Public Employment: Attractiveness, Representativeness, and Performance

ABSTRACT

The functions of the public sector penetrate almost all aspects of social life. Considering the tremendous implications that government employment holds for economic health and other aspects, it is understandable that the processes controlling entry to these jobs are subject to widespread concern. Democratic norms call for a representative bureaucracy. The large size and increasingly mono-ethnic of the Malaysian civil service have caused concern for some time. This study suggests that job characteristics, some background and personal characteristics are significant determinants of graduating students’ job choice. The study also demonstrates how representative bureaucracy would affect performance of the public sector.

KEYWORDS:

• Public sector
• representative bureaucracy
• career choice
• Malaysia

Funding

This work was supported by Research Creativity and Management Office, Universiti Sains Malaysia (Grant no.: 304/PSOSIAL/6313105).

Notes

¹ Little data on government job applicants’ educational background has been revealed to the public. This is the only data available in the published source. Surprisingly, when PTD is said to be among the most sought-after post in the market, not even one graduate of local private university in the country has applied for the post.

² UMNO is the abbreviation of the United Malays National Organization. UMNO is Malaysia’s largest political party and it has dominated Malaysian politics since independence.

³ For details on the calculations of 13% of graduates in labor force the civil service needs to attract and the 20% standard, please see Woo (2011, 2013).

⁴ This is the latest data (breakdown by racial groups) that was released to the public. Generally, official statistics on racial breakdowns of the Malaysian civil service is conspicuously unavailable. Such data is also absent in the Public Service Department’s annual reports (Public Service Department, 2016).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Research Creativity and Management Office, Universiti Sains Malaysia (Grant no.: 304/PSOSIAL/6313105).