Merit protection federal agencies, and the new personnel management - Explaining cross-agency variation in MSPB appeals decisions, FY 1988 to FY 1997

This study elaborates and extends earlier work on the US. Merit Systems Pro tection Board (MSPB) that found that federal agencies differed in how well their personnel actions fared when appealed to the MSPB. The authors offer a theoretical framework for understanding cross-agency differences in MSPB appeals decisions and then test for face validity a variety of factors info rming that framework. The authors argue that the important balance between managerial prerogative and protecting merit principles in the federal gover nment could be jeopardized by the new personnel management (NPM) unless ref ormers and researchers consider in their work cross-agency variations in pr oduction functions, types of personnel actions taken, agency culture, agenc y structure, legitimate functional needs, anticipatory reactions, agency re sponsiveness, and agency learning curves.