Conceptual Differentiation of Careers: A Closer Look at the Professionalisation of Top Civil Servants

Top civil servants in the ministerial bureaucracy connect the political and the administrative sphere in government. They are hand-picked by the minister and offer both policy advice and strategic support. Due to this prominent role, the characteristics of top civil servants are an important topic for public administration scholarship. Especially interesting are their careers during which they develop the professional skills needed for the top position. Which skills and experience are deemed important is often inferred from a person’s employment within a certain type of organisation (e.g. ministries) or sector (e.g. public administration as a whole). However, such a categorisation of careers disregards the inner diversity of sectors and organisations, in which different positions might equip individuals with a widely ranging set of skills. Valid career research, therefore, necessitates a differentiated classification of careers taking this diversity into account. The paper proposes a conceptualisation of careers by assigning positions within an individual’s employment history according to their function instead of their allocation within a sector or organisation. Drawing from a prosopographical analysis of more than 1,500 top civil servants in German federal ministries between 1949 and 2018, the paper shows that a differentiation of careers allows for more nuanced deductions regarding the skills that are considered necessary for top civil servants.