 job titles in the California civil service system in 1985, we investigate how and why lines of work vary in the proliferation of job categories that differentiate ranks, functions, or particular organizational locations. The statistical analysis underscores the importance of three socialforces shaping the division of labor: ascription by race and sex; the power and social standing of occupational groups, especially the professions; and organizational processes of rationalization. Some implications of these results for studies of organizations and social inequality are discussed. Remarkably little attention has been paid to the structure of job titles, despite the sociological importance of the topic. Distinctions among job titles are clearly relevant to social stratification, since wages, promotion opportunities, and other perquisites are often attached to jobs. From an organizational perspective, job definitions are central to the study of organizational structure. We examine the structure of job titles within a contemporary bureaucratic setting: California state government. In particular, we investigate variations in the proliferation of job titles across different kinds of work, asking why some work roles are subdivided into many job titles and others into very few.

On the Meaning of Tenure

To the Editor .—In a recent editorial, Racy et al 1 call attention to inequities in the medical school tenure system and decry that grantsmanship and publications appear to take precedence over teaching and clinical practice. To remedy this imperfect situation, Racy et al suggest overhauling tenure decision-making into more of a marriage between faculty member and institution based on mutual compatibility. This posture conveys a fundamental misunderstanding of what tenure is all about. As a practical matter, tenure merely provides the faculty member with the right to a formal hearing when there is administrative dissatisfaction with performance. Like the civil service system in the public sector or job security gained by unions through collective bargaining with private industry, tenure ensures that an employee who has passed a probationary period cannot be arbitrarily fired. Accordingly, the individual who needs tenure protection is not Racy and coworkers' team player who cooperates

Book Reviews

Book reviews in this article: The Patron State: Government and the Arts in Europe, North America and Japan. By MILTON C. CUMMINGS JR. and RICHARD S. KATZ (eds.) Advising The Rulers. By WILLIAM PLOWDEN (ed.) The State and Public Bureaucracies: A Comparative Perspective. By METIN HEPER (ed.) Steering the Modern State: Changes in Central Coordination in Three Australian State Governments. By MARTIN PAINTER. Japan's Civil Service System: Its Structure, Personnel, and Politics. By PAUL S. KIM Reaganomics: An Insider's Account of the Policies and the People. By WILLIAM A. NISKANEN

Les cadres d’emploi et la carrière des fonctionnaires territoriaux

The ‘cadres d’emploi’ and Career Development of Local Civil Servants. The laws of 1983 and 1984 provided for the incorporation of local government officials into a single, all-embracing civil service System. The law of 13 July 1987 reforming the service regulations of the local civil service substituted the ‘cadres d’emplois’ for the ‘corps de fonctionnaires’. The ‘cadres d’emplois’ : while maintaining the career principle allow for management diversity and autonomy, thereby recognizing the special position of the local authorities and their staff. A detailed analysis of the way in which this new System works shows that under these conditions the career System is not incompatible with the requirements of modem management of local authorities. Before criticizing the career System, il would be wise to remain mindful of the opportunities it offers local authorities, opportunities which are ail too often ignored or vitiated. In many cases the civil service regulations are made into a scapegoat for non-existent or poor human resources management. The onus is on local authorities to show that they are capable of proper human resources management.

Politics of administrative reform and reorganization in Bangladesh

AbstractThe present military government in Bangladesh has implemented a number of major administrative reform and reorganization measures. The government claims that effectuation of such measures has led to the decentralization of power and authority to the grass‐root level ensuring increasing popular participation in administration; the achievement of cost‐effectiveness by reducing the number of ministries, divisions and personnel from the public pay roll and by quickening of the pace of decision‐making due to elimination of redundant bureaucratic layers. But the implementation, in reality, has contributed among other things to the legitimization and strengthening of the military government, and a weakening of the democratically organized political opposition. It also enables generalist civil servants to preserve, and to some extent strengthen, their position within the civil service system.

