This thesis focuses on the relationships between Ministers and Civil Servants in British Government. It is argued that the deliberative space for officials to devise and critique policy in tandem with Ministers is contracting. The change occurred after Margaret Thatcher incentivised officials to behave in certain ways, and her embrace of New Public Management made relationships within government more transactional. Given this scenario the thesis explores how relationships between Ministers and officials can be improved. To determine this twenty-five former UK Government Ministers were interviewed complementing an earlier study which examined the issue from the perspective of senior officials. These Ministers reported that successful relationships were most likely to be established when Civil Servants demonstrated effective leadership, commitment to implementing policy, honesty, technical skill, and awareness of political and external realities. In addition it is thought that time invested early in the relationship helps to communicate Ministers’ expectations. Ministers also reported what they feel to be behaviours which undermine the relationship: misunderstanding the professional role of officials, relying upon special advisors rather than direct contact with officials, a lack of managerial experience, and public criticism of officials. Ministers also identified Civil Servants’ behaviours likely to result in poor relationships - appearing averse to change, being unable to rationalise the advantages of existing approaches, and a reluctance to lead or assume responsibility. Some of the perceptions identified in the literature, such as Civil Servants seeking control and lacking competence, were not afforded the same prominence by Ministerial interviewees. They highlighted systemic issues including the feudal and hierarchical nature of Whitehall, and their perception that the wrong skills and behaviours are incentivised. They also noted the lack of training for Ministers and their inability to pass on their experiences to colleagues. In addition to these observations about personal relations respondents expressed a deeper concern about the changing roles and expectations between Ministers and officials. Despite the evident contradiction between contemporary practice and the constitutional position created by Haldane in 1918, Ministers still appear to accept the latter as the basis for their relationships with officials. Further research may be required to explore this, alongside the disparity identified between the ministerial view from the literature and my interviewees, and the training lacuna. The thesis concludes by making a number of recommendations concerning future practice.

This study assesses risk factors for sickness absence in the British civil service. As one component of a large study of psychosocial factors and health, 10,314 civil servants between the age of 35 and 55 completed questionnaires about their work environment, social circumstances outside work, health and health-related behaviours. To obtain a more objective measure of the work environment, personnel managers provided external assessments of participants' jobs. The baseline variables were related to rates of short spells (7 days or less) and long spells (more than 7 days) of sickness absence for 85% of participants, over a mean period of 20 months (6-26 months). There were striking grade differences in sickness absence, with a stepwise increase in rates of both short and long spells from top administrators to clerical and office support staff. Other identified risk factors explained only a third of these grade differences in sickness absence. Further analyses were adjusted for age and grade. Self-reported health was strongly related to rates of long spells and, to a lesser extent, short spells. Adequacy of support and difficulty paying bills were the two factors outside work which related to rates of both short and long spells. Job satisfaction was the only measure of the work environment which related to rates of both short and long spells. Other aspects of the work environment which were associated with increased rates of short spells were low variety and skill use and low support at work for both sexes, and low control, slow work pace and few conflicting demands for men. Self-reports and external assessments of the work environment related to sickness absence in a similar way, suggesting that the work environment itself was important. Factors which did not relate to either short or long spells of sickness absence were marital status, dependent children, the frequency of social contacts and physical activity. Women had higher rates of sickness absence than men and Asians had higher rates than Caucasians. This study identified a number of risk factors for sickness absence and differences in these risk factors for short and long spells of sickness absence. The grade, sex and ethnic differences in sickness absence remained largely unexplained. Group attitudes towards sickness absence may be important. Methodological issues related to the assessment of psychosocial factors are discussed.

