Civil service reform, at-will employment, and George Santayana: Are we condemned to repeat the past?

Public Personnel Management

Volumn 36, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 65-76

  Williams, Russell L ^a   Bowman, James S ^b  

^a Florida State University ^*  (United States)

^b FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 34147208237     PISSN: 00910260     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (62)

1. Santayana, G. (1920). Character and opinion in the United States. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, p. vii.
2. Downs, G. & Larkey, P (1986). The search for government efficiency. New York: Random,
3. as well as Harmon, M. and Mayer, R. (1986). Organizational theory for public administration. Boston: Little, Brown.
4. Condrey, S. & Maranto, R. (2001). Radical reform of the civil service. New York: Lexington Books
5. and also Kellough, J. and Nigro, L. (2006). Civil service reform in the states. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
6. Bowman, J. (2002). At-will employment in Florida government: A naked formula to corrupt the civil service. WorkingUSA: The Journal of Labor and Society 6 (2), 90-102.
7. For example, see Santayana, 1920, pp. v-vi.
8. Ibid, p. vii.
9. Ibid, p.71.
10. Wilson, W. (1887). The study of administration. Political Science Quarterly 2 (2), 197-222.
11. Ingraham, P. (1995). The foundation of merit: Public service in American democracy. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
12. Epstein, R. (1999). In defense of the contract at will. In T. Donaldson and P. Werhane (Eds.), Ethical issues in business (pp. 314-322). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
13. MacDonald, J. and Beck-Dudley, C. (2001). A natural law defense to the employment law question: A response to Richard Epstein, American Business Law Journal 38 (2), 363-411.
14. Muhl, C. (2001). The employment-at-will doctrine: Three major exceptions. Monthly Labor Review 124 (1), pp. 3-12.
15. The source for this table is page 96 of Bowman, 2002.
16. Defense Department proposal; Permission should be denied. (2002, February 24). Federal Times, 20.
17. Lauer, N. (2003, April 2). Bill would ax agency for blind. Tallahassee Democrat, 4B.
18. Santayana, G. (1954 [1905-1906]). The life of reason. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, p. 236.
19. Thompson, D. F. (1992). Paradoxes of government ethics. Public Administration Review 52 (3), 254-259.
20. The next several paragraphs are adapted from Bowman, 2002.
21. Caiden, G. (2002). Enron, accountancy, and professional ethics. Public Integrity 4 (4), 321-332.
22. Santayana, G. (1951). Dominations and powers. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, pp. 33.
23. Florida Council of 100. (2000). Modernizing Florida's civil service system: Moving from protection to performance. Tampa, FL: Author.
24. Ibid. See also Olson, W (1999). The excuse factory: How employment law is paralyzing the American workplace. New York: Free Press.
25. Cotterell, B. (2001, March 20). House speeds state worker bill. Tallahassee Democrat, 4B.
26. For a comprehensive discussion of Service First, see Bowman, J., West, J. & Gertz, S. (2006). Florida's "Service First": Radical reform in the Sunshine State. In J. Kellough & L. Nigro (Eds.), Civil Service Reform in the States. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
27. The brief, if pivotal, Council of 100 report for example was prepared by an Atlanta consulting firm. One long time national observer of state government described the effort as "comical" and a local newspaper letter to the editor called it "sophomoric." The Council did not meet to discuss or approve the document.
28. Special Master Report (2001). In the matter of fact finding between the State of Florida and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 79 Hearings and Special Master Recommendations, March 12-14, Tallahassee, FL, p. 75.
29. Cotterell, B. (2001, May 15). "State 'efficiency czar' resigns in protest." Tallahassee Democrat, 1A-2A.
30. Bowman, J. S., Gertz, M. G., Gertz, S. C., & Williams, R. L. (2003). Civil service reform in Florida: State employees attitudes one year later, Review of Public Personnel Administration 23 (4), 286-304.
31. Anonymous survey participant quoted in Bowman et al, 2003, p. 297.
32. Santayana, 1920, p. 9.
33. Rainey, H. & Kellough, J. (2000). Civil service reform and incentives in the public service. In J. Pfiffner and D. Brook (Eds.), The Future of Merit (pp. 127-145). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
34. Cotterell, 2001, May 15.
35. Santayana, 1920, p. 8.
36. Allison, G. T., Jr. (1980). Public and private management: Are they fundamentally alike in all unimportant respects? In Setting Public Management Research Agendas: Integrating the Sponsor, Producer, and User (pp. 27-38). Washington, DC: Office of Personnel Management. OPM Document 127-53-1.
37. Parts of this section are adapted from Bowman, 2002.
38. th Amendment. However, unions have been successful in negotiating the procedures to implement due process - a reason why civil service reformers in Florida and elsewhere seek to erode unions by legislative action.
39. Fraser, J. (2001). White collar sweatshop. New York: Norton, p. 135.
40. In the public sector, many employees are motivated by their desire to help citizens, serve the country, or "make a difference," undermining the assertion that Service First represents "best practice." See Brewer, G., Seldon, S., & Facer, R. (2000). Individual conceptions of public service motivation. Public Administration Review 60 (3), 254-264.
41. These estimates and trends are found in Werhane, E & T. Radin (1999). Employment at will and due process. In T. Donaldson and P Werhane (Eds.), Ethical Issues in Business (pp. 304-314). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, p. 306.
42. See also Halberstam, J. (2000). Work. New York: Perigee, p. 51.
43. Werhane & Radin, 1999.
44. DMS hiring smacks of tone deafness, (2001, May 31). Tallahassee Democrat, 8A.
45. See also Nepotism? If it walks like a duck. (2001, May 4). Tallahassee Democrat, 10A.
46. Lauer, N. (2002, December 7). Yet more state agency chiefs are leaving. Tallahassee Democrat, 2B. Consistent with the employment-at-will doctrine, the action taken was for no apparent reason.
47. Cotterell, B. (2003, April 7). Downside of Service First taking shape. Tallahassee Democrat, 1B.
48. Cotterell, B. (2003b, April 28). How much are employees valued at DCF? Tallahassee Democrat, 1B.
49. See Benny Chestnut v. Department of Corrections, Case No. 01-0604 (Fla. 1st Dist. Ct. App.);
50. Lori Cooper v. Department of Children and Family Services, Case No. 1D02-2375 (Fla. 1st Dist. Ct. App.);
51. Robert Reinshuttle v. Agency for Health Care Administration, Case No. 1D02-1505 (Fla. 1st Dist. Ct. App);
52. Barbara Watson v. Department of Children and Family Services, Case No. 1D02-1751 (Fla. 1st Dist. Ct. App.);
53. Judith Jolly v. Department of Children and Family Services, Case No. 1D02-3504 (Fla. 1st Dist. Ct. App.);
54. Ernest Barkley v. Department of Children and Family Services, Case No. 1D02-3511 (Fla. 1st Dist. Ct. App.).
55. Lindley, M. (2002, November 3). In search of pride in Florida. Tallahassee Democrat, 1E.
56. Santayana, 1954 [1905-1906], p. 82.
57. For a discussion of this concept, see Fukuyama, F. (1995). Trust: The social virtues and the creation of prosperity. New York: Free Press.
58. This is engagingly explored in Putman, R. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon and Schuster.
59. th Era. New York: Simon and Shuster.
60. Santayana, 1954 [1905-1906], p. 12.
61. st century. Washington, DC: Brookings.
62. Santayana, G. (1968 [1922]). Santayana on America. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, Inc, p. 191.