Managing Public Employees in the Public Interest: Employee Perspectives on Merit Principles in Federal Workplaces.

摘要

The merit system principles (MSPs), in conjunction with the prohibited personnel practices (PPPs), provide a framework for managing public employees in the public interest. Much has changed since the Pendleton Act of 1883, which established a merit system in the Federal Government, and the subsequent Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which codified the basic values of the Federal civil service as the merit system principles. The Federal workforce has become a knowledge-based workforce and the majority of Federal employees perform complex work in fast-changing fields. Predictable, routinized work is now the exception, not the norm. Personnel systems have proliferated and standardized entrance examinations and salary schedules have been replaced by a staggering variety of ways to hire and pay Federal employees. Yet the MSPs endure, covering nearly all employees, agencies, and personnel systems. The MSPs endure because they remain relevant: they embody the Nation's fundamental values and set standards for leadership, management, and conduct in the Federal Government that have stood the test of time.