Congressional Control of Federal Labor Relations and a Catch-22: Why a Return to Labor-Management Partnership in the Federal Sector is not Possible
Abstract
With the implementation of labor-management "partnership," President Bill Clinton hoped to use his executive authority to create a new paradigm of cooperation between labor and management in the federal sector, and although his effort fell short of its goal, it does provide a lesson for the future. In 1993, shortly after taking office, President Clinton launched the National Performance Review (NPR), an ambitious attempt to review the operations of the entire federal government and determine how the government could operate more effectively at less cost. A principle finding of the NPR was that increased government effectiveness required that federal employees be empowered, given greater responsibility, and given a more important role in agency operations. In the private sector, this approach to business was known as the quality imperative. The NPR also recognized, however, that the culture of labor relations in the federal sector was an obstacle to the implementation of employee involvement. Labor-management relations in the federal sector had long been characterized as an unproductive, adversarial relationship. In an effort to eliminate the "adversarial relationship that binds (labor and management) to noncooperation" in the federal government, the National Performance Review (NPR) recommended the use of a collaborative approach known as partnership.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 10, 2001
- Accession Number
- ADB272515
Entities
People
- Christopher C. Vannatta
Organizations
- Georgetown University