Christoph Demmke Bücher

This publication contributes to a discussion about the future of public employment and HR policies in the context of a changing statehood and new financial pressures. It presents comparative quantitative and qualitative data in the field of public employment and human resources management. These data were collected through the OECD «2015 Survey on Managing Budgeting Constraints: Implications for HRM and Employment in Central Public Administration». This book provides an improved understanding of the broad reform trends that have affected public employment and human resources management across OECD member countries since the 2008 financial crisis. It challenges many popular assumptions, increasingly puts into question traditional characteristics of public administration systems and provides answers as to many outcomes of HR reforms.

Public administration has traditionally been characterised with such bureaucratic features as hierarchical and formalised organisational structure, clear and rigid career paths, lifetime tenure, full-time employment, principle of seniority, advantageous pension schemes and rigid remuneration systems. These features were introduced in late 19th century to reduce the risk of excessive political influence, corruption, misconduct and instability of government. Today, however, numerous administrative and managerial reforms are affecting these longstanding aspects of public employment. Size and composition of workforce, its working and employment conditions, nature of work, and values and legal status are all undergoing a process of change. The various reforms are also gradually shrinking the size of central public administrations of the EU-27 Member States. They are becoming more decentralised and fragmented, more diversified, more aligned and less specific. The on-going financial crisis and the introduction of hasty austerity measures have a strong impact on the public workforce in most EU Member States. So far, restructuring programmes and effects of austerity measures have not been a subject of rigorous scrutiny. Similarly, the effects of public management reforms have not been studied either and have resulted in national administrations having no longer a single coherent framework. Filling this important gap, this comparative study attempts to assess the effects of these developments in public employment in the central public administrations of the EU Member States offering insight into the future of public employment.

Comparative studies of public-service ethics at the central governmental level in the EU Member States have a rather short history. Particularly, only a few studies have discussed the institutionalisation of ethics and the effectiveness of ethics instruments. Filling this gap and taking one step further, this particular comparative study analyses to what extent the transition towards a new and more complex concept of ethics and governance has proved effective and fruitful. The authors argue that discussions about ethics should be better integrated into other policy areas that affect the behaviour of public officials. These include public management reforms, human resource policies and leadership styles, perceptions of organisational fairness, impact of the ongoing financial crisis as well as cost-and-benefit considerations. The book provides a comprehensive view and analysis of the developments in the field of public-service ethics.

This volume compares and analyses the national civil services and the most important reform trends in the 27 Member States of the European Union. The authors first examine the reform processes concerning civil servants’ legal status, organisational changes, recruitment policies, remuneration, decentralisation of human resource responsibilities, job security and ethics. They consider in what ways similarities and differences can be detected amongst the 27 Member States and whether and to what extent the national civil services move away from traditional bureaucratic structures. Finally, the authors discuss the main outcomes of the reform processes and the future of the classical civil service. This publication contrasts with the many popular and speculative statements that too often capture the headlines on the future of the civil service and the different human resource management reforms. Instead, it is a measured conclusion about emerging trends and developments in this important policy area. The authors argue that the reform of the public sector will not, as many have predicted, be characterised by clear changes and progress in the area. Instead, the outcomes of the reform reveal a more complex picture of piecemeal and paradoxical patterns of change.