https://pgheupapers.pitt.edu/ojs/pgheupapers/issue/feed 2017-11-09T10:43:18+00:00 Allyson J. Delnore pgheupapers@mail.pitt.edu Open Journal Systems <em>Pittsburgh Papers on the European Union </em>is a free-standing scholarly papers series promoting investigation of the contemporary and historical dynamics of the European Union from all disciplines. Under the editorship of Professor Alberta Sbragia, Vice-Provost for Graduate Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, this e-journal is devoted to disseminating current research on the European Union, including its domestic, regional, and global contexts, transnational relations among new and long-standing members, accession states, and candidate members of the EU. Contributing authors include scholars and practitioners working in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere and at all career levels. All published submissions have been subject to double blind anonymous review. Papers are published individually, allowing for somewhat longer manuscripts, and are available free of charge through the Open Access e-journal platform. Metadata for the materials published in the <em>Pittsburgh Papers</em> will be available for harvesting by internet search engines, allowing for greater access by researchers worldwide. In addition, subject to permissions, authors are able to include links to documents, documentary collections, videos, or other allowable sources of electronically available information. https://pgheupapers.pitt.edu/ojs/pgheupapers/article/view/30 2017-11-09T10:43:18+00:00 Carolyn Ban cban@pitt.edu

<p>In response to the 1999 crisis caused by the mass resignation of the European Commission, the Commission introduced a series of administrative reforms based in large part on New Public Management models. A centerpiece of those reforms was a new staff appraisal process linking numeric ratings with promotions, which was designed explicitly to change the management culture of the Commission. Of all parts of the reform, this was by far the most controversial. This paper traces the long arc of reform, as the original reform was replaced with a second version that was even more rigid and complex, leading to a third reform, in 2012, which returned the Commission in large part to the status quo ante, abandoning numeric ratings and the formal link to promotions. I analyze the reasons for the reforms and the problems and unintended consequences of each. In conclusion, I link this saga of repeated reforms to the broader literature on the effectiveness of attempts to change organizational culture through formal structural reforms.</p>

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