This research discusses the evolution of management principles that have guided the operations and services of the federal, state and local governments through history. The spoils system, scientific management system, equal employment opportunity system and reinventing government are highlighted.
For more than one hundred years the federal, state and local governments have received a combination of recommendations and mandates from the courts, professional associations, and academicians for the implementation of proper personnel practices. The thrust of the suggested or required human resource policies has been portrayed to various degrees as a progression from the spoils system to the merit system to reinventing government, with professional standards slowly supplanting political considerations. The evidence regarding this progression model consists largely of conceptual analyses, case studies, and simple descriptive computations (Fox, 1993, p. 5). But as practitioners, consultants, and academicians look for ways to reinvent the public service in federal, state and local government, more needs to be known about existing conditions.
The historical evolution of governmental management practices represents a linear process by which a successive addition of new professional personnel principles slowly replaces patronage and other deficient practices. The process begins in the early nineteenth century with the concept of the spoils system. The spoils system in government was not really a school of management as much as it was a simple means for officeholders and party leaders to solidify power by rewarding the faithful with public largess, usually in the form of jobs or opportunities.
In the late nineteenth century, the spoils system came under attack by reformers and academics who sought a more scientific style of governmental management. This came to be known as the merit system or civil service reform. Originally, four prim...