Restructuring and widespread workplace closures have exposed white-collar workers to unprecedented levels of job insecurity and unemployment. This thesis describes two studies which examined effects on health of job insecurity and job loss in a longitudinal study of 10,308 white-collar British civil servants. Study 1 examined the consequences of short and long-term job insecurity generated by the transfer of work to agencies which were periodically under threat of privatisation. Relative to unaffected controls, self-reported morbidity increased significantly among respondents expecting transfer to an agency. Physiological measurements, such as blood pressure and body mass index, deteriorated significantly among respondents working in an agency. Increases in morbidity were greater in men than women. Study 2 examined the effects of job insecurity and job loss for respondents in one complete Civil Service department sold to the private sector. Data from three time points were analysed: 2 years pre-privatisation (anticipation phase); 3 months pre-privatisation (pretermination phase); and Ilh years post-privatisation. During the anticipation phase, compared with controls, respondents from the department undergoing privatisation experienced an overall increase in self-reported morbidity. By the pre-termination phase adverse changes were also seen in physiological measures. Postprivatisation, respondents were stratified by employment status. Overall, respondents in secure employment enjoyed better self-reported health than those in any other group. Unemployed men and insecurely employed women had the poorest self-reported health. Psychological disorder was significantly associated with insecure employment in both sexes and unemployment in men. Some evidence of health selection out of the workforce was found, but adjustment for preexisting morbidity demonstrated adverse effects on health in excess of those attributable to selection. Changes in work characteristics and health-related behaviours explained little of the effect of employment status on health. Further research on the employment statushealth relationship is required.

Politicization has an ambivalent reputation among public administration scholars. While considered an effective instrument to safeguard political control over ministerial bureaucracy, partisanship of senior civil servants is likewise associated with patronage and deemed detrimental to professionalism and meritocracy. To scrutinize this contradiction, the article examines how a party¿political background of senior civil servants influences their decision-making behavior. Two theoretically derived conceptions of loyalty are put therefore to the test: responsiveness and responsibility. Effects are captured by using vignette technique in 40 in-depth interviews with former senior civil servants from ministerial departments at federal and state level in Germany. The results are surprising insofar as they reveal that politicized senior civil servants neither act more responsive nor less responsible than their non-politicized peers. These findings challenge common assumptions and call for a more refined analysis of the conditions under which politicization leads to negative effects.

The main purposes of this study are to investigate the environmental literacy of the Kaohsiung City civil servants, their education and training needs, and the correlation between the two. The subjects of this study were civil servants of the Kaohsiung City Government, and data were collected by quantitative research methods. The study was built mainly on the theoretical framework of Hungerford and Volk¡¦s responsible environmental behavior model, and an environmental behavior model consolidated by San-Pui Lam was also consulted, in order to carry out investigation and analysis. Environmental concern was categorized into 5 levels, and general environmental attitude into 4 levels. These two variables were not used to decide the level of environmental literacy. The object of categorization was to provide a reference for environmental education and training. However, having less concern for environmental issues than other issues or placing less emphasis on environmental values than other civil values was considered as an indicator of poor literacy performance. Other variables were categorized into three levels (A, B and C) according to the scores, with A representing the highest level of performance, followed by B representing a medium level of performance, and C representing poor performance. The following conclusions were obtained: 1. In the performance of environmental literacy, more than 75% of the responding Kaohsiung City civil servants had an environmentally friendly attitude, with at least a medium level of environmental knowledge and skills. In the environmental behavior aspect, however, poor performance in behaviors other than ecomanagement was shown. It was evident that the respondents were unable to apply their environmental knowledge, skills and positive attitude, and transform them into active environmental behaviors. 2. With regard to the education and training needs, the study proposed the following benchmarks for strengthening environmental education and training: (1) those who had not achieved the high level in terms of the scores of environmental knowledge, skills and behaviors; (2) those who had less concern for, or placed less emphasis on, environmental issues or values than other issues or civil values. Test results showed that 25% of the responding Kaohsiung City civil servants had not reached the high level for their knowledge of issues, 66% had not reached the high level for their knowledge of action strategies, and 78% had not reached the high level for their skill in using action strategies. In terms of their self-assessed training needs, 90% of the respondents indicated a high level of need for knowledge, and 85% indicated a high level of need for skills. It showed that respondents¡¦ subjectively-assessed needs for environmental education and training in terms of knowledge and skills were slightly higher than their actual needs for education and training. However, only 20% of the responding civil servants had participated in environmental education and training in the past three years, representing a paradox formed by a high level of needs and a low level of participation. 3. Regarding the difference in environmental literacy of respondents with different backgrounds, it was shown that respondents who had participated in environmental education and training in the past three years generally had better performance in literacy indicators than those who had not, except for these 5 variables: knowledge of issues, knowledge of action strategies, persuation, general environmental attitude, and locus of control. For other backgrounds, it showed no significant difference in the environmental literacy performance. 4. For the difference in environmental education and training needs of respondents with different backgrounds, those who had participated in environmental education and training in the past three years had a higher level of needs than those who had not. Other differences in respondents¡¦ backgrounds made no significant difference in their environmental education and training needs. 5. On the correlation between environmental literacy and environmental education and training needs, 7 variables were shown to be significantly correlated: the knowledge aspect of environmental education and training needs, environmental concern, environmental attitude, general environmental attitude, specific environmental attitude, locus of control, as well as skill in using action strategies. In the aspect of skills, variables that showed significant correlation with environmental literacy were the same as those for the knowledge aspect of training needs, except for general environmental attitude. Finally, recommendations on civil servants¡¦ environmental education and training were made based on the literature review and the study results, to provide a reference for the competent authority of civil servants and the training organizations.

