New development: Is it time for New Public Service Bargain?

Abstract

Extant research has shown that the civil service and public sector are no longer an employer of choice. This article explores the reasons for the declining interest in the civil and public service as a career, and argues that decades of neoliberal public sector reforms and New Public Management, with a focus on efficiency and cost-effectiveness, have contributed to the reputation of the public sector as having comparatively lower pay, being under-resourced and having high levels of performance accountabilities. The author argues for a paradigm shift in human resource practices in order to attract, retain and employ skilled and talented civil and public servants to ensure governments’ capacity to deliver public services. The author suggests a New Public Service Bargain with public sector and civil service employment based on more of a human relations approach, providing more meaningful and rewarding work and to ensure the capacity of the state to effectively deliver public services.