The Civil Service as a Problem-Solving Institution

This paper considers the capacity of the civil service to engage in learning and problem-solving. While public employees are (sometimes justly) critiqued for their inability to learn and adapt, I review two examples of problem-solving that have been institutionalized into the United States federal government: performance management and reducing administrative burdens. Drawing on those examples and broader research I offer a number of observations about problem-solving. Government needs to do a better job of hiring problem-solvers, and then shielding them from the twin threats of proceduralism and politicization. While unflashy and incremental, a model of problem-solving that focuses on embedding an ethos of change into organizational routines is more likely to have lasting effect than top-down reforms that feel distant from the day-to-day work of civil servants.