Civil Service Reform in the States

Description

Civil Service Reform in the States examines the critical importance of civil service systems in modern government and popular efforts to reform those systems. The book provides an up-to-date analysis and assessment of public personnel reforms undertaken by various state governments since 1990 and the extent to which these reforms have been implemented or resisted. With chapters written by nationally recognized experts on civil service and civil service reform, this book will appeal to public policy makers, practitioners, and students alike.

Introduction

Personnel Policy and Public Management: The Critical Link
J. Edward Kellough and Lloyd G. Nigro

Part One: Civil Service Reform in the States: Process and Context

1. Social Values and Civil Service Systems in the United States
Donald E. Klingner

2. Reform Trends at the Federal Level with Implications for the States: The Pursuit of Flexibility and the Human Capital Movement
Hal G. Rainey

3. Classifying and Exploring Reforms in State Personnel Systems
Sally Coleman Selden

4. The Labor Perspective on Civil Service Reform in the States
Richard C. Kearney

5. Public Employment Reforms and Constitutional Due Process
Stefanie A. Lindquist and Stephen E. Condrey

Part Two: The Experiences of Selected States

6. Civil Service Reform in Georgia: A View from the Trenches
Lloyd G. Nigro and J. Edward Kellough

7. Florida’s Service First: Radical Reform in the Sunshine State
James S. Bowman, Jonathan P. West, and Sally C. Gertz

8. South Carolina’s Human Resource Management System: The Model for States with Decentralized Personnel Structures
Steven W. Hays, Chris Byrd, and Samuel L. Wilkins

9. The Decentralized and Deregulated Approach to State Human Resources Management in Texas
Jerrell D. Coggburn

10. Human Resources Reform in Arizona—A Mixed Picture
N. Joseph Cayer and Charles H. Kime

11. Prospects for Civil Service Reform in California: A Triumph of Technique Over Purpose?
Katherine C. Naff

12. Wisconsin State Government: Reforming Human Resources Management While Retaining Merit Principles and Cooperative Labor Relations
Peter D. Fox and Robert J. Lavigna

13. Civil Service Reform in New York State: A Quiet Revolution
Norma M. Riccucci

14. The States and Civil Service Reform: Some Lessons Learned and Future Prospects
Lloyd G. Nigro and J. Edward Kellough

List of Contributors

Index

Sujets

• USA
• United States of America
• Public administration
• Region
• Regional
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791482438
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Civil Service Reform in the States

SUNY series in Public Administration Peter W. Colby, Editor

Civil Service Reform in the States

Personnel Policy and Politics at the Subnational Level

Edited by J. Edward Kellough and Lloyd G. Nigro

State University of New York Press

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2006 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Civil service reform in the states : personnel policy and politics at the subnational level / edited by J. Edward Kellough and Lloyd G. Nigro. p. cm. — (SUNY series in public administration) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN13: 9780791466278 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN10: 0791466272 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Civil service reform—United States—States. I. Kellough, J. Edward. II. Nigro, Lloyd G. III. Series. JK2465.C58 2005 352.6'2367213'0973—dc22 2005002757 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Introduction Personnel Policy and Public Management: The Critical Link J. Edward Kellough and Lloyd G. Nigro

Part One Civil Service Reform in the States: Process and Context

Chapter 1. Societal Values and Civil Service Systems in the United States Donald E. Klingner Chapter 2. Reform Trends at the Federal Level with Implications for the States: The Pursuit of Flexibility and the Human Capital Movement Hal G. Rainey Chapter 3. Classifying and Exploring Reforms in State Personnel Systems Sally Coleman Selden Chapter 4. The Labor Perspective on Civil Service Reform in the States Richard C. Kearney Chapter 5. Public Employment Reforms and Constitutional Due Process Stefanie A. Lindquist and Stephen E. Condrey Part Two The Experiences of Selected States

Chapter 6. Civil Service Reform in Georgia: A View from the Trenches Lloyd G. Nigro and J. Edward Kellough

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Contents

Chapter 7. Florida’sService First: Radical Reform in the Sunshine State 145 James S. Bowman, Jonathan P. West, and Sally C. Gertz Chapter 8. South Carolina’s Human Resource Management System: The Model for States with Decentralized Personnel Structures 171 Steven W. Hays, Chris Byrd, and Samuel L. Wilkins Chapter 9. The Decentralized and Deregulated Approach to State Human Resources Management in Texas 203 Jerrell D. Coggburn Chapter 10. Human Resources Reform in Arizona— A Mixed Picture 239 N. Joseph Cayer and Charles H. Kime Chapter 11. Prospects for Civil Service Reform in California: A Triumph of Technique Over Purpose? 259 Katherine C. Naff Chapter 12. Wisconsin State Government: Reforming Human Resources Management While Retaining Merit Principles and Cooperative Labor Relations 279 Peter D. Fox and Robert J. Lavigna Chapter 13. Civil Service Reform in New York State: A Quiet Revolution 303 Norma M. Riccucci Chapter 14. The States and Civil Service Reform: Lessons Learned and Future Prospects 315 Lloyd G. Nigro and J. Edward Kellough

