The Influence Of Structure And Culture On The Irish Civil Service

Throughout the rigmarole of political history of the United States of America, the growth of the “fourth branch of government”, the Bureaucracy, has been a prominent, controversial topic. Peter Woll, in his article “Constitutional Democracy and Bureaucratic Power”, and James Q. Wilson, in his article “The Rise of the Bureaucratic State”, discuss this developing administrative branch. The Constitution has no written mention of an “administrative branch”, and today’s Bureaucracy is often tedious, corrupt, and even undemocratic. But such a branch’s development and expansion is necessary in order to keep par with an evolving and changing society.

In his book, Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies do and why they do it, James Q. Wilson’s main objective is to better define the behavior of governmental bureaucracy, believing traditional organizational and economic theory does not adequately explain their actions. Wilson believes that government agencies are doomed to be perceived as inefficient entities by the public. He gives examples of commonly held perceptions of bureaucracies and reveals how these are mostly misconceptions. He points to the environment of bureaucracy, where rules and procedures, dictate goals, along with context, constraints, values, and norms.

While working for the department, it became very apparent that the practices and management style of the Department Director significantly affected the culture and daily activities of the individual sections under his leadership. First, he would set objectives and standards for the individual sections. These objectives usually looked good on paper but were often unrealistic when applied to daily operations. These lofty ideals, set as goals to middle management, seemed overwhelming and out of touch with the reality of hands on field operations. As a result, middle management would frequently choose to either change or completely disregard the given directives. This disconnect in the chain of command would often cause confusion and inconsistencies at the operations level. Additionally, lack of follow-up meant the Department Director assumed his set objectives were being carried out while lower level employees remained uninformed.

Although some might believe that bureaucrats are always trying to expand their agencies, researches have proved that is not always the case. Instead, they try to validate their position by doing a good job for the people.

"To the extent that US bureaucracy succeeds, it is due not just to the competent work inside individual organization but the competent interactions among them.” (Goodsell 2008) This quote from Goodsell’s book sums up the book perfectly for me when it comes to the tasks that society puts on bureaucrats. Before reading Charles Goodsell’s, The Case for Bureaucracy: A Public Administration Polemic, I did not appreciate the United States Government and what is accomplishes on a daily basis. Goodsell’s book examines how essential the United States’ public service institutions are, even when though they are often heavily criticized. Goodsell showcases the research he’s conducted and survey evidence that shows how that bureaucracy is effective in accomplishing tasks that are free of corruption and staffed with employees who are passionate about their work. He discusses criticism and misconceptions of the United States system of government and argues against that. Overall, Goodsell’s book has reinforced and fully convinced me that bureaucracy at all levels in the government is both effective and efficient. The thesis of the book is to describe the larger difference between bureaucracy’s reputation and its actual record. Goodsell discusses issues of bureaucracy, over expectations of bureaucracy, and why bureaucracy is so important. Common misconceptions

Kernaghan, K. 2000. The Post-Bureaucratic Organization and Public Services Values. Interational Review of Administrative Sciences 66. 2000, pp. 92-93.

critiques is that the new forms reflect not the “end” of bureaucracy but a complex,

Civil service reform act or CSRA is the first federally passed civil service reform after the Pendleton act of 1883. Leading up to the passing of the CSRA, the federal government grew in both size and complexity which caused the public to question the government cost and blame policy failures on the

During the initial stages of my employment as Project Officer and Executive Assistant with TAFE Queensland, I helped oversee a mass restructure which involved 9 previously independent TAFE divisions merge into one entity. In my first week, the Director required me to prepare an urgent ministerial brief, which needed input and approval by five senior executives and submission to the Minister’s office within three days. The information required for the brief was detailed, so it was crucial that I researched the organisational structure, governance and project details.