Abstract This study is to explore the cognition of local civil servants from the Kao-Kao-Ping Area on their value system of social development and sustainable local policies. Recently Taiwan government has adopted sustainable development as the ideal and direction of policy fulfillment, nontherless it seems bounded only at the central-government level Whether the local governments attentively adopt sustainable development principle and local civil servants own the cognition and understanding of sustainable development deserves further studying. Based on literature review on international and national materials, three parts of survey items were constructed ¡Vsocial paradigm of sustainability, sustainable development principles and local sustainable policies. Total 991 questionnaires were mailed and 381 valid responses were analyzed. The empirical analysis showed the local servants of the Kao-Kao-Ping Area generally posses positive cognition on sustainable development. Their perspectives on social development lean toward New Environmental Paradigm. Specifically, the perspectives can be divided into ¡§environment-oriented¡¨, ¡§equilibrium-oriented¡¨ and ¡§social norms ¡Voriented¡¨. The sustainable principles emphasized by the international societies and the central government are highly accepted, especially, the implementing directions of sustainable development. The local sustainable policies were highly recognized but with some vagueness on the position of ¡§main stream¡¨ values, such as highways or mass transportation, local place marketing, incentives to factories, local activities with international focus or unique locality. According to the study finding and the observations form the real situations, the cognition of civil servants on sustainable development is not related to the local policy practice.

The importance of the role of civil servants in the process of state governance is determined by their special status as mediators between politicians and society. In organizing implementation of the political decisions, the competence, responsibility, professionalism of civil servants is of great significance. Seeking to create strong and professional civil service it is very important to adopt necessary legal acts and to determine clearly the legal status of officials, their duties, rights and responsibilities. Lithuanian state, which declared its independence in 1918, had to deal with this important task. The aim of this graduation paper is to define the legal status of civil servants in Lithuania in years 1918 – 1940, to describe its development and peculiarities. The content of legal acts of Republic of Lithuania is analyzed. The general problems of the creation of Lithuanian legal system, which are related with the civil service, are presented. The formation of legal base of civil service is described. The various aspects of the legal status of civil servant are defined, including admission, hierarchical system and categories, duties, wage, development of skills, pensions, allowances, vacations, responsibility and dismissal. The proposed reforms seeking to modernize and rationalize the Lithuanian civil service are presented and discussed.

