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Britain's public sector has undergone a series of radical structural and managerial changes over the past 20 years. These changes are associated with public‐sector reform and innovations in public management. They have impacted significantly on the ways in which public employees are recruited, selected, rewarded, assessed, trained and managed. This article outlines the impact of these changes on staff participation and involvement practices in the civil service, National Health Service (NHS) and local government, and highlights some of the major trends.

This book explores the role of civil servants and their trade unions in the public management reform process, framing it in its economic, social, cultural and legal contexts. Building on neo-institutional and stakeholder theories, the book shows how staff and their representative organisations have influenced the formulation and implementation of public management reforms in twelve OECD countries. This study challenges top-down elite theories that have dominated the existing literature, explaining how staff participation practices, both direct and indirect, have impacted on the implementation

PurposeThis paper examines the effects of performance driven public services on managerial behaviour and the values that influence individual actions.Design/methodology/approachThe approach is historical/institutional within a constructed theoretical frameworkFindingsFuelled by the "new public management" movement, public managers are forced to act in performance‐driven ways and instruments like "performance contracts" and "performance‐related pay" are being used to improve managerial behaviour and the professionalism of public officials. Consequently, public managers have acquired personal stakes in public organizations because when they meet organizational targets, they reap financial rewards. More efficiency, lower costs, and less waste, more responsiveness to customers, and increased flexibility are perceived to be good for society. These changes, however, are more than instrumental. They are about changing identities and changing the meaning of acting as a public official. Traditional Weberian ideas about how such organizing furthers the public good have been replaced by a performance‐driven conception of public management, which is strong on organizing, but weak on the public good. The paper concludes that professional public managers must be judged within the context of the "res publica".Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the debate about professionalism within the context of NPM and whether this is compatible with a view of public service as serving the public interest

PurposeTo compare and contrast the changes introduced in Canada and Switzerland as a result of public management reforms and explore the ethical challenges they entail.Design/methodology/approachThis is a case study of two countries based in part on secondary sources but also on observations made by the authors.FindingsThe strategies used in each country are different reflecting their distinct political institutions. But there is a commonality, namely the emergence of new ethical problems related to the changes under way. Each country has tackled these new ethical challenges in similar ways. Individual and group behaviour of both Canadian and Swiss civil servants is regulated through "external controls" (codes of ethics, rules of conduct), but also by means of the socialization of new professional values (quality of customer service, flexibility, innovation, creativity, efficiency and effectiveness). These external controls and new values are insufficient, however, to allow civil servants to develop their own capacity for ethical deliberation, an essential condition for enhancing ethical behaviour in modern public administrations.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are not based on a systematic comparative study and can only therefore be interpreted as indicative.Originality/valueThe writers offer an interesting model relating to methods of behaviour regulation in an ethical public service and the need to ensure that the public good and the public interest remain at the core of public servants identity.

PurposeThis research paper analyses the extent to which national systems are following "new pay" trends, or whether there are still traditional features, which reflect the specificity of employment in the public sector and the psychological contracts of public servants.Design/methodology/approachThe data used in this paper was based on an online survey of six countries and was completed by pay experts in each case.FindingsPrevious comparative research on civil service pay systems has focused mostly on specific aspects of pay but this paper looks at a wide range of pay characteristics. It finds that although there have been changes in pay systems in the six countries studied, the "new pay" model has not been fully adopted and traditional reward systems are still strong, with the exception of Sweden and to a lesser extent the UK and Denmark. This is related to the importance that civil servants attach to their psychological contract in which equity and collectivism remain central valuesOriginality/valueThe paper demonstrates that cultural factors and psychological contracts are important in influencing both practices and attitudes towards change in reward systems across countries and that traditional identities of public service are still evident.

Designed for both practitioners and academics, this work seeks to inform the reader about the practice of competency management services in the public sector. It throws light on the origins and meanings of the concept and traces the competency movement from the 1980s in the UK and USA.