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Even though the debate is a relatively old one, the issue of acknowledging the professions exercised by civil servants, a side from what the different corps say, is still extremely topical. Activities undertaken in the civil service are becoming more diverse and require new skills, which are underdeveloped in the traditional statutory categories. This observation particularly applies to managerial staff, who are inadequately profiled, poorly managed and ultimately insufficiently recognised, even though they are officially supposed to be at the heart of efforts to rationalise public organisations and are currently going through extensive change. So how can a new attitude to public sector employment be developed. With which instruments? In which new management perspective? And how can this be linked to a statutory approach that has a chance of enduring? The consideration now being given to a “profession” approach by the Ministry of Culture provides a range of answers to these questions and also reveals what the term of management itself might cover.