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The Fading Away of Civil Service and Its Replacement by a New System

Conventionally, civil service generally implies a group of individuals employed within the government administration. Civil service entails a formalized set of regulations and procedures under which an established set of employees operate. This term includes procedures and terms under which employees are hired, disciplined, dismissed, and promoted (Pat, 2017). In the United States, this system emerged between 1877 and 1883 following enactment of the first regulations associated with the local civil service by Brooklyn and New York City (Pat, 2017). In 1883, the ratification of the Pendleton Act signaled the federal employment of civil service (Pat, 2017). Civil service emerged as a component of the wider reform movement targeted at eliminating or reducing the system of patronage, corruption, spoils that appeared to characterize many governments of that time including administrations at the federal, local, and state levels (Pat, 2017). Nonetheless, recent years continue to witness a gradual fading away of the civil service amidst constant efforts to reform this system (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2015; Brewer & Kellough, 2016; Bezes & Lodge, 2015). This paper discusses why civil service is gradually fading away, the system that is replacing it, and what expanded roles of supervisors and managers in a novel system. The paper addresses these issues by including relevant theory and history.  

Reasons for the Gradual Fading Away of the Civil Service

Several factors account for the gradual diminishing of the civil service system across the globe. The system of personnel established around civil service happens to be among the most damaging systems functioning in government today (Pat, 2017). This notion is evident in jurisdictions that have persistently utilized systems of civil service despite the managerial transformations within their structure or alterations in the steps or processes guiding employment conditions (Pat, 2017). Over the last twenty years, calls for the reformation of the civil service have intensified (Pat, 2017). This situation mirrors a shift towards service orientation, productivity, improved capacity for devising and tracking policies, and accountability for results (Pat, 2017). Besides, the intensified calls for civil service reforms mirror a shift from the civil service-based framework, which is typified by specialized and hierarchical, as well as relatively closed procedures or bureaucracies governed by rules, official procedures, and paperwork (Pat, 2017). These bureaucracies negatively impact issues associated with hiring, promotion, and classification.

Managers within the system of civil service cannot hire in the same manner as normal managers by engaging in functions such as advertising positions, taking resumes, talking to references, and interviewing people. This system restricts managers to hiring most workers from lists of individuals who have undertaken written exams provided by the civil service (Pat, 2017). In many situations, managers are forced to take the leading scorer or even one of the three top-ranked scorers despite the level of motivation or qualification of such a person (Pat, 2017). As such, it can be noted that this system hinders managers from hiring suitable or appropriate employees, which in turn impedes their ability to accomplish their mission (Pat, 2017). This system also results in the absence of management accountability for actions of personnel as it grants the management limited discretion concerning decisions involving firing and hiring.

When it comes to the aspect of classification, civil service tasks are categorized in relation to a graded scale. Besides, the level of pay within every category is established by longevity, as opposed to performance. Therefore, this system does not reward performance, which in turn makes it detrimental service delivery to the public (Lobao et al., 2018). Moreover, by rewarding longevity instead of performance, this system discourages the retention of highest-quality employees (Pat, 2017).

 In relation to the aspect of promotion, the system of civil service subjects the function of controlling promotions to the personnel department, as opposed to the manager (Pat, 2017). Thus, managers under this system rarely have any influence on performance. For instance, in a typical job such as a police service, managers within the police department have to focus their promotions on personnel already within the proper track of career, who have registered the highest scores in the promotional exam. These cumbersome and rigid set of guidelines or procedures only serve to cause excessive delays (Pat, 2017). The civil service system propagates a weak relationship between pay and performance, job security, promotion, and acknowledgement from the organization. In addition, personnel procedures or bureaucracies governing public organizations restrain the provision of incentives, as they complicate the association of such incentives with performance of managers. For instance, these procedures make the process of firing a poor manager or rewarding a good manager with better pay difficult (Pat, 2017). As such, the prevailing system acts as a disincentive as opposed to being an incentive for good performance, which in turn impacts productivity in a negative manner. Thus, owing to the shortcomings of the civil service, which are attributed to its closed bureaucracies, Brewer and Kellough (2016) argue that civil service reforms initiated over the last thirty-five years in many nations across the globe have relaxed conventional merit system rules, augmented managerial discretion and agency, and decentralized the function of personnel.

The System Replacing the Civil Service

Alternative Service Delivery (ASD) system is gradually replacing and reforming the system of civil service. This system traces its roots to the 1990s (Frankson, 2011). For instance, by 1990s, the neo-liberal policies associated with market deregulation and privatization were prevalent, particularly in the US and UK, where they were modeled and designed by liberals and conservatives alike (Lobao et al., 2018). Frankson (2011) defines ASD as a means of progressing the provision of certain products or services, which the Public Service has conventionally been providing, in partnership or through partnerships with agencies or organizations external to the public service (Frankson, 2011; Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, 1996). ASD can assume various forms including devolving products and services to other government levels and private sectors, and creating service agencies or Crown corporations within the federal public sector (Frankson, 2011). These efforts are often targeted at increasing flexibility, autonomy, and accountability in service delivery.

The Expanded Roles of Supervisors and Managers in the Novel System

The new system expands the roles of supervisors and managers beyond their conventional roles under the civil service system by decentralizing the prevailing bureaucratic patterns and reorganizing them as roles and shifting accountability to managers and supervisors (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2015). As such, managers can engage in the processes of hiring and firing personnel and actively execute the functions of advertising organizational vacancies, taking resumes, and interviewing potential employees (Pat, 2017; Denhardt & Denhardt, 2015). In addition, this novel system makes supervisors and managers more accountable for employees’ actions by giving them adequate discretion to the processes of firing and hiring (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2015). Therefore, it can be noted that the ASD system grants the management the ownership of the organization.

Conclusion

This paper has effectively discussed the reasons for the gradual fading away of the civil service system, the new system that is replacing this system, and the expanded roles of managers and supervisors under the novel system. The ASD system is considered an effective remedy to addressing the weaknesses of the civil service system discussed in this paper.