earticle

영어

This study examines the effects of the NPM on the traditional bureaucratic personnel management and the flexibility of the bureaucracy pointed out by Gay et al(2005). For this purpose, this study was conducted by collecting 1,125 senior local government officials called local administrator to examin their tenure and turnover status and to extract their career patterns. In addition, we surveyed 231 local administrators and conducted in-depth interviews with 27 people to examine motivation, career path and job change. According to this study, the French bureaucracy faced big changes when the NPM was introduced and the personnel system based on "motivation", "punishment", "target recruitment". But, the change is not a fundamental one as it is claimed so often by pro-NPM theorits. The change is merely a hybridization or fusions. HR management of local administrators is convergent and it is evident at three levels. First, the local administrative organization considered as an organization with a vertical hierarchy is not so hierarchical in reality. Second, according to the autonomy principle of the local administration, which guarantees for mayors the right to choose or dismiss a local administrator according to his or her needs, the myth of employment stability, which has long been regarded as a privilege of public officials, is not observed. In addition, the subject of the decision of the local administrators was the elected civil servants and the local administrators themselves, rather than the basic laws of local governments. Third, the collective identity of local administrators as cooperatist is strengthened. In conclusion, this observation supports the arguments of the 'flexible bureaucracy' theory, which is one of the theoretical topologies of the post-NPM : bureaucracy is more flexible than it is assumed and adaptable to changes.