James S. Bowman

The Success of Failure: The Paradox of Performance Pay

This normative article examines the contemporary record of pay-for-performance plans in the federal government.These programs, extending back nearly two generations, have consistently malfunctioned. Nonetheless, the state of the field today is one of continued attempts to use the technique despite agency history and research data that document its problematic nature. Based on scholarly literature, news media reports, and interview data, the analysis assesses the practical experience, policy findings, and political realities of this compensation method. The discussion raises questions about rational decision-making models and suggests that belief in performance pay is akin to an urban legend.

Civil Service Reform in Florida State Government: Employee Attitudes 1 Year Later

Emerging as a “megastate” during the last generation, Florida now rivals California as a national trendsetter in popular culture and political importance. In 2001, it passed a civil service reform law known as Service First. Although government reform has been on the agenda in a number of states, seldom has it been as sweeping as Florida’s initiative abolishing job tenure for 16,300 career employees. This study reports the poll findings from employees recently transferred from the state’s tenured Career Service to unprotected Selected Exempt Service. The analysis provides background information, discusses the study methodology, presents the survey results, and examines implications for the future by reporting interview data from a variety of political actors.

Ending Civil Service Protections in Florida Government Experiences in State Agencies

This study examines the impact of civil service reform in state agencies. The objective is to ascertain the extent to which the elimination of the defining characteristic of the merit system—job protection against partisan interference—has affected employees. After the introduction and background, the third section describes the study method. This is followed by the presentation of findings and discussion of their implications for the future of reform.

Public Opinion and the Environment Post-Earth Day Attitudes among College Students

A dramatic rise in public awareness of environmental problems occurred during the time of Earth Day, 1970. This study explores the depth and durability of I citizen concern for the environment. It is revealed that interest in ecological I issues remains despite the more recent crises in American life, that young people I believe that fundamental cultural values have been a basic cause of environmental I problems, and that present public and private institutions are unlikely to bring about meaningful reform. Nonetheless, most respondents held an abiding faith in I American society and felt that environmental problems can be solved if enough I people get involved. These findings suggest that while the need to deal with environmental problems is recognized, this is not to be interpreted as a commitment I to fundamental change.

Performance Appraisal: Verisimilitude Trumps Veracity[*]

Few administrative functions have attracted more attention and so successfully resisted solution than employee evaluation. Since performance appraisal is impossible, what actually happens is personnel appraisal. When such hypocrisy occurs, civil service systems predicated on merit are undermined. This article commences with the evolution of the appraisal function, the root of ethical problems found in service ratings. Common types of evaluation (with their strengths and drawbacks), who does them, and typical rating errors are then examined. This climaxes with a discussion of the fundamental and beguiling reason for these deficiencies. Diagnosis completed, attention shifts to ways to improve appraisals, which leads to a specification of the characteristics of a system that could withstand legal, if not ethical, scrutiny. The analysis closes by sketching future, not necessarily promising, trends.

State Government Human Resource Professionals’ Commitment to Employment at Will

This article examines the attitudes of a key set of state government officials—state human resource (HR) professionals—toward employment at will (EAW) in state government. It presents original survey data obtained from HR professionals in four southern states: Georgia, Florida, Texas, and Mississippi. Drawing on these data, the article creates an index measuring respondents’ commitment to EAW, as measured by their attitudes toward arguments used to advocate for EAW. The index is used as the dependent variable in an exploratory regression analysis indicating the importance of respondents’ experiences with the exercise of EAW discretion, years of public sector service, educational background, and state context to explaining variation in commitment to EAW. The article concludes with a discussion of the findings’ implications for the future of civil service reform in the United States.

Admission Practices in Master of Public Administration Programs: A Nationwide Study.

Faculty members charged with making admissions decisions are faced with an ongoing problem: the evaluation of student promise based on limited data. Yet, little is known about admission procedures. Since the selection of candidates for graduate study is a significant concern in the profession, an examination of these practices-the purpose of this exploratory studymay facilitate discussion of entrance standards for Master of Public Administration (MPA) programs. Do MPA programs admit nearly any college graduate, only those who meet minimum and higher standards, or just candidates who substantially exceed basic requirements? What criteria do program officials believe are the most accurate predictors of student success? Do they think that a strong relationship exists between academic achievement and professional performance? In short, do entrance requirements and faculty attitudes about them discourage potential students from applying to MPA programs? Following the literature review and methodology sections, an attempt is made in this article to answer such questions insofar as survey data permit.

The unfashionable Drucker: ethical and quality chic

Representing the soft and hard sides of management, ethics and quality are core aspects of an organization. Both are a philosophy as well as a process that seek to optimize behavior through clarifying the purpose and nature of work. This study examines Drucker′s treatment of these central components of management. Following a discussion of the methodology employed, each concept is analyzed. The implications of the findings are then explored.

Stakeholder Analysis of Civil Service Reform in Florida: A Descriptive, Instrumental, Normative Human Resource Management Perspective

CIVIL SERVICE REFORM has been a recurring item on the policy agendas of governments at all levels.1 Advocates voice complaints about the “uncivil service,” a system often burdened by archaic rules, procedures, and outdated policies that impede action and protect incompetence (Howard 1994; 2001; Osborne and Gaebler 1992, Maranto 2001a; 2001b). Democrats and Republicans, elected officials and their appointees, job applicants and incumbents, citizens, and journalists have voiced such concerns. More than a century ago, some of these same groups demanded that a corrupt, patronage-style public employment system be dismantled and supplanted by an efficient, merit-based civil service. Nonetheless, today’s reformers seek to eliminate public employee safeguards from political interference in the name of responsiveness.2 At the state level (Kellough and Nigro, forthcoming), reformers in Georgia were the first to replace a centralized bureaucracy with tenured employees in 1996. There were other efforts to reform the civil service in other states, but not until the sweeping changes that took place in Florida in 2001 was a substantial part of this workforce actually threatened.3 The defining characteristic of the merit system (i.e., protection from employment decisions based on partisanship) was replaced by “at-will” employment status, which means that employees may be terminated for any reason not contrary to law (Muhl 2001). This study uses stakeholder analysis to examine the civil service reform initiative known as Service First in the trend-setting “mega-state” of Florida.4

Industry and the environment: Chief executive officer attitudes, 1976 and 1986

This research considers the question of changing environmental values within the leadership of firms responsible for the management of pollution as an unwanted byproduct. Information was obtained from a pair of surveys mailed to the chief executive officers (CEOs) of the 50 largest firms listed within the mining and manufacturing directories of Colorado, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming in 1976 and again in 1986. The authors found that industry CEOs were more supportive of environmental concerns in 1986 than 1976, suggesting that ecological values have become institutionalized to some extent. Yet, there is little indication that this attitudinal shift in environmental concern among CEOs has been accompanied by a willingness to spend a larger proportion of the company budget on pollution control or to improve working relationships with federal regulatory officials.