Prior to this, there was no clear expression of the principles as they apply to Federal personnel management. Finally, it was the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 which gave birth to the set of merit system principles and the personnel practices that we recognize today.
Civil Service Before 1978.
Traditionally, the federal government used centralized management of the staffing process to achieve social objectives. In addition to seeking to find workers who could perform the tasks at hand, the federal government also sought to provide a progressive employment environment with upward mobility for its employees and with affirmative action at the core of its hiring practices (a philosophy which was put into place during the 1960s). Prospective employees were subject to standardized examinations developed to eliminate personal bias in the hiring and recruiting process (the Federal Service Entrance Examination, for example). These exams, and indeed the Civil Service itself, were administered by the Civil Service Commission (CSC). The CSC was also responsible for college recruitment, public relations, and job information (Cipolla, 1996, p. 17).
Individual agencies developed staffing levels for the various types of individuals they wanted to recruit, but the actual recruiting was handled by the Commission. Work was done with veterans' groups to accommodate returning Vietnam military personnel and with women's organizations to improve recruiting among women entering the workforce. It was during the early 1970s that the federal government began to be an increasingly diverse workplace.
The CSRA in 1978.
In 1978 the CSRA abolished the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and established two offices in its place to oversee civil service statutes. The CSC had been created by the Pendleton Act of 1883 primarily to develop standardized testing procedures for prospective career track government employees.