UCSB PGDCSM (Civil Service Management) flashcards

33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Merit system principle

Selection and advancement based on relative ability, knowledge, and skills, with prohibited consideration of political affiliation; enforced through competitive processes and appeal rights.

Spoils system

Patronage-based staffing in which political loyalty, not demonstrated qualification, determines appointment and retention; replaced in many jurisdictions by merit-based civil service laws.

Position classification

Grouping jobs by duties, difficulty, and responsibility to set pay and qualification standards; the position description is the documentary basis for the classification decision.

Independent merit oversight body

An entity outside line management that hears appeals on adverse actions and enforces merit rules, protecting employees from arbitrary or politically motivated personnel decisions.

Total compensation comparison

Comparing public and private pay using base salary plus benefits, pension contributions, and paid leave value, since base salary alone misstates relative compensation.

Structured interview validity

Interviews using job-related, consistently scored questions with anchored rating scales; they predict job performance better than unstructured conversational interviews.

Adverse action due process

Required elements before discipline: written notice of charges and evidence, an opportunity to respond, and a written decision by an authorized official.

Workforce planning demand formula

External hiring need equals projected separations plus new-position growth minus expected internal fills over the planning horizon, adjusted for attrition assumptions.

Data governance decision rights

Documented assignment of authority over data definitions, access approval, quality remediation, and retention, so accountability for each data asset is unambiguous.

Records retention schedule

A legally binding timetable stating the minimum retention period and final disposition for each record series; premature destruction is a compliance violation.

Data minimization

Collecting and retaining only the data necessary for a stated purpose, reducing privacy risk, breach exposure, and the cost of securing unnecessary holdings.

Data quality dimensions

Accuracy, completeness, timeliness, consistency, validity, and uniqueness; each requires a defined measurement rule to be auditable across systems.

Difference-in-differences estimator

Effect estimated as the change in the treated group minus the change in the comparison group; valid only if trends would have been parallel absent treatment.

Regression discontinuity

Design exploiting a cutoff on a running variable that determines treatment; the effect is the outcome jump at the threshold for units near it.

Statistical power

The probability of detecting an effect of a given size when it truly exists; underpowered studies can miss real effects and overstate those they find.

Leading versus lagging indicators

Leading indicators signal future outcomes early and are actionable; lagging indicators confirm results after the fact and cannot be changed retroactively.

Appropriation

Legal authority granted by the legislature to incur obligations and make payments for specified purposes, up to a stated amount and time period.

Obligation versus expenditure

An obligation is a binding commitment creating a legal liability; an expenditure is the actual disbursement of funds against that obligation.

Performance budgeting

Budget formulation that links requested funding to stated outputs or outcomes and reported results, rather than justifying line-item inputs alone.

Segregation of duties

Splitting authorization, custody, and recordkeeping among different people so no single individual can both commit and conceal an improper transaction.

Performance audit scope

Examines economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of programs against criteria, distinct from financial audits of fair presentation and compliance audits of legal adherence.

Conflict of interest

A financial interest or outside relationship that could impair impartial judgment in official duties; standard remedies are disclosure, recusal, or divestiture.

Protected whistleblower disclosure

A report of covered wrongdoing made through a designated channel that shields the discloser from retaliation; protection depends on statutory scope and procedure.

Horizontal accountability

Oversight of the executive by other institutions - legislature, courts, audit offices, inspectors general - as distinct from electoral accountability to voters.

Post-employment restriction

A time-limited bar on lobbying or representing others before the former agency, scoped by the employee's prior duties, rank, and access to sensitive matters.

Once-only principle

Government collects citizen data once and reuses it across services under legal authority, reducing burden and inconsistency in citizen-reported information.

Identity assurance level

A classification combining identity proofing strength, authenticator type, and federation trust; required level should match the transaction's risk.

Service completion rate

The share of started service transactions that reach the intended outcome, excluding abandonment and failed submissions; a core digital service performance measure.

Vendor lock-in risk

Dependence on a provider that raises switching costs; mitigated by data portability, open standards, and contractual exit and transition terms.

Logic model chain

A sequence linking inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes to impact; each performance indicator should attach to one specified link in the chain.

Process versus impact evaluation

Process evaluation checks implementation fidelity, reach, and dosage; impact evaluation tests whether the program caused observed changes using a credible counterfactual.

Goodhart's law

When a performance measure becomes a high-stakes target, actors optimize the metric rather than the underlying goal, degrading the measure's validity.

SMART target

A performance target that is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, with a baseline and a named data source for verification.