Introduction. This article represents a system analysis of the most important characteristics and organisational principles of public service in today's Russia and a number of foreign countries in the context of the existing realities and prospective structural, management and staff reform in the government system. The article describes the key elements characterising the organisational aspect of public service. It is emphasised that government modernisation has a particular importance for the current reality, primarily due to the fact that it is undertaken during a critical historical period for the Russian society. This entails the task to provide public servants with the modern “culture of changes”, which would enable them not to destroy, but to create and improve, while retaining the best achievements accumulated during the history of state-building and public administration, and to activate any new and more efficient model by means of a smooth and creative, rather than revolutionary and disintegrating, process of transition. The authors have defined the notion “organisation of public service” and identified a number of organisationally and functionally interrelated subsystems therein, and they prove that only a stable, well-structured and high-skilled government staff and a highly efficient, well-organised and reputable public service can implement efficiently the tasks of modernisation and social renewal. The public service is a multidimensional space where each element has its own status, distinctive features and attributes, as established in the relevant national enactments and regional regulations. It is characterised by a number of specific features. First of all, it can be described as the institution of universal legal regulations to be complied with in an indisputable manner, and the professional service activity directly associated with the exercise of the state's powers; it is established on a permanent, professional and paid basis, in accordance with the principles of democracy, legality, focus on social issues and humanism. Materials and methods. The dialectical materialistic approach towards analysing social phenomena, their legal regulation and strategic managing influence upon them has formed the theoretical and methodological basis for this study. A broad set of methods for scholarly analysis of political and social phenomena was used, including the comparative law, formal logical, specific historical and system functional methods. Study results. Within the framework of the “developing approach” and the implementation of the ideas related to the “new culture of public service”, the authors have substantiated certain measures for further reform of public service, including the stricter delimitation of powers among instrumentalities and the enhancement of their responsibility; the decentralisation of administrative units, to be more focused on quality and efficiency; the de-bureaucratisation of internal public service and public administration activities; enhancing the prestige of the public servant’s profession; upgrading the personnel development system in order to provide employees with stronger motivation for continuous skill development; and updating the structure of remuneration and benefits for public employees.