Magister Commercii - MCom / In Rwanda, there is a serious concern that the human resource capacities to formulate and implement policies and programmes and deliver quality services to meet the Government's development priorities are not only limited but are eroding as well, despite efforts to the contrary. The purpose of this study is to examine the challenges of Human Resource capacity building and retention in the Rwandan Public Sector. Specific objectives are (i) to identify the civil servants' perceived reasons that make them quit the public sector after acquiring the desired skills by their working institutions; (ii) to identify the civil servants' perceptions on the measures to improve capacity retention in Rwandan public sector; (iii) to review the capacity building and retention challenges facing the Rwandan public sector; (iv) to contextualize problems of capacity building and capacity retention within the broader literature; and (v) to make recommendations regarding the specific strategies the Rwandan Public Sector should adopt to retain civil servants. The study was carried out in Western Cape Province, at the Universities of University of the Western Cape (UWC), Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), University of Cape Town (UCT) and University of Stellenbosch (US). The eligible study participants were postgraduate Rwandan students pursuing masters and doctoral studies in various fields. A descriptive quantitative study design was used to collect data on the participants' perceived reasons as to why, after training, civil servants are likely to quit the public sector, together with the measures participants feel the Rwanda Public sector could put in place to retain the employees after training, as well as the human resource challenges facing Rwandan public sector. All 40 Rwandan postgraduate students pursuing masters and doctoral studies at the selected universities (based on Rwandan Embassy Records for 2010) were the sample for this study, and there was a 100% response rate. A structured self-administered, close-ended and pre-coded questionnaire was used to collect data. Data was analysed using the SPSS software programeme, and descriptive statistics were used to describe various variables to answer the research questions. With regard to research ethics permission was granted by the Higher Degrees Committee of UWC and ethical clearance was obtained from the Research Grants and Study Leave Committee at UWC. Permission to conduct the study among Rwandanmasters and doctoral students on capacity building programmes supported by the Government of Rwanda was granted by the Rwandan Embassy. The purpose of the study was explained to the participants using the participants' information sheet. Signed informed consent both written and verbal was obtained from each individual participant. Participation was voluntary, anonymity of participants was assured, participants information was kept confidential and voluntary withdraw from the study at any time was guaranteed to participants. The findings demonstrate that 45% of the respondents do not intend to continue working in the Public Sector after training due to both financial considerations and workplace working conditions.The findings also indicate that 55% of the respondents intend to work in the public sector after training. The research recommends, amongst other things, that a larger survey be conducted among Rwandan students on study abroad programmes to ascertain if the reasons for quitting and perceived measures to remain in the public sector after training hold for all the civil servants on capacity building programmes.

In the era of post-industrial society/world knowledge becomes ever more important source of wealth. This process is being reflected by public service. Part of the changes in the public service is also the term 'e-learning', alias education supported by web technologies. This new method is currently expanding also into the area of civil servants education and therefore I have decided to write my diploma thesis on "E-learning in public service". The aim of the thesis is above all to analyse current civil servants' in the public service education, to explain the term of e-learning, and last but not least to controvert or confirm the hypothesis whether the e-learning way of education of public servants has a chance to spread or even make it to the top of preferred forms of education.

Contemporary English health policy is saturated with claims about what the world is like and how it might be otherwise. These claims span the wide range of subject matters covered by health policy, from hospital waiting times to our preparedness for major disease outbreaks; from structures for the planning and purchasing of healthcare to requirements around the sharing of patient records. Despite this, empirical studies of health policymakers working at the national level in the UK suggest that research evidence plays only a very limited role in policy development (Lavis et al. 2005; Dash 2003; Dash et al. 2003; Innvær et al. 2002; Petticrew et al. 2008). This apparent contradiction was the starting-­‐point for this project. If civil servants are not drawing on research knowledge in their work, how is it that they are able to devise policy about such complex and technical policy issues? Policy-­‐making requires knowing the world in some way in order to act upon it. My research asks, what kinds of knowledge are civil servants in England’s Department of Health using in their work, and what forms does this use take? This thesis is situated in an emerging field of interpretive policy analysis which treats policymaking as realised in the daily work practices of communities of individuals (Wagenaar & Cook 2003; Wagenaar 2004; Colebatch 2006; Colebatch et al. 2010; Freeman et al. 2011). I have adopted an ethnographic approach, conducting 60 hours of original data collection in the form of interviews and meeting observations among mostly mid-­‐ranking civil servants working on various high-­‐profile health policies in 2010-­‐11. By analysing my fieldwork experiences and the resulting data, and by relating these to insights from theoretical resources in sociology, psychology and philosophy, I offer an account of the different forms of knowing and knowledge entailed in the practice of policy-­‐making. I identify three forms of knowledge and knowing that were integral to the work of the civil servants I studied: the ‘practices of knowing’ by which they came to understand the objects of their policies and think through the possibilities for their reform; the ‘pragmatic use of knowledge claims’ in which facts, figures and stories were invoked to generate support for policies and to defend decisions taken; and the ‘know-­‐how of policymaking’, which was the most important form of knowledge for the civil servants’ professional identities. In the conclusion, I reflect on the aspects of knowledge and knowing which are shared by the civil servants’ practices and my own work in producing this thesis.