Civil Service, Collective Bargaining and Personnel-Related Impediments To Effective State Management: a Comparative Assessment

Abstract

Based on the responses of managers in ten states, this article examines various personnel-related problems as impediments to effective state management. Substantial proportions of managers in all of the states surveyed viewed as serious problems adequately rewarding employee performance, procedures for hiring personnel required by civil service, disciplining or dismissing incompetent employees, and recruiting and retaining key staff. Interstate variation in the severity of certain personnel-related problems was also evident. While the extent of civil service coverage was positively correlated with particular personnel problems, the relationship between it and personnel-related difficulties was not always strong or consistent. The extent to which a state government's workforce collectively bargained was strongly and positively correlated with the severity of certain personnel problems. But even in states with extensive collective bargaining, only about a fifth of the managers considered various "union" problems to be serious impediments to effective management.