Rationalizing Civil Servant Incentives



In the wake of the Katrina blame-game, my first thought about the root of the problem is the culture of risk-aversion inherent in bureaucracy. Given that we do need lots of people to tackle big problems, is there any way to organize them to be more responsive and accountable -- without the discipline of the military or the customer pressures of corporations?

In that context, I was pleasantly surprised to see this report on Performance-Oriented Pay Systems from the GAO (hat tip to Our Friend Andy). First of all, I think they identify the right problem:

in many cases the federal government has not transformed how it classifies, compensates, develops, and motivates its employees to achieve maximum results within available resources and existing authorities.

Next, they put the required changes in context:

The shift to market-based and more performance-oriented pay must be part of a broader strategy of change management and performance improvement initiatives.

Finally, they spell out what the success factors are:

as a precondition to effective pay reform, individual expectations must be clearly aligned with organizational results, communication on individual contributions to annual goals must be ongoing and two-way, meaningful distinctions in employee performance must be made, and cultural changes must be undertaken.resources and existing authorities.

Well said! I hope someone is listening...

Posted: Wed - September 28, 2005 at 11:58 AM        

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