Management Gets Mixed Ratings In Private-Sector, Public-Sector Study

ByJohn S. McClenahen Compared with their federal government counterparts, employees in the private sector of the U.S. economy are less happy about their work, salaries, benefits and opportunities "to accomplish something worthwhile," shows a just-released study from the Brookings Institution, Washington. Nevertheless, at the same time significant numbers of federal employees grump that the government fails to provide enough of the information, technology, and people the workers say are needed to do their agencies' jobs. Private-sector employees generally have a higher opinion of their senior leaders and of the reforms that management has put in place, the study shows. In contrast, federal workers fault the government with spending too much time experimenting with the latest management fads. Significantly, many federal employees are critical of the highly promoted "reinventing government" efforts the Clinton Administration began. Of the 73% of government workers who report their organizations have been reformed or reinvented during the past five years, 49% believe the efforts have made their jobs more difficult, Brookings reports.