Seminar in Public Human Resources Administration Questions & Key Te.docx

Seminar in Public Human Resources Administration: Questions
& Key Terms [Day One]
Critical Thinking Questions
1. Identify and describe the four public personnel management
functions (PADS).
2. What are the four competing values that have traditionally
affected the allocation of public jobs? Which three
nongovernment values that have emerged recently conflict with
them?
3. What is a personnel system?
4. What are the key programs that are impacting public
personnel systems? Give an example of each.
5. Identify and describe the four traditional competing public
personnel systems. What are the two emergent antigovernment
personnel systems that have recently been added to them?
6. What does each of these three groups (elected and appointed
officials, managers and supervisors, and HR directors and
specialists) contribute to public personnel management?
7. What are the six stages in the development of the role of the
public HR manager? What different expectations have people
had for them in each stage?
8. What competencies do HR managers need, and where can
they get them?
Key Terms: Please define and give one example
1. Civil Service Reform Act of (1978)
2. civil service (merit) system
3. collective bargaining
4. decentralized government
5. equal employment opportunity systems
6. faith-based organizations (FBOs)
7. franchise agreements
8. human resource management (HRM)
9. nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)

10. nonstandard work arrangements (NSWA)
11. Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
12. partnerships
13. Pendleton Act (1883)
14. political patronage system
15. privatization
16. contingent workers
17. exempt appointments
18. professional associations
Doing Public HRM in the USA
1
1
Leadership vs Management of Public HMR
What is leadership?
What is management?
How does leadership and management of HMR compliment each
other
and how do they conflict with each other?
2
All

Solution
s are tomorrow’s problem,
Redefine the problem as a challenge,
then look for opportunities.
3
Problems that impact Public HRM in the USA
How many public employees are there?
Is it really cheaper to use third-party government and contingent
workers than a public worker?
How many others share in the responsibilities with personnel
managers and their technical specialist in the supervision of
HRM?
How do they work in practice?
How do these shared HRM roles and functions translate into
structures and administrative in a given organization?
How do the evolving values and systems affect the roles and
competencies of public HRM?

4
Myths and Realities of Public Employment
All federal employees symbolize government bureaucracy!
In reality they only constitute about 13 percent of all public
workers.
The primary federal functions are national defense, postal
service, and financial management.
The primary state and local functions are education, police
protection, highways, corrections, welfare, and utilities.
Education comprising more than half of state and local public
employment.
Question: Is a public computer a dictator or a servant of the
people?
5
Shared Responsibility for Public HRM
Elected and Appointed Officials.
They are responsible for creating agencies, establishing their

program priorities, and authorizing their funding levels.
Personnel directors and specialists:
Once a personnel system is authorized, these folks design and
implement the with help from key specialists when needed.
Administrators and supervisors:
they are responsible for the managerial activities most directly
connected with goal accomplishment.
Question: How does Organizational Culture impact on how
Public HRM is done?
6
HRM under a Patronage System
HRM emphasizes recruitment and selection applicant based on
personal or political loyalty.
Once hired political appointees are subject to the decisions of
the effected official.
Few rules govern their job duties, pay, or no rights; they serve
at the pleasure of the appointing authority.
The HRM specialist is not a personnel director but s political
advisor (or a political party official).
They identifies those individuals that deserve or require a
political position, vets them and gets them approved.
Note: Affirmative Action laws do not apply to judicial,
legislative, or other patronage position (exempt appointments).

