Merit system is a term which I am very familiar with having worked in the Human Resources field for the past +15 years. It is the process of promoting and hiring government employees based on their ability to perform a job, rather than on their political connections.
These employees may also be employed in a civil service system. A Merit system represents the opposite of the Spoils system. And for you history buffs, a merit system in this country was first instituted at the federal level by the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act.
Merit pay is a term describing performance-related pay. It provides bonuses for workers who perform their jobs better, according to measurable criteria.
With an understanding of these terms in mind you will see why I was intrigued by the following report from an Italian news agency (ANSA) - Vatican City, November 3 – “Vatican clerics have started clocking in for work for the first time since the 1960s.
The tiny state on the Tiber has issued new cards to all employees from the lowest office staff to the grandest heads of departments - even if they are priests or bishops.
The swipe cards have reportedly been received without complaint by the lay staff but some older clerics have been heard grumbling that Pope John XXII abolished timekeeping in the early '60s.
The fondly remembered 'good pope', a progressive, thought that keeping staff on the clock worked against the flexibility they needed.
According to reports out of the Vatican, elder clerics are complaining that clocking in and out is a headache when they have to leave the office on twice-weekly pastoral duty.
The timekeeping scheme is part of a new meritocracy drive at the Vatican, which is set to introduce performance-related pay next year.”
For those of you who are wondering a Meritocracy is a system of a government or another organization wherein appointments are made and responsibilities are given based on demonstrated talent and ability (merit), rather than by wealth (plutocracy), family connections (nepotism), class privilege (oligarchy), cronyism, popularity (as in democracy) or other historical determinants of social position and political power. In a meritocracy, society rewards (by wealth, position, and social status) those who demonstrated talent and competence, demonstrated through past actions or by competition.
That is all very interesting, but what is the point of this blog entry you ask? Well for one thing this news agency report reminded me that in terms of governmental administration and human resources practices it doesn’t matter if you have "divine inspiration", we are all just struggling to get it right.
And, possibly more importantly… I flashed on the fact that if I am ever on “Are you smarter that a fifth grader?” I may need to know the difference between a plutocracy and an oligarchy.