Public Sector Personnel System Analysis

While the federal government’s number of employees appears to be halted, their method of hiring remains a field filled with criticism and change. Milakovich and Gordon (2013) state the seven phases “in the evolution of federal personnel administration” (287). Showing the constant change to the personnel systems of the government, reinforces the concept of ever changing hiring systems and requirements. Each change brings about criticism and an opportunity to approach the hiring system from a new perspective. Currently, Milakovich and Gordon believe the US is a “government by “citizens, experts, and results”” (287). Public-sector personnel systems contain three key elements: strong executive leadership, political neutrality, and a balanced demographic composition; combining these three key elements creates a noticeable difference from their private sector counterparts. First, strong executive leadership plays a key role in the success or failure of the bureaucracy and thus becomes a key element in the personnel system in the public sector. In order to differentiate the executive leadership,

In order to be politically neutral, the federal government creates a system for career bureaucrats. The executive does not appoint career bureaucrats, for the federal government this would be the president, meaning their employment does not reflect the political party in charge. Instead, the career bureaucrats fall under a merit system. In fact, “about 90% of all national executive-branch employees are currently covered by some merit system” (Milakovich and Gordon 2013, 291). Merit systems evaluate employees unbiasedly and solely on performance, it determines their ability to be promoted and whether or not they will receive a raise. While it is imperative for the hiring side to remain unbiased, it is equally important for bureaucrats to be unbiased in their implementation of government policies in their