They served at the pleasure of the appointing authority.
7
HRM in a Civil Service System
In a civil service system, Human resource management (HRM,
or simply HR) is a function that supports the city manager,
school superintendent, hospital director, or other chief
administrator.
It’s designed to maximize employee performance in service of
their employer’s strategic objectives.
HR is primarily concerned with how people are managed within
organizations, focusing on policies and systems.
HR departments and units in organizations are typically
responsible for a number of activities, including:
employee recruitment,
training and development,
performance appraisal,
and rewarding (e.g., managing pay and benefit systems).
HR is also concerned with industrial relations, that is, the
balancing of organizational practices with regulations arising
from collective bargaining and governmental laws
8

Planning is the process of thinking about and organizing the
activities required to achieve a desired goal. An important
aspect of planning is the relationship it holds with forecasting.
Forecasting can be described as predicting what the future will
look like, whereas planning predicts what the future should look
like.
Traditionally HR maintains the system of position management.
The total number of positions, the types of jobs, and their pay
levels are established and restricted legislatively by pay and
personnel ceilings.
Pay is usually tied to a type of classification system, with jobs
involving similar degrees of difficulty being compensated
equally.
9
10
Moving forward into the Unknown

In order to prepare for the future public HR must go beyond
position management to productivity measurement and
improvement through strategic alignment of human resources
with organizational mission and programs.
For this to occur, the HR department must focus less on control
of personnel inputs and more on measurement and management
of HR outputs and outcomes.
11
Acquisition: Manpower and Personnel
Manpower and personnel involves identification and acquisition
of personnel with skills and grades required to operate and
maintain a system needed by the organization.
Once identified, HR schedules periodic test for frequently
available jobs (i.e. secretary / maintenance worker).
It advertises vacant or new positions, reviews job applications
for basic eligibility, and gives written tests.
Once a list is compiled the HR unit will be maintained until a
new test is requested by the organization.
HR is responsible for establishing and maintaining the
databases that enable online posting of positions and hosting of
applications.
12

Maintaining a High-Performance Workforce
The organization’s mission should determine important
performance goals.
Evaluation techniques must fit performance goals.
Performance evaluation techniques must be valid and reliable.
Cooperation between management and rank-and-file employees
is an important as the evaluation technique selected.
Performance evaluations should report both strength and
weakness.
13
Training & Development
As HR orients new (and existing) employees to the
organization, its work rules and benefits, it tracks and
distributes notices of training opportunities.
It also uses, in some organization, competencies to establish
training programs and to work with agency managers to help
design an annual training menu.
It may train supervisors and employees concerning newly
developed or mandated HR policies and programs.

HR also tracks and processes all personnel actions, to wit:
changes in employee status such as hiring, transfer, promotion,
retirement, or dismissal.
14
Sanction
HR establishes and staffs an employee grievance and appeals
procedure.
It tells supervisors the rules of employee conduct, establishes
the steps used to discipline an employee for violations,
and makes sure the organization follows its own procedures if
an employee appeals this disciplinary action or files a
grievance.
Importantly, HR staff frequently serve as advisors to managers
and supervisors considering disciplinary actions.
15
What is Collective Bargaining?
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between
employers and a group of employees aimed at reaching
agreements to regulate working conditions.
The interests of the employees are commonly presented by

representatives of a trade union to which the employees belong.
The collective agreements reached by these negotiations usually
set out wage scales, working hours, training, health and safety,
overtime, grievance mechanisms, and rights to participate in
workplace or company affairs.
A collective agreement functions as a labor contract between an
employer and one or more unions.
Collective bargaining consists of the process of negotiation
between representatives of a union and employers in respect of
the terms and conditions of employment of employees, such as:
wages, hours of work, working conditions, grievance-
procedures, and about the rights and responsibilities of trade
unions.
The parties often refer to the result of the negotiation as a
collective bargaining agreement (CBA) or as a collective
employment agreement (CEA).
16
What is Affirmative Action?
The concept of affirmative action was introduced in the early
1960s in the United States, as a way to
combat racial discrimination in the hiring process and, in 1967,
the concept was expanded to include sex.

