'Multi-Sector' Workforce Has Government Seeking Answers

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The academy's report, which reflects the first phase of its research, poses a series of questions for debate. For example:

What is the impact on our constitutional system, administrative law and ethical norms when a multi-sector workforce carries out government missions?

What tools exist or need to be developed to improve management of the multi-sector workforce?

How do we ensure accountability for the performance of the multi-sector workforce, not just that of federal employees?

Does it make a difference that federal employees take an "oath of office" while contract employees do not?

The academy plans to sponsor forums aimed at finding answers to such questions and hopes to serve as a catalyst for research projects by others.

Most federal managers "have come up in a different system" that assumed government employees, not outsiders, would oversee and deliver services to taxpayers, Kinghorn said. "Now they find themselves at the peak of their careers or near the ends of their careers trying to figure out how to manage something that has changed under their very feet," he said.

"They are not in control anymore. They are trying to figure out, 'How do I have accountability?' . . . . It is a very difficult world."

E-mail:barrs@washpost.com

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