Philadelphia civil service system under committee of seventy microscope

Philadelphia civil service system under committee of seventy microscope

Crises in the U.S. Civil Service

I can count the votes.... Withdraw my request for reconfirmation. ' With these words spoken at a hearing of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, Donald J. Devine foreclosed a continuance of his four tumultuous years as President Reagan's director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). A seldom enacted provision of law for holding presidential appointees accountable was the vehicle that produced this surprising result. How and why it occurred makes a compelling and urgent case for correcting a fundamental flaw in the organization for federal personnel management. As part of the legislation to overhaul the civil service system in 1978, the Carter administration proposed that the head of the federal government's central personnel agency be one individual instead of a bipartisan commission. A director would be appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate and would serve at the pleasure of the president. The Houseapproved bill included this provision, but the version passed by the Senate and ultimately enacted into law expressly limited the director's appointment to four years. The change was made to provide the Senate with a specific opportunity to review the performance of any director whom a president wanted to keep in that position for more than four years. Such a requirement for heads of agencies has been adopted rarely. In only seven positions must the incumbents leave office when their terms expire if they have not been reappointed with the advice and consent of the Senate. Three are heads of entire organizations: the comptroller general, director of the National Science Foundation, and the director of the Office of Personnel Management. The other four are heads of agencies located within executive departments. Dr. Devine's term expired on March 25, 1985. The president nominated him for a second four-year term on March 8, 1985. The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee scheduled hearings for Monday and Tuesday, April 1 and 2, and planned a committee vote on April 3. This scenario assumed a favorable committee recommendation and the possibility that the Senate would act on the nomination before recessing for Easter at the end of that week. The fact that the president's nominee had to relinquish the position of director on March 25 was seen by some as good reason for accelerating the confirmation process. While Dr. Devine's confrontational style and some of his policy initiatives were expected to draw intense criticism, very few seasoned observers of Capitol Hill expected that President Reagan's nominee would fail to win approval from the Republican controlled Senate.

Australia's mental health system.

Mental health programs in Australia are influenced greatly by the country's system of government and by its geography. In Australia, mental health is looked upon as part of the total health services of each state. This has forced the community-based mental health services to be more closely related to public health programs than is true in most of the United States. Australia's parliamentary civil service system provides greater stability to the planning and administration of health services, while her relatively homogeneous and less mobile urban populations have allowed state hospitals to move toward the functional division of patients. After providing a brief history and description of Australia's mental health system, the author discusses hospital programs for the chronic mentally ill; residential rehabilitation programs, which, like vocational rehabilitation programs, are provided through many voluntary organizations; the financial support provided to the mentally disabled by the Department of Social Security; and mental advocacy groups, which are noteworthy because they work more cooperatively together and with the professionaly community than do similar American groups.

Problems of Expedited Implementation: The Strategic Petroleum Reserve

ABSTRACTAt each stage of program implementation – strategic planning, systems design, development of the management control infrastructure, and project execution – different types of expertise are most critical to success. The civil service system, which is oriented toward the hiring of permanent employees, and personnel ceilings, which are often arbitrarily set in the budgeting process, interact to impede the transition from one implementation stage to the next. Cost overruns and long-run schedule slippage may result from attempts to expedite programs by beginning implementation stages in parallel, particularly if compensatory resources are not provided. These problems are illustrated with the history of the implementation of the strategic petroleum reserve program, a key element of US policy for reducing vulnerability to disruptions of the world oil market.

The Japanese Civil Service System

The Japanese Civil Service System

Does the First Amendment Incorporate a National Civil Service System?

Does the First Amendment Incorporate a National Civil Service System?

Civil Service System in Bangladesh

Civil Service System in Bangladesh

The California State Civil Service System

Research Article| October 01 1978 The California State Civil Service System Greg King Greg King Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar The Public Historian (1978) 1 (1): 76–80. https://doi.org/10.2307/3377672 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Greg King; The California State Civil Service System. The Public Historian 1 October 1978; 1 (1): 76–80. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/3377672 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter All ContentThe Public Historian Search This content is only available via PDF. Copyright 1978 The Public Historian Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.