ABSTRACT
The Senior Executive Service (SES) was seen by many as the centerpiece of President Carter's Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) of 1978. High on the list of goals for the SES was improving the morale and motivation of federal senior executives. Improved management skills would result from formal executive development programs for SES candidates and current SES members, who would also be eligible for sabbatical leaves. The programmatic changes and instability of political leadership in social service agencies lead one to predict that SES members in social service agencies would perceive greater conflict with political appointees and greater overall disaffection than SES members in defense agencies. In short, the data indicate a higher level of tension between political and career executives at social service agencies than in defense agencies during the first few years of the Reagan administration, when those agencies underwent drastic changes in direction and severe budget cuts.
