ABSTRACT
The period of rapid expansion of government employment that occurred during the 1960’s and into the late 1970’s has ended. Operating within this context and, in the early 1980’s, in a setting where public confidence in ability of government to solve problems is very low, it is hardly surprising that worker productivity and job security are issues high on agenda of public sector unions. This chapter focuses on process and people factors and it must be sufficient to note simply that as the nature of the problems engaging governments and the framework within which governments function become more complex, product factors seem to have a net negative impact on employee productivity. Projections by the US Bureau of the Census and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics call for a gain of about two million state and local employees during this period and nearly 150,000 federal employees.
