Encyklopedia Administracji Publicznej MW Pivot Skin

POSITIONAL MODEL OF CIVIL SERVICE – also known as open or contractual model, is based on the recruitment of candidates for specific positions. Recruitment methods are modelled on principles adopted in the private sector. The senior official assesses the employee’s performance and achieved results. There are no separate provisions governing the civil service, in particular those relating to disciplinary proceedings. The provisions governing the employment issues (working conditions, wages and pensions) are defined in the framework of a collective agreement resulting from negotiations between the government and the trade unions. Wages are determined on the basis of the assessment of difficulty and responsibility of a specific position, but are also dependent on the labour market situation. The agreements with employees are flexible and adapted to the needs of the employer. The work conditions are similar to those in the private sector. The experience from the employment in private sector counts equally as in the public sector. For promotions to higher positions, experience from outside the public sector is helpful. It is not a model that guarantees long-term employment – employees are hired for a fixed period of time on a contract basis and are not automatically promoted for the next levels of the service hierarchy. Performance management is based on target contracts. In this model, entry and intermediate positions are open to the EU citizens and therefore foreign workers’ professional experience is recognized. Training is not compulsory. The disadvantage of the positional model is the loss of professional stabilization of officials, which translates into a weak sense of → public service mission. The loss of institutional memory is associated with weak stability of staff, resulting in the emergence of a “broken door effect”, that is a cyclical training of the newly employed on the procedures and mechanisms of the institution, which negatively affects quality, efficiency and labour costs. The proponents of this model emphasize its flexibility, motivation, individualized wage system, dependent on the results achieved by an official, a decentralized recruitment system, coupled with a lack of preference for former officials in the recruitment process, informality of contacts between senior and lower officials (they are voluntary, free, and natural), increased productivity, openness to communication with the public, improved communication between particular units and the political level. Countries with a positional model include: Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Bulgaria, the United Kingdom, Estonia, Norway (and among the non-European countries, e.g., the USA, New Zealand) [ J. Itrich-Drabarek ].

Literature: Ch. Demmke, Civil Services Between Tradition and Reform, EIPA, Maastricht 2004 ■ J. Itrich-Drabarek, Uwarunkowania, standardy i kierunki zmian służby cywilnej w Polsce na tle europejskim, Warszawa 2010 ■ J. Itrich-Drabarek, The Civil Service in Poland – Theory and Experience, Frankfurt am Main 2015.