GET ALONG TO GO ALONG

Government Leader home > June 2005 issue

June 2005; Vol. 1 No. 2

GET ALONG TO GO ALONG

By Mark A . Abramson

Political appointees and career execs need each other, but working together is often easier said than done

It's one of those years in Washington. New political appointees have gradually been arriving to staff the second term of George W. Bush.

While not quite as dramatic as a change-of-party presidential transition, there has been a larger-than-usual turnover in the Bush second-term cabinet.

Of the four presidents since 1960 who have started a second term, Bush has had the largest turnover of cabinet secretaries. Nine new secretaries were selected, with only six continuing from the first term. This turnover is quickly filtering down to the subcabinet level: deputy secretaries, agency heads, assistant secretaries and their staffs.



Mark A . Abramson

More than 25 years ago, Hugh Heclo wrote a book titled A Government of Strangers: Executive Politics in Washington, which explored the tense relationship between high-ranking political executives and career civil servants. So where are we today?

Heclo's description of a "government of strangers" is still largely accurate. Every four years, a new group of political appointees arrive in Washington with a reflexive distrust of the career civil servants they inherit.

In a recent IBM Center for the Business of Government report, Joseph Ferrara and Lynn Ross concluded that political appointees arrive with the misconception that career employees:

Are loyal to the previous administration

Are not passionate about their work and don't work hard

Work for the government because of job security

Want to obstruct change

Do not really want their political bosses to succeed.

What is to be done about this counterproductive situation? Washington likes and covets secrets. So one step is to acknowledge the biggest "secret" in Washington: Political appointees and career executives need one another; neither group can succeed without the other. They are interdependent. There are few, if any, examples of organizations that have succeeded in their mission without both sides working together as a team.

Political appointees cannot achieve their organizational priorities and goals without support of the career staff. There are simply too few of them to get it all done by themselves (though many try hard to do so).

Conversely, career executives lack the authority and clout to achieve organizational objectives without the full support of the political appointees.

The folklore of Washington is filled with stories of political appointees and career executives at war with each other. While such stories make for good gossip, the result is most often failure to meet the organization's mission or the goals of the president. Agencies that succeed typically are those where political appointees have formed effective working relationships with career civil servants.

The keys to creating successful, productive relationships between political appointees and career executives are mutual respect (as in any effective organization) and an understanding that each has a different job.

In broad terms, the key goals for career executives are:

Serving the public trust

Providing collegial leadership among peers to develop a strong, shared vision

Serving as guardians for the well-being of their organization

Providing subordinate leadership for political executives

Serving as a catalyst for ongoing program improvement within their organization.

Political appointees have somewhat different, though complementary, goals:

Serving the public trust through the implementation of the president's policies and priorities

Understanding, adding to, clarifying and reinforcing an organization's vision

Leaving behind a stronger institution than they found

Communicating the value of their organization to the public

Supporting career executives' quest to improve the performance of the organization.

Fulfilling each of these roles clearly comes under the category of "easier said than done." But the goal should be creating a team within the organization, with everyone working toward a shared vision. The revelation of Washington's biggest secret is aimed at new political appointees selected to join the administration. The message is clear: Creating productive partnerships with career civil servants is crucial to achieving the administration's goals and objectives.

Mark A. Abramson is executive director of the IBM Center for the Business of Government, (www.businessofgovernment.org). This article is adapted from his forthcoming book, edited with Paul R. Lawrence, Learning the Ropes: Insights for Political Appointees (Rowman & Littlefield).