Public Service Motivation and Merit Principles in the U.S. Civil Service

The merit principle is the centerpiece of civil service systems in most developed countries, but these systems have been heavily criticized in recent years. Put simply, critics believe these merit-based systems evolve into... [ view full abstract ]

The merit principle is the centerpiece of civil service systems in most developed countries, but these systems have been heavily criticized in recent years. Put simply, critics believe these merit-based systems evolve into byzantine, overly complex rule structures that stifle bureaucratic innovation and performance, and evade political accountability. Civil service reformers have thus sought to weaken the merit principle and roll back employee protections in many countries. In all likelihood, these formal efforts are only the tip of the iceberg: public organizations are now operating in a political environment with less tolerance for merit system protections and greater expectations for employee performance. The U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) focused intently on employee perceptions of how well supervisors and agencies were abiding by merit principles in their 2010 Merit Principles Survey of federal employees (N=42,010). In that survey, the MSPB included a 24-item battery of questions distilled from federal law on the merit principle to assess how well it was faring in this time of turbulent change. These items fall into three closely related dimensions: fairness, stewardship and protection (see Appendix D of MSPB 2013). In this paper we will: 1) examine the extent to which these important dimensions of the merit principle are being preserved in actual practice, 2) identify the factors related to their integrity, and 3) explore antecedents such as public service motivation of employees and the implementation of civil service reform provisions; and consequences such as perceived quality of work and turnover intentions. This analysis provides an important panorama of how civil service systems are evolving in a time of profound change, and spotlight the major departmental battlegrounds where the merit principle is in peril.