Personnel Management and Organizational Theory

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SECTION II

• Personnel Management and Organizational Theory

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Personnel Management

• Also known as Human Resource Management (HRC)
• Essential for effective government
• An effective manager must know how to manage
  human capital

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Public Management

• The development or application of methodical and
  systematic techniques designed to make the
  operations of public organizations more
  efficient, effective, and increasingly
  responsive.

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HRM functions (PADS)

• Planning
• Acquisition
• Development
• Sanction

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PADS

• Planning-Budget preparation, job analysis,
  performance management
• Acquisition-Recruitment and selection of
  employees
• Development-Training, evaluating, and leading
  employees to perform well
• Sanction-Upholding expectations and obligations

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Traditional Values of Public Service

• Political Responsiveness
• Efficiency
• Employee Rights
• Social Equity

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Traditional Public HRM Systems

• Patronage
• Civil Service
• Collective Bargaining
• Affirmative Action

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Patronage

• Historically public jobs were given to the elite
  leaders
• The spoils systems
• Elected official often times appoint individuals
  government jobs
• Did not result in highly qualified individuals
  getting positions

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Civil Service (Merit) System

• The Pendleton Act (1883)
• Civil Service Reform Act
• Merit Systems Protections Board

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Pendleton Act

• U.S. Civil Service Commission formed to implement
  rules and procedures for federal government
• Applicants required to take open and competitive
  exams (civil service exams)
• Employees given protection against political
  pressure
• President has authority to extend coverage to
  other groups of government employees.

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Civil Service Reform Act

• Areas to address
• Technical overkill
• Excessive protection of employees
• Lack of management flexibility
• Inadequate incentives to eliminate inefficiencies
• Discrimination

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Merit System Principles

• Recruit qualified individuals from appropriate
  sources
• All employees and applicants receive fair
  equitable treatment
• Equal pay for equal work
• Employees maintain high standards of integrity,
  conduct, and public interest
• Workforce used efficiently and effectively
• Employees should have effective training to
  improve performance

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Collective Bargaining

• Contracts are negotiated between management and
  unions

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NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT

• History has shown that organizations are an
  effective way for working people to change their
  social environment and to protect their
  interests.

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Affirmative Action

• Designed to take an applicants race and
  ethnicity into consideration.
• Increased number of women and minorities in the
  workplace and in higher education.

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Problems with Affirmative Action

• Implementation
• Quota Systems
• Reverse Discrimination
• Preferential Treatment
• Needs to address social equity

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Organizational Culture

• The basic pattern of attitudes beliefs and values
  that underlie the organizations operations.

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Ways to explore culture

• Human interaction
• Group norms
• Espoused values
• Formal philosophy
• Rules of the game

• Climate
• Embedded Skills
• Habits of thinking
• Shared meanings
• Root metaphors

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What would you do?

• Class Exercise
• As a newly hired city manager, you want to shift
  the culture of your organization to reflect a
  commitment to citizen service. What would you
  do?
• Get into groups of 4-5 and discuss this

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Models of Organizational Theory
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Classical Model Gulick (1930s)

• POSDCORB-Planning, organizing, staffing,
  directing, coordinating, reporting, and budgeting
• Clear jurisdictions of authority
• Subdivision of positions immediately under the
  top position
• Efficiency
• provided guides on how to organize

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Bureaucratic Model Weber

• Hierarchical
• Promotion based on professional merit and skill
• Development of a career service
• Reliance on rules and regulations
• Impersonality of relationships among career
  professionals in the bureaucracy and with their
  clientele

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Systems Theory

• Receives human and material resources from
  environment
• Alternative to hierarchical approach
• Closed-system theorists organizations own
  operation is substantially unaffected by its
  environment

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Characteris
tic of Closed Models

• Routine tasks occur in stable conditions
• Task specialization
• The proper way to do a job is emphasized
• Conflict within the org. is adjudicated from the
  top
• Responsibility is emphasized
• The organization is seen as hierarchical

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Open Systems

• Generic management (management is management)
• POSDCORB (Planning, organizing, staffing,
  directing, coordinating, reporting, and
  budgeting)
• Focuses on optimal organization of administrators
  as opposed to the production of the workers.

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Characteristics of an Open Model

• Non routine tasks occur in unstable conditions
• Specialized knowledge contributes to common
  tasks
• Ends rather than means are emphasized
• Conflict within the organization is adjusted by
  peers rather than adjudicated from the top

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Humanist Approach

• Sensitivity training team building activities
  for corporate executives
• Pluralist Approach
• Emphasizes the responsiveness of a government
  organization
• Administrative organizations are the product of
  this conflict and accommodation of interests

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Hawthorne Experiment

• Human workers are not like machines
• The workers were respond to a motivating variable
  that has nothing to do with if the light was
  turned up or down
• Workers produced more even in poor working
  conditions because they knew they were being
  watched.

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Maslows Hierarchy of Needs

• Human desires are based on
• 1) physiological needs
• 2) economic security
• 3) love or belonging
• 4) self esteem
• 5) self actualization

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Discussion Question

• How has the efficiency of the bureaucracy been
  attacked ? Are these criticisms valid? Can any of
  these approaches really improve efficiency in
  government agencies? Why or why not?