The “French Model” of the Combination of Career-based and Position-based Systems

Abstract

The French public service has many well-established practices to learn from. Similarly to the Hungarian public service, it has been struggling with implementing a more progressive approach for years. Even though the so called “White Book”, the most significant attempt of re-establishing the fundamental institutions as well as introducing the position-based system has ultimately failed, and the actions taken after rather had the tendency to shift back to the career-based system, the development of their HR management is still an ongoing process, centered around the scope of activities. They put an emphasis on the improvement of personnel activities and the training of HR professionals. This means, they realized that changing the system and proposing new laws are not enough for a paradigm shift, they also need the organizational culture to be tolerant of the position-based system approach. However, it is a long process, full of political and economic risks, because quitting seniority, inflexibility and the corporate system, which hampers the paradigm shift would change the very foundations of public service. There are many overlapping objectives in between the current French and Hungarian public service reforms, because the professionals are put up with the same operational and regulatory errors, thus merging the career and positionbased elements according to the “French model” might orient the Hungarian system reformers towards a sufficient direction.