Does Civil Service Reform Affect Behavior? Linking Alternative Personnel Systems, Perceptions of Procedural Justice, and Complaints

Current literature on civil service reform lacks any studies that examine how these reforms impact employee behavior. The research presented here links the presence of alternative personnel systems and perceptions of procedural justice in 2005 to the rates at which complaints were filed in 2006 in the federal government, after controlling for the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Among the findings, agencies with alternative personnel systems exhibit lower complaint rates as compared to those with traditional personnel systems. Additionally, indicators of perceptions of procedural justice exhibit a curvilinear relationship with complaint rates; as perceptions of procedural fairness increase, the rate of complaints initially increases and then decreases. Finally, ADR does not appear to influence complaint rates.Translations by Claudia N. Avellaneda, University of North Carolina Charlotte and Nicolai Petrovsky, University of Kentucky.