Affirmative action was first created from Executive Order
10925, which was signed by President John F. Kennedy on 6
March 1961 and required that government employers
"not discriminate against any employee or applicant for
employment because of race, creed, color, or national origin"
and "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are
employed, and that employees are treated during employment,
without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin."
17
The Purpose of Affirmative Action Systems
Affirmative action is intended to promote the opportunities of
defined minority groups within a society to give them equal
access to that of the majority population.
It is often instituted for government and educational settings to
ensure that certain designated "minority groups" within a
society are included "in all programs".
The stated justification for affirmative action by its proponents
is that it helps to compensate for past discrimination,
persecution or exploitation by the ruling class of a culture, and
to address existing discrimination
18

Public HRM under Third-Party Government
Reliance on privatization and contractors reduces public
employment reduces public HR’s direct workload…..
But it can also increase HR’s indirect work needed to develop,
tender, and evaluate
contracts;
citizens volunteers;
and community-based organizations (i.e. recreation programs,
hospitals, and schools).
In order for this to work, HR managers, directors, and staff
must become more skilled in recruiting, selecting, and
motivating temporary, volunteer, part-time, and / or seasonal
workers.
19
Hybrid Systems: The Real World of Public HRM
In the real world, political leaders often disagree about which
personnel system should predominate. Different designs can
create dilemmas (i.e. bumping rights) in HRM systems.
Civil service
Civil service / political patronage appointment

Civil service / affirmative action appointment
Civil service / collective bargaining appointment
Civil service / contract appointment
Civil service / contract professional appointment
20
Role Expectations for HR Managers
Elected and Appointed Officials:
Reduce taxes by reducing the size of government through the
reduction of permanent number of public employees.
Elected officials decisions need to reflect public attitudes
towards supporting public services
or allowing taxpayers to keep their own money and make their
own choices as individuals in the private market.
Note: They want the public administrator (at all levels of
government) to do more at less cost to the taxpayer.
21
Role Expectations for HRM Directors and Specialist
Watchdogs (to guard against the misuse of the systems)
Collaboration ( to work with others to accomplish the mission)

Consultation ( to help folks to work together within accepted
guidelines)
Consultation and Contract Compliance; over the years the
operational definition of “a good manager” is narrow by
pervious standards:
First, legislative and public mandate HRM for cost control;
Second, their skills will increasing be define as minimizing
maximum loss through risk management and contract
compliance rather than training and development.
Third, pressured to develop an employment relationship
characterized by commitment, teamwork, and innovation.
Paradox: HR needs to develop a variable pay systems that can
reward individual and group performances for both the Core (or
essential) Employee and the Contingent (or replaceable)
Worker.
22
Role Expectations for Managers and Supervisors
Individual managers and supervisors must often choose between
short-term productivity and long-term organizational
effectiveness,
between spending time with employee issues and letting
employees fend for themselves,

While the manager focuses on planning, budget management, or
crisis control.
23
Key HRM Roles
Technical Expert:
Entry level or technical HR experts are responsible for HR
planning, acquiring, developing, and sanctioning.
Professional:
are administrative workers that focus their behavior around an
identifiable body of competencies that defines the occupation
and an accepted process of education and training for acquiring
these capabilities.
Management Educator:
the one that trains others formally ( an informally) to think
about human resources strategically.
Organizational Entrepreneurs:
those that view the field of public HRM as emergent and
dynamic.
24
Building a Career in HRM
By performing effectively in a climate of change and

uncertainty HR managers assert a central role in agency
management, developing not only their own professional status
but also that of their profession.
Because of this conflict and instability, there is a high demand
for HRM professionals in public and private organizations,
whether they work as HR directors or as managers with specific
HRM competencies.
What competencies do HR professionals need?
How can they get them?
How can they maintain their skills in a complex and changing
environment?
25
What are HRM Competencies?
Traditional public HRM requires technical competencies.
They must be competent in the techniques need for:
the recruitment, selection, training , evaluation, and motivation
of employees under a wide range of personnel systems. Working
within the limits of the law and policy; to reward good
employees and get rid of the bad ones; writing and or rewriting
job descriptions; reaching quality applicants on a list of
eligible; conducting performance evaluations.
The list goes on…
That focuses on professional and ethical standards

