Civil Service Reform: Building a Government that Works

by Donald F. Kettl

"
The authors of this book contend that the civil service system, which was devised to create a uniform process for recruiting high-quality workers to government, is no longer uniform or a system. Nor does it help government find and retain the workers it needs to build a government that works. The current civil service system was designed for a government in which federal agencies directly delivered most public services. But over the last generation, privatization and devolution have increased the number and importance of government's partnerships with private companies, nonprofit organizations, and state and local governments. Government workers today spend much of their time managing these partnerships, not delivering services, and this trend will only accelerate in the future. The authors contend that the current system poorly develops government workers who can effectively manage these partnerships, resulting too often in a gap between promise and performance. This short, lively, and bipartisan volume, authored by the nation's leading experts on government management, describes what the government of the future will look like, what it will need to work well, and how in particular the nation can build the next generation of workers required to lead it.
"

123 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1996

About the author

Donald F. Kettl is a professor at the School of Public Policy and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He served as the dean of the school from 2009-2014. Prior to Maryland, he was the Robert A. Fox Leadership Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and Professor of Political Science.

Professor Kettl is a student of public policy and public management and specializes in the management of public organizations. He has appeared on national television on shows including Good Morning America, the ABC World News Tonight, the CBS Evening News, CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" and "The Situation Room," the Fox News Channel, as well as public television's News Hourand the BBC. He has testified frequently at congressional hearings in Washington and contributed to op-ed pages in major newspapers, including The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Newsday, and The Los Angeles Times. Since 1998, he has been writing a regular column for Governing magazine, "Potomac Chronicle," which is read by leading state and local government officials around the country.

Professor Kettl is the author or editor of a dozen books and monographs, including: The Next Government of the United States: Why Our Institutions Fail Us and How to Fix Them; On Risk and Disaster: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina; The Global Public Management Revolution; and Leadership at the Fed.

Two of his books have been co-winners of the Louis Brownlow Book Award of the National Academy of Public Administration for the best book published in public administration. He is the recipient of the Warner W. Stockberger Achievement Award of the International Public Management Association for Human Resources for outstanding contributions in the field of public sector personnel management (2007); the Donald C. Stone Award of the American Society for Public Administration for significant contributions to the field of intergovernmental management (2005); and the Charles H. Levine Memorial Award of the American Society for Public Administration, in recognition of contributions to research, teaching, and outreach (1998). In 2008, Kettl won the American Political Science's John Gaus Award for a lifetime of exemplary scholarship in political science and public administration.

He has consulted for a broad array of public organizations, including the U.S. Departments of Defense, Energy, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Treasury; the Forest Service, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Budget, the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal National Mortgage Association, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Commission on the Public Service (Volcker Commission), and the National Commission on the State and Local Public Service (Winter Commission). He has advised the White House during both Republican and Democratic administrations and has worked with the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Professor Kettl has also taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Vanderbilt University, the University of Virginia, and Columbia University. He has earned his bachelor's and doctorate degrees from Yale University. He is a fellow of Phi Beta Kappa and the National Academy of Public Administration. He is also a shareholder in the Green Bay Packers.