Career pathways in the Romanian civil service : the need to adjust the new public management to a country profile

The main objective of administrative reform is to include management practices in the civil service in order to increase responsibility, efficiency, and technical capacity in state bureaucracies. This new approach is called New Public Management, simultaneously being an ideological challenge, a managerial doctrine and a practical reform project. The three key features of reform are the size of the bureaucracy, the introduction of a merit criterion for the official`s selection and promotion, and the more flexible management of human capital. In addition, another principle gains supremacy: letting ‘managers to manage’, subsequently increasing their role in establishing and developing sets of performance indicators. nonetheless, these reforms vary across countries in their profoundness and effectiveness. While countries such as New Zealand and the United Kingdom represent the outright success of the NPM principles’ implementation, transition countries, e.g. Romania, base their reforms on an easier manner, i.e. the reproduction of ‘good practices’, especially concerning personnel management. What the effects are and what undertakings should be made in this regard, these are the questions to which this thesis will answer. Basically, I argue that all the reforms must be adjusted to the country profile, and, foremost, must be gradually implemented in order to diminish the risk of failures.