Thank you for your comment, hoping I understood you correctly, but it sounds like OPM is the weakest link. OPM is the personnel management of civil service government, and they are responsible for government offices. The question lies if they are not functioning or operating effectively then, is this the prime reason(s), some of those agencies decided to separate from OPM? This is very interesting because I was not aware that OPM have major challenges until six months ago. Most information about OPM challenges are from classmates and class discussions. The reading this week provided one of their many challenges that OPM faces. It very much understandable, they needed guidance from the PPS. We hope that things get better in the future for

The Pendleton Civil Service Act’s purpose is to award federal government jobs to individuals based off merit, rather than cronyism or nepotism. In the context of public administration, this law has established benchmarks for the field of public administration, but it does not go without its disadvantages. This act bred performance management application in the public administration community by establishing tests and performance measurements that certainly outweigh the nature of providing government jobs due to party affiliation The act inherently eliminates a disadvantageous federal job market, and seeks to benefit those who can perform to the standards of the position. The benefits of this system outweigh its detriments, but I seek to examine how this system works today, and if its initial purpose was carried on.

Politics/administration dichotomy- when viewing this opposition, it should be seen as politicians writing and making rules while bureaucrats implement and put in place the policies and programs for the public to utilize. Administration and politics are seen as two separate components where they should not interface with one another. Even with them being a separate field of study, they have no choice but to integrate. As Woodrow Wilson looked at how politics and administration were forming, he felt the importance of government employees conduct themselves in a professional business manner while ensuring their accountability of providing proper services to the people and not partake in political philosophies. Politics are aligned with elected officials who write and pass the policies to be implemented by government agencies which are then applied by civil servants. By achieving this responsibility, public sector employees are required to embrace the values and principles to ensure efficiency, legitimacy, and

Concerning public ministers, a ruler should field competent ministers who seek to serve the state and not their own interests. Essentially, public servants or bureaucrats could fall under this same criteria of selfless service. This does not mean that ministers should go without rewards due to them for good service, but should a minister think himself able to be the ruler they should be removed. Good public servants will contribute to the reputation of the head of state and incompetent ministers will reflect poorly on the ruler. This is similar to a well known concept of leadership where the leader accepts responsibility for both the success and failings of their subordinates regardless of if the leader actually had any influence in the situations that transpire. When dealing with ministers and advisors it is important for a ruler to acknowledge their advice but not take it as absolute truth or in the best interest of the ruler. It is very possible that advisors will have ulterior motives and attempt to influence the ruler for their own gain. A ruler must be open to advice but be swift with discarding manipulative advisors for their own sake and the sake of the state because a manipulative advisor is not acting in the best interest of the state.

Civil service systems are designed to hire and promote members of the bureaucracy on the basis of merit. The merit principle is the idea that hiring should be based on entrance exams and promotion ratings to reward qualified individuals to produce an administration of skilled and talented people. All civil servant applicants must pass an exam that measures skills related to the particular civil service position they hope to fill. Some civil service exams are general and apply to a wide range of jobs, whereas others are focused on a particular type of job. I do not see how a “merit exam” can truly show how successful a potential civil servant would be performing in a particular position. An exam may be able to measure the extent of their paper knowledge on the position, but does not reflect how well a civil servant would be able to apply their knowledge to their job. Standardized tests are often frowned upon in public schools, with some politicians and scholars arguing that standardized tests measure how well a student can take the test, and does not measure how much he or she has learned. The same applies to these merit exams. I do not believe that a potential bureaucrat should earn their government position through entrance exams. The exam does not measure how successful a bureaucrat would be at performing their job, but rather measures their test-taking abilities. I believe that a potential bureaucrat should have to partake in a two-year-long paid internship in their

In this book Aminullah chronicles the story of Civil Service into four major themes for each of which he allocates one part of the book. The first theme is role of the Indian civil services in shaping the major characteristic of Pakistan Civil Services. Here he maintains that after independence it was very difficult to run the government machinery with meager resources but the professionally competent officers managed it