Are Merit and Equity Compatible?

Abstract

the union, newly certified to represent these workers, to convince the governor that a worker's political preferences were a private matter, and that the state had no right to intrude into them, nor to dilute the delivery of public services through political manipulation.3 There are still those, of course, who view collective as inimical to the well-being of taxpaying America, even as there still are those who will break the silence of a morning bus ride arguing that the decline of civilization as we know it can be measured from the advent of the New Deal. With widely varying degrees of enthusiasm, however, most of public management has accepted the arrival of public employee unionism and bargaining (although what passes for bargining is a subject for another, longer article). The fact that in some jurisdictions unionization has not yet occurred and therefore is unheard of should not be viewed as a flag for a merit system that works. There is, after all, a tomorrow. Many public officials and employer groups have begun to see the advent of not as a death-struggle to preserve or upend the status quo but rather as a new approach to serving the public interest.4 Why shouldn't government work more efficiently if there is a of equals, as Governor Dan Evans of Washington State has called it, between public management and public emnion, newly certif ed to represent these ers, to convince the governor tha a worke 's litical preferences wer a private matter, and the state had no right to intrude into them, to dilute the delivery of public services ugh political manipulation.3 ployees?5 There need be no confusion about the functions of management and the functions of labor in that partnership. They are separate and distinct, but with common objectives: to provide decent public services to a demanding public. There is a role for merit, but it mustn't be the only game in town. The fusing of merit with is essential to maintaining a dignified managementlabor relationship and to assuring a working partnership in the achieving of excellence in the public service.

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