RUDN journal of Sociology (Dec 2015)
The categorical apparatus of the sociological analysis of the public service personnel development
Abstract
As a rule, publications on the Russian civil service reforms have a pronounced negative evaluation focus and rarely analyze the Russian public service with a stable and common terminology of the sociology of management. Such a situation is unacceptable for sociological studies and public service personnel development, which is why the article presents the theoretical and methodological grounds (categorical apparatus) of the research in the field under study. Based on a systematic approach to the evaluation of the public service, the article offers an interpretation of the notion ‘personnel development’ using the basic terms and concepts of institutional, value-normative and socio-cultural approaches mainly in the macro-context. In particular, the author separates the institutional and personnel potentials of the public service as having different foundations: in the first case, the level of social trust is a tool of legitimization; in the second case the status-role interactions and value proprieties of the public service employees play a key role. The professional environment of the public service is considered as a unity of three levels - material (or institutional), social (interpersonal and group interactions) and socio-cultural (motives and value-regulatory elements in the activities of the public service employees).