26
The Society for Human Resource Management [SHRM]
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is a
professional human resources membership association
headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia.
The largest association in its field, SHRM promotes
the role of HR as a profession and provides education,
certification, and networking to its members,
while lobbying Congress on issues pertinent to labor
management.
27
Key Terms
Contingent workers
Core employees
Exempt appointments
Internship
Loose-leaf services
Watchdogs
SHRM

AMA
ASPA
ICMA
28
Questions:
What are the six stages in the development of the role of the
public HR manager?
What different expectations have people had for them in each
stage?
29
Public Human Resources Administration
1
1

To Resolve a Problem and Satisfy a Need
The Problem:
State and local governments are facing unprecedented
challenges as the baby boomers begin to retire, taking years of
knowledge and experience with them.
The Need:
Attracting, retaining, and developing the talent that
governments need is a major undertaking.
The Challenge:
Doing so in a time of fiscal constraints makes it even more
important to understand the rapidly changing world of human
resources.
2
What is Public Human Resource Administration?
It’s a System
It’s Power
It’s a Business
3
What’s a System?

Systems thinking is the process of understanding how things,
regarded as systems, influence one another within a whole.
In nature, systems thinking examples include ecosystems in
which various elements such as air, water, movement, plants,
and animals work together to survive or perish.
In organizations, systems consist of people, structures, and
processes that work together to make an organization "healthy"
or "unhealthy".
Systems thinking has been defined as an approach to problem
solving, by viewing "problems" as parts of an overall system,
rather than reacting to specific part, outcomes or events and
potentially contributing to further development of unintended
consequences.
4
5
Systems thinking is not just one thing but
a set of habits or practices within a framework that is based on
the belief that the component parts of a system can best be
understood
in the context of relationships with each other and with other

systems, rather than in isolation.
Systems thinking focuses on cyclical rather than linear cause
and effect.
The several ways to think of and define a system include:
A system is composed of parts.
All the parts of a system must be related (directly or indirectly),
else there are really two or more distinct systems
A system is encapsulated, has a boundary.
The boundary of a system is a decision made by an observer, or
a group of observers.
A system can be nested inside another system.
A system can overlap with another system.
A system is bounded in time.
A system is bounded in space, though the parts are not
necessarily co-located.
A system receives input from, and sends output into, the wider
environment.
A system consists of processes that transform inputs into
outputs.
A system is autonomous in fulfilling its purpose.
6

What’s Power?
Can do….
The ability to accomplish a goal…
A series of interacting systems that enable’s one with the ability
to accomplish a goal…
Power is the Key factor that allows:
the follower to accomplish their task,
the leader to influence others,
and the manager to accomplish organizational goals.
7
What’s a Business?
A business is a System that’s called an Enterprise that provides
a product [ goods or services] for a consumer that resolves a
problem and or satisfy a need.
As rumor has it, Abraham Lincoln said the purpose of
government is to provide those services that the individual is
unable to provide for themselves.
Types of Businesses‘
Volunteer

Non-profit
For-profit
8
Question: What is SWOT analysis?
How can a public administrator utilize it when examining the
strength and weaknesses of existing programs?
https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0SO81P
mTLVUk7sAtCRXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTB0NWppOGo5BHNlYw
NzYwRjb2xvA2dxMQR2dGlkA1ZJUDU0Ml8x?_adv_prop=ima
ge&fr=mcafee&va=swot+analysis+template
9
Question: What is a Force Field Analysis?
Force Field Analysis was created by Kurt Lewin in the 1940s.
Lewin originally used the tool in his work as a social
psychologist.

