Personnel Demonstration Projects and Human Resource Management Innovation

The Personnel Demonstration Project (PDP) provision of the Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) of 1978 was intended to promote innovative human resource management (HRM) practices and policies. The early experience in this regard was not encouraging. However, during the second 15 years of its existence, the Personnel Demonstration Project authority has been critical to the diffusion of two important human resource management policy innovations, paybanding and category rating. This analysis explores the policymaking dynamic through which this diffusion has occurred.