3. Enhance voluntary mobility within and between agencies for top senior executive positions in government. (1) Data show that, prior to entering the SES, incumbents have held a variety of positions and moved functionally and geographically; yet, once in the SES, their career paths have been relatively insular, indicating that the SES corps has been underused.(6) In other words, many senior executives stay in the same functional area or agency and are not encouraged to make use of their abilities to serve in a wider range of jobs or different agencies. The National Academy of Public Administration has called for enhanced and broadened mobility strategies geared not only to agency requirements, but to the corporate objectives of the government as a whole.(7) OPM will act as a catalyst to encourage mobility of executives both within and between agencies. The purpose would be two-fold: first, to assist agencies in identifying executives who have demonstrated, through actual performance, the ability to bring about changes or manage in different circumstances and who can apply the values inherent in reinvented government principles while dealing with system realities; and second, to provide executives an opportunity to broaden their skills and perspectives and to be placed in positions where they can make their greatest contribution to a reinvented government. This proposal is intended to establish an SES cadre that not only takes a governmentwide view of its role, but is a vehicle to help individuals move to positions where their special expertise is needed. By no means does the proposal intend to make every senior executive mobile and a generalist, since there are many executives whose expertise, experience, and interests are tied to a particular agency, occupation, or position. In fact, most executives have been chosen for their technical program expertise and need to remain where they are most effective. This is normally an agency issue and needs to be left in the hands of agency management with suitable safeguards in place. Endnotes 6. Sanders, Ron, "Reinventing the Senior Executive Service," Virginia, June 1993, p. 8. (Draft.) 7. National Academy of Public Administration, Paths to Leadership, Executive Succession Planning in the Federal Government: Report Summary (Washington, D.C., December 1992), p. 4.
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