Abstract
THE problem of personnel in the Civil Service and other public services cannot be considered altogether apart from the nature and range of the work which the post-war public services will be called upon to do, and this in turn is affected by the nature of the social and economic structure of the country. It is not only that free migration and interchange both between the national and municipal services and between these and the public or semi-public corporations is much to be desired, but rather that the essential social structure of the community and the relative importance of the service and the profit motives have important repercussions. It must obviously influence the underlying philosophy of the Civil Servant, whether the source of his inspiration be integrity and tendency, to play for safety as in the past, or that more difficult part now needed of reconciling integrity and. firmness of. administration with the acceptance of responsibility and the capacity for co-ordinated initiative ; the character of the new machinery of government is also of fundamental importance. However far that passion for excellence insisted upon by Lord Haldane may sway a reconstructed Civil Service from top to bottom, it will not function with the desired efficiency unless the machinery of government itself is adapted to the new demands. Without any disparagement of a Service which has deservedly earned itself a unique reputation throughout the world, it is clear that adjustment, both of the personnel and of methods of working, is required to meet present and future problems.
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PROBLEMS OF PERSONNEL IN PUBLIC SERVICES. Nature 150, 357–359 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/150357a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/150357a0