PUBLIC PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

Public Personnel Management

Public Personnel Management

Introduction

The development of the United States public service at all levels has commonly reflected an ever-shifting emphasis among a set of competing values. For instance, personnel management has moved from elitist origins at its founding to a determined attempt at ensuring a greater measure of egalitarianism and representativeness. Insulating civil service systems from politics is an abiding goal, although that ambition has competed with finding a way to make personnel systems reasonably responsive to executive leadership. The idea of merit, selection, retention, and advancement based on evaluations of achievement persists as a primary concern. Diversity in employment in government is an established target. One goal remains fostering a measure of worker protectionism, but not at the expense of competent work functioning. For a long time, government has espoused the principle that it has a duty to be a model employer.

How a control organizes to conduct the activities of Public personnel management affects how well personnel managers are able to balance productivity, diversity, and public values. Most large nonprofit businesses and government jurisdictions have a fundamental body that is responsible for Public personnel management. That body, usually called a Personnel Office or Human Resource Office, might emphasize standardization and consistency or it may offer services and consultation in a decentralized system of administration. In the former case and in smaller nonprofit and government bodies, line group managers can expect to have more control over who gets hired and fired and how much they get compensated, but they will also, of course, have more work to do. This paper critically analyzes and applies public sector personnel systems models into the personnel functions of the public sector .

Discussion

Managerial structures have an effect on efficiency. Business and governments have to do with workflow. If some individual or group has too much work to do, there will be delays in getting action and the quality of decisions may suffer. Businesses also have to do with power and appearance. Units are created or reorganized to convey the message that a particular problem is important. Separate, visible offices to monitor equal employment policies or to pursue cuts in the number of full-time positions or to offer workers with assistance send messages about priorities to personnel managers, workers, and the public. (Van , 2008)

Organization Theory

During the first part of the twentieth century, scholars and personnel managers thought that there was a single best way of organizing to perform a job. Researchers devoted their energies to identifying that single best way. While they searched, a set of common-sense rules prevailed as guidelines reflecting the best wisdom and experience. Since the middle of this century, there has been a greater appreciation of the complexity of responsibilities, technologies, policies, and socio-political environments. A general approach referred to as contingency theory emerged to specify what types of businesses are appropriate for various situations.

James D. Thompson, a foremost figure in the contingency approach to the study of businesses, drew from the work of Talcott Parsons ...