The Effects of Civil Service Management Practices on Bureaucratic Attitudes and Behaviour

Abstract

Civil service management practices – how public servants are recruited, paid and promoted, for instance – are central in shaping the attitudes and behaviour of public servants. As such, management practices contribute importantly to state capacity and the quality of public service delivery. Yet, to date, empirical evidence on the attitudinal and behavioural effects of civil service management practices is surprisingly thin. This panel contains a range of papers which address this gap through qualitative, observational and experimental studies. Two of the papers focus particularly on civil service management and public service motivation, that is the individual predisposition to respond to motives grounded primarily or uniquely in public institutions. A paper by Tepe and Prokop conducts a linear public goods game with students in Germany to compare the effects of PSM and punishment on contribution behavior. Meyer-Sahling in turn draws on a large-scale original survey of civil servants to assess the relationship between civil service management practices and public service motivation. Two further papers in turn look specifically at the role of politicization in the civil service. Randma-Liiv draws on interview evidence from Estonia to shed light on turnover of senior public servants and their public service bargains with their political masters. Maruful Islam in turn looks at patronage in public employment in Nepal and Bangladesh, drawing on survey and interview evidence. Lastly, Pesti looks at an often neglected topic in the civil service: ancillary activities and moonlighting, by drawing on survey evidence and interviews from Estonia.