The Reinvention of Public Personnel Administration: An Analysis of the Diffusion of Personnel Management Reforms in the States

• Date: 01 March 2003
• Published date: 01 March 2003
• Author: Sally Coleman Selden,J. Edward Kellough
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1540-6210.00277

The Reinvention of Public Personnel Administration 165

J. Edward Kellough

University of Georgia

Sally Coleman Selden

Lynchburg College

The Reinvention of Public Personnel Administration:

An Analysis of the Diffusion of Personnel

Management Reforms in the States

Reform is a common theme in American public administration. During the twentieth century at

least 12 major administrative reforms have taken place at the federal level and countless others in

state and local governments. Frequently, these reforms have addressed the operation of public

personnel management systems. Recent efforts associated with the reinventing government move-

ment, for example, have proposed numerous alterations to civil service rules and procedures, and

many jurisdictions have implemented significant changes in their personnel practices. This article

examines the extent to which these kinds of personnel reforms have been implemented by state

governments. A reform index is developed to document the considerable variation among the

states in their approach to personnel practices. Several state characteristics are associated with

scores on this index, including legislative professionalism, which bears a positive relationship to

reform, and the level of unemployment within a state and the proportion of state employees asso-

ciated with public employee unions, which are both negatively associated with reform.

Administrative reform has been a common refrain in

the history of American public administration. Govern-

ments periodically and regularly have undertaken admin-

istrative changes as they have struggled to find ways to

continually improve public management and the delivery

of public services. From the beginning of the twentieth

century until its close, one can count as many as 12 sub-

stantial and highly visible efforts to reform federal admin-

istrative arrangements (about one every eight years on av-

erage), and, of course, there were ground-breaking reforms

in the late nineteenth century associated with the initial

implementation of merit principles (Hays and Kearney

1997; Ingraham 1992; Kellough 1998).1 There have also

been innumerable reform efforts in state and local govern-

ments (National Commission on State and Local Public

Service 1993; Selden, Ingraham, and Jacobson 2001).

Obviously, reform may be undertaken for political reasons

as well as for more instrumental or managerial reasons

(Kellough and Lu 1993; Thompson, Riccucci, and Ban

1991). Whatever the primary impetus, significant change

in the administrative structure of government is often the

result. Frequently, such effort has focuses on the public

personnel system and the manner in which it is organized

and operated.

The focus on personnel practices as the object of re-

form is not surprising given the central importance of per-

sonnel management to effective government operations

J. Edward Kellough is an associate professor in the Department of Public

Administration and Policy at the School of Public and International Affairs of

the University of Georgia. His major area of academic interest is public per-

sonnel management. His research addresses equal employment opportunity

and affirmative action, representative bureaucracy, the reinventing govern-

ment movement, and civil service reform. He is the author of numerous ar-

ticles in scholarly journals. Email: kellough@uga.edu.

Sally Coleman Selden is an associate professor of management at Lynchburg

College. Her current research is focused on strategic human resource man-

agement and collaboration between public, nonprofit, and private organi-

zations. Articles have appeared in

Public Administration Review, American

Journal of Political Science, Administration and Society, American Review of

Public Administration, Review of Public Personnel Administration, Journal of

Public Administration Education, Journal of Public Policy and Management,

and

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory.

Email:

selden@lynchburg.edu.