Who Are the Career Executives

W HEN the current session of Congress is hesitating over the appropriation of even $io,ooo for the Career Executive Program,' it is one of the signs that a worthy purpose is still in substantial trouble. In this observer's view, some of the trouble, at least, has come from failure to start from the fundamental questions: Which ones are the senior career executive positions in the federal government, and what do the people in them do? The objectives of action cannot be just the abstract purpose of finding abler people to put somewhere in government, and the process of finding them cannot be just a parochial personnel exercise which is insulated from the more general problems of management. If a senior career executive program is to be worth special attention, the personnel policies and procedures which constitute it have to be designed by working backward from the basic managerial needs and their climate. We can assume that the aim of such a program is the improvement of officials in the level between the top political executive layer and the permanent working bureaucracy. Whether all or just some of such officials should be included is a part of the problem. The solution to the problem seems to pivot on these questions: Does the function of the officials at this in-between level most resemble that of their political superiors or that of their

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• The American Senior Executive Service

  Open Access•Chester A Newland•International Review of…•1988

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