An Examination of Civil Servants’ Assessment of the New Civil Service Reforms in Kazakhstan

Abstract In recent years, Kazakhstan has demonstrated a strong commitment to make the civil service system open and transparent to its citizens. The country has introduced an e-government system to improve access to information and allow public consultation on civil service. Reforms of the civil service aim to reduce corruption in the civil service and to ensure a transition to a career-based model, meritocracy, and result-based remuneration. This study aims to expand the literature on the civil servants’ appraisal toward new civil service reforms both in Kazakhstan and in worldwide. As a part of the broad investigation, this research provides the results of a sociological survey examining the assessment of civil servants toward recent civil service reforms in Kazakhstan. The survey has been conducted among 14,250 respondents aged 20 years and older from 14 regions of Kazakhstan, including three cities of republican significance and the capital city of the country – Astana. According to the survey results, civil servants are satisfied with the current state of the civil service system in Kazakhstan. The items on satisfaction mainly refer to the working conditions in the government agencies like work schedules and organizational climate. The research further reveals factors influencing the general evaluation of civil servants, as well as the most critical problems in the national civil service system.