System failure: implementing pay for performance in the Department of Defense's National Security Personnel System.: An article from: Public Personnel Management

This digital document is an article from Public Personnel Management, published by International Personnel Management Association on September 22, 2010. The length of the article is 9138 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: The National Security Personnel System (NSPS) was to be a transformational reform of the federal civil service, designed to increase manager's flexibility, discretion and effectiveness in supervising some 700,000 Defense Department civilian employees. The new system replaced the traditional GS classification and rating system with a pay for performance model. The NSPS used broad pay bands, pay pools, "performance shares," distribution formulas, a new five-level rating system, and important changes to labor relations and collective bargaining subjects, all without significant participation and support from employee unions. It didn't work. After five years of troubled implementation, widespread employee dissatisfaction and mistrust of the new system, lawsuits and lobbying, Congress dismantled the NSPS and directed that more than 200,000 participants be returned to the GS system. This article reviews the history of pay for performance in the federal government, then reviews the failed implementation of NSPS, and concludes with a preview of the future of pay for performance within the federal government after the demise of the NSPS.

Citation Details
Title: System failure: implementing pay for performance in the Department of Defense's National Security Personnel System.
Author: Barbara I. Haga
Publication:Public Personnel Management (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2010
Publisher: International Personnel Management Association
Volume: 39 Issue: 3 Page: 211(20)

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