How to Manage

"Efficient government"---desire of all good citizens, fervent promise of all politicians--suggests the factory where the efficiency of men and machines is tested by their qualifications for the goal of maximum output. Most functions of present-day government can be subjected to this test, but some of the oldest and most important functions of government cannot be. Governments not only produce goods, e.g., Navy yard warships, and services, e.g., weather forecasts; they also produce a reflection of the national will, the national sense of justice and policy.

Up to 75 years ago, jobholders were picked with policy mainly in mind. The electorate made its will felt through political parties, and the winning party handed out jobs to the faithful. This gave a strong incentive to winning, i.e., pleasing the electorate by reflecting its will. It also gave practical form to party responsibility, i.e., doing a good job for the nation. But wholesale patronage is inefficient, even ridiculous, in the production and service jobs of government and in the specialized techniques that serve the policymakers.

As this fact was increasingly realized, virtually all federal jobs came to be filled through a nonpolitical merit system. The pendulum has swung so far that the elected officials of the government now have very little management leverage over their hordes of specialized and pseudo-specialized subordinates, many of whom pursue their professional interests without any relevance to national policy.

This is one of the central problems of modern government, affecting everything from the defense budget to the decline of the two-party system. But it is not much discussed. Last week one of the top personnel management men of private industry in the U.S. offered some clear sense-making suggestions to put more power back in the hands where the Constitution places the responsibility.

James C. Worthy, resigning after two years as Assistant Secretary of Commerce to return to Sears, Roebuck & Co., where he was director of employee relations before going to Washington, made these suggestions:

P:More patronage to nourish the two-party system. Technical and professional jobs should be excluded from patronage. So should jobs of special temptation, such as Internal Revenue Collectors. But the quality of government would probably be improved if men dealing directly with the public and men in policy-forming jobs were picked for their political talents and influence rather than by their occupational qualifications.

P:The Civil Service Commission's present function should be split. "No single agency," says Worthy, "can properly represent both management and workers." He wants to leave to the commission the job of protecting merit-system workers. To a new office, stemming from the White House. Worthy would give the functions of a top management personnel director, charged with forming and coordinating management personnel policies.

P:Quadrupling the government's efforts to recruit bright young men and women.

Worthy doesn't want to go back to the spoils system; he wants to escape the near-chaos of responsible officials afloat on a sea of unmanaged expertise.

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