This document provides a summary of the book "Strategic Human Resource Management: People and Performance Management in the Public Sector" by Dennis M. Daley. The book discusses how government services are transforming from a hierarchical structure to one focused on service delivery. It provides an overview of human resource practices for first-line supervisors and managers in knowledge-based public sector organizations. The book examines how HR functions can help achieve organizational missions and describes techniques for implementation. It is intended for public administration courses and takes the perspective of first-line managers.

1. TITLE : STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT : PEOPLE
AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT IN THE PUBLIC
SECTOR
AUTHOR : DENNIS M. DALEY
IMPRINT : NEW JERSEY : PRENTICE HALL, 2002
The movement to reinvent and reengineer government services is
transforming public administration. The hierarchal, command-and-control
structure is giving way to a new organization whose remaining workforce is
concentrated on service delivery. Staff functions previously administered by central
offices are now carried out by the first-line supervisor and field manager. No place
is this change more evident than in the realm of personnel administration/human
resource management.
Strategic Human Resource Management gives the student and first-line
supervisor a practical overview of human resources/public personnel practices as
tools for management in today’s knowledge-based organization. Emphasis is placed
on using individual-oriented functions for achieving organizational missions and
purposes. Personnel techniques and central personnel functions are addressed from
the perspective of their ability to provide value-added assistance to the first-line
supervisor and field manager.
Strategic Human Resource Management encompasses three distinct foci.
First, the text is focused on a strategic perspective. All personnel or human resource
functions are examined in terms of their ability to enhance the organization’s ability
to accomplish its mission. Second, a practical focus describes how to actually
implement and use the personnel techniques examined. Third, research and
illustrative examples are drawn not only from the federal government but from
state and local organizations and nonprofits as well.
This text serves the basic graduate or undergraduate public
personnel/human resource management course. The text focuses on management
techniques rather than on political policy issues and has a first-line supervisor or
field manager perspective rather than that of a central personnel office.

2. Strategic Human Resource Management provides a more thorough treatment
of the techniques used for managing people than is found in most personnel texts.
Students are first introduced to the general personnel function and then provided
with an overview of the specific applications or options they have at their disposal.
Finally, emphasis is placed on more fully describing in a how-to-do-it fashion those
techniques that are most appropriate and recommended.
The book is directed at the decentralized, knowledge-based organization.
This organization accomplished its work more through coordination by ideas than
by organization. The command and control of the central personnel office serving
executive-level officials is replaced by a coach-and-consult philosophy of assisting
line officials. The performance of personnel functions, including the choice of their
appropriateness, is the responsibility of the first-line supervisor and field manager.
Strategic Human Resource Management is written from the perspective of a
professional, knowledge-based organization. The organization’s needs link the
accomplishment of its strategic mission to human resources activities. The student
or first-line supervisor is taught to approach organizational problems in terms of
adding value through the application of the personnel techniques. Hence, tying the
personnel process into the planning and reward system is highlighted.
The inclusion of historical material is limited to brief explanatory segments.
Similarly, political policy issues are treated as means for illustrating the framework
or environment within which personnel/human resources techniques is practiced.
The text includes extensive and recent references to the research in public personnel
administration. This enables students to quickly follow up on topics of interest.