Federal employees
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Federal employees are not covered by many of the same regulations to which employees in private industry are subject, and many among the general public associate "bureaucrats" with federal employees. The federal government is often perceived as being unwieldy, inefficient, and a bastion of employees who would not be able to perform effectively in private industry. In 1978, Congress tried to address these concerns with the Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA), the last major overhaul of the federal employment system. In the intervening 20 years, the Act has been both lauded and criticized for its effects with even its supporters calling for additional reform. This research examines the Act and its effects over the past two decades from a human resource management perspective.Traditionally, the federal government used centralized management of the staffing process to achieve social objectives. In addition to seeking to find workers who could perform the tasks at hand, the federal government also sought to provide a progressive employment environment with upward mobility for its employees and with affirmative action at the core of its hiring practices (a philosophy which was put into place during the 1960s). Prospective employees were subject to standardized examinations developed to eliminate personal bias in the hiring and recruiting process (the Federal Service Entrance Examination, for example). These exams, and indeed the Civil S
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ence necessary to run an effective agency, but who were often lured to private industry. CSRA also introduced reforms through which poorly performing employees can have action taken against them; this was designed to improve the overall performance of the civil service. However, CSRA did not eliminate provisions from 1912 legislation which makes it difficult to terminate nonperformers (Brumback 111).
Civil Service After CSRA
Since CSRA, the civil service as a whole has become more decentralized with an increasing number of human resource decisions being made at the field office level. There has been a trend toward field offices being more active in their own recruiting and testing, and these activities have moved beyond merely the staffing levels. However, there has been difficulty with implementing some of the other provisions of CSRA, including those regarding poor performance among workers. In some cases, managers are simply not familiar with the CSRA regulations and how they can be used to improve performance; in other cases, managers are reluctant to implement procedures that represent a significant departure with the way that problems were handled in the past (Robisch 75).
Even those civil service workers who were sp
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Some common words found in the essay are:
CSRA CSRA, Personnel Manual, Protection Board, Conclusion CSRA, Personnel Management, CSRA Traditionally, CSC CSC, Service SES, Introduction Federal, Service Commission, civil service, federal government, human resource, service commission, civil service commission, private industry, service reform, democratic administration, civil service reform, civil service csra, introduced reforms, office personnel, personnel management, office personnel management, human resource professionals,
Approximate Word count = 1601
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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