ABSTRACT
This chapter explains to identify those major concepts that have most profoundly affected the scope and substance of the public personnel function. The theme of civil service development and reform defines the very essence of the modern public personnel system, with the merit principle serving as its core component. The criticisms of legal, political science, and public administration researchers have become even more intense with the passage of time. Few issues in public personnel during the past century have been as vehemently argued as the necessity for achieving a representative bureaucracy. Despite the research, public bilateralism has traditionally been depicted as an area of relative neglect within personnel administration. The development of professional public administrators and their recognition by society is the desired end of virtually every task that a personnel manager undertakes. The passage of the Ethics in Government Act in 1978 raised public consciousness regarding the ethical obligations of the public service.