List of Contributors

Index

325

331

INTRODUCTION

Personnel Policy and Public Management: The Critical Link

J. Edward Kellough Lloyd G. Nigro

Government jurisdictions in the United States have frequently reformed their administrative systems as they have struggled with changing political and economic circumstances. These administra tive reforms are typically designed to reflect popular new models or emerging paradigms for public management. They are driven by complex and not necessarily congruent combinations of values and purposes ranging from the purely partisan to the largely technical. During the twentieth century, for example, there were at least twelve highly visible efforts to reform federal administrative arrange 1 ments—about one every eight years. There were also innumerable similar reforms enacted by state and local governments. With each reform, changes, both large and small, in the administrative machin ery of government are implemented, and the effects of those changes often last long after the reform itself has become a distant memory. It is interesting to observe that, more often than not, public person nel or civil service systems are at the top of the reform agenda. The fact that personnel policy is the frequent target of reform bears witness to the central importance of personnel management to technically and politically effective government operations. It is through the personnel function that public agencies recruit, select, develop, pay, and hopefully retain highly qualified employees. These civil servants, in turn, directly influence the content and execution of public policies. They are the individuals responsible for translating objectives contained in legislative enactments or executive orders

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J. Edward Kellough and Lloyd G. Nigro

into the daily operations of government programs. Since the 1960s, as important new issues have arisen to demand the attention of pub lic personnel managers and the constituencies they serve, the scope and impact of the public personnel function have grown and become even more socially and politically critical. Equal employment oppor tunity, pay equity concerns, labor relations, and constitutional pro 2 tections are but a few of the issues now central to the field. As a result, public personnel policy and management are increasingly dynamic and complex, and it is always the case that the technical, ethical, and political aspects of the civil service attract attention. Since the rise of merit systems in the United States, civil service processes have been designed in large part to insulate public ser vants from politics and partisanship. The goal has been a neutral and technically competent career service. At the same time, however, there is a need for democratic oversight of the public bureaucracy by elected officials, and management must have the flexibility neces sary to achieve public policy objectives in a timely and efficient man ner. The challenge has always been to find a way to temper the control and flexibility that are required with appropriate levels of protection for public employees. In this context, and in a system where public expectations are high, effective public management can be quite difficult. Indeed, the thrust of most civil service reform efforts in recent years has been to find ways to cope with the perceived need for flexibility in public management while maintaining adequate levels of centralized over sight to ensure employees are protected from abuse. Recent reforms have pushed steadily toward making the administrative agencies of government more responsive to political (especially executive) direc tion and toward overcoming what is seen as an overly restrictive structure of merit system rules and procedures that arguably has the effect of severely limiting management capacity and organiza tional performance. Obviously, proposals for reform focusing on these specific issues are not new. They have antecedents that date to the Brownlow Committee recommendations of the late 1930s, and similar ideas are reflected in the U.S. Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. Consistent with concepts associated with the “new public management,” current reform initiatives stress reinvention, reengineering, decentraliza tion, deregulation, employee empowerment, resultsoriented man agement, and executive control. Recent initiatives reflect the notion that human resources functions in government should be strategi cally integrated with the planning and management control tasks in

Introduction

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agencies and, most importantly, should emphasize support as opposed to regulatory activity. Reinventing themes relevant to the civil service were reflected in the Clinton Administration’s National Performance Review and in the report of the National Commission on State and Local Public Service of 1993. In this volume, the reader will encounter two types of civil service reform. One of these focuses, in the Brownlow tradition, on making structural and technical improvements in the personnel function. As such, it is in the long standing tradition of government modernization, and therefore does not represent an antigovernment point of view. It seeks to improve the performance of government. The second type of reform, consis tent with the new public management perspective, often seeks to dis mantle existing civil service systems and to replace them with models closely resembling those found in the private sector. This book will examine the kinds of public personnel reforms noted above and the extent to which they are being implemented in state government. An assessment of reform at the state level is par ticularly important given the significance of states in the delivery of public programs and the historic role the states have played as incu bators of administrative change. The purpose here is to provide read ers with a contemporary analysis and assessment of civil service reforms undertaken by state governments during the last decade of the twentieth century and the first years of the twentyfirst. Some states have implemented dramatic reforms during that time, while in others, reforms have been resisted, often successfully. The chap ters presented here were prepared for this volume by nationally rec ognized experts on civil service and civil service reform in the United States, and we believe they will be of wide interest to public policy makers, practitioners, students, and academicians. In general terms, we sought a regional distribution of states and variation in history and politics that should be associated with attitudes toward reform. With these goals in mind, we selected states that had engaged in reform and others where reform efforts had been less successful. Our selections were also controlled by the availability of highly qualified authors who could speak knowledgeably about to the intricacies of civil service reform in each state. We expect this book will be useful as a text for advanced under graduate and graduate courses on public administration and public personnel administration or human resources management. It is divided into two major sections. Part One, which is comprised of the first five chapters, examines the context of personnel reform in the states. Donald E. Klingner of the University of Colorado at Denver