Traditional Approaches to the Merit Principle in the Queensland Public Service from 1859 to 1959

View/ Open
Author(s)
Colley, Linda
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2005
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The traditional career public service model of employment was ostensibly based on the merit principle. It was considered that merit criteria would ensure employment based on what you knew rather than who you knew, and remove patronage. This paper challenges this claim through an historical review of Queensland public employment. It finds that although the merit principle was often enshrined in legislation, subsequent regulations, policies and practices subverted this legislative intention. Merit was balanced against social values including gender and class discrimination, and against circumstances such as wars. This had ...
View more >The traditional career public service model of employment was ostensibly based on the merit principle. It was considered that merit criteria would ensure employment based on what you knew rather than who you knew, and remove patronage. This paper challenges this claim through an historical review of Queensland public employment. It finds that although the merit principle was often enshrined in legislation, subsequent regulations, policies and practices subverted this legislative intention. Merit was balanced against social values including gender and class discrimination, and against circumstances such as wars. This had implications for the skill levels and quality of public employees, and therefore for public policy and public services.
View less >
View more >The traditional career public service model of employment was ostensibly based on the merit principle. It was considered that merit criteria would ensure employment based on what you knew rather than who you knew, and remove patronage. This paper challenges this claim through an historical review of Queensland public employment. It finds that although the merit principle was often enshrined in legislation, subsequent regulations, policies and practices subverted this legislative intention. Merit was balanced against social values including gender and class discrimination, and against circumstances such as wars. This had implications for the skill levels and quality of public employees, and therefore for public policy and public services.
View less >
Conference Title
Reworking work .AIRAANZ 05 Proceedings of the 19th Association of Industrial Relations Academics Australia and New Zealand
Publisher URI
Copyright Statement
© 2005 Association of Industrial Relations Academics Australia & New Zealand (AIRAANZ). The attached file is posted here with permission of the copyright owner for your personal use only. No further distribution permitted. Use hypertext link for access to publisher's website.