Today, however, Force Field Analysis is also used in business,
for making and communicating go/no-go decisions.
You use the tool by listing all of the factors (forces) for and
against your decision or change.
You then score each factor based on its influence, and add up
the scores for and against change to find out which of these
wins.
You can then look at strengthening the forces that support the
change and managing the forces against the change, so that it's
more successful
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_06.htm
10
11
Force Field Analysis Template
https://www.bing.com/search?q=Force+Field+Analysis+Templat
e++&form=EDGSPH&mkt=en-
us&httpsmsn=1&plvar=0&refig=cc6da181e27042a8869b7719d6
60991a&PC=DCTE
12

What is Public Administration?
Public administration is the implementation of government
policy and also an academic discipline that studies this
implementation and prepares civil servants for working in the
public service.
It is "centrally concerned with the organization of government
policies and programs as well as the behavior of officials
(usually non-elected) formally responsible for their conduct"
Many unelected public servants can be considered to be public
administrators, including heads of city, county, regional, state
and federal departments such as:
municipal budget directors,
human resources (H.R.) administrators,
city managers,
census managers,
state mental health directors, and cabinet secretaries.
Public administrators are public servants working in public
departments and agencies, at all levels of government
13

Public Personnel Management
Also known as human resource management is essential for
effective governmental “governance” type of networks,
especially when sharing a governance role that involve private
corporations, public operations and international interest and
their organizations.
What are the PADS or functions needed to manage Human
resources?
14
Human Resources Management Functions
Planning:
Budget preparation, workforce planning;
performance management, job analysis, and pay and benefits
Acquisition:
Recruitment and selection of employees
Development:
Training, evaluation, and leading employees to increase their
willingness and ability to preform well.
Sanction:
Maintaining expectations and obligations that employees, and
the employer have toward one another through discipline, health
and safety, and employee rights.

15
Discussion Questions
What are public jobs?
And why are they scarce resources?
What is the significance of this observation?
Why are the following four competing values traditionally
influence the allocation of public jobs?
Political responsiveness and representation;
efficiency;
employee rights;
and social equity.
How do the following three emergent nongovernmental values
impact on public jobs?
Personal accountability;
Limited and decentralized government;
Community responsibility for social services.
16
To Be Feared or Loved?
Proponents of limited and decentralized government believe that
people should fear government for its power to arbitrarily or

capriciously deprive them of their rights.
They also believe that public policy, service delivery, and
revenue generation can be controlled more efficiently in a
smaller unit of government.
The most significant consequence of this belief was the delivery
of local governments’ social services through “nongovernmental
organizations' (NGOs).
Why?
17
Key Programs that impact Public Personnel Systems
Faith-based organizations [FBO’s]
Third-party government
Nonstandard work arrangement [NSWA]
Purchase-of-service agreements
Franchise agreements
Subsidy arrangements
vouchers,; Volunteers, Regulatory and Tax incentives
Nonstandard Work Arrangements
Irreversible Rise of Information Technology
18

The Four Traditional Public HRM Systems
Political Patronage System
is the use of state resources to reward individuals for their
electoral support
Civil Service (Merit) System
The term civil service can refer to either a branch of
governmental service in which individuals are employed (hired)
on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive
examinations; or the body of employees in any government
agency apart from the military, which is a separate extension of
any national government
Collective Bargaining
is a process of negotiations between employers and a group of
employees aimed at reaching agreements to regulate working
conditions
Affirmative Action System
is intended to promote the opportunities of defined minority
groups within a society to give them equal access to that of the
majority population
19

Political Patronage System
Is a way of rewarding jobs to loyal party members (and
campaign workers) by the elected candidate. (aka the spoils
system)
This enables the elected official to achieve their political
objectives (including reelection) by legally placing key people
in positions where the stakeholders can have access to
administrative agencies during the policy-making process. For
example
the General Accounting Office (GAO) publishes the Plum Book
… a listing of U.S. government policy and supporting
positions… immediately following each presidential election.
Unfortunately, the political patronage system is also a way for
the party (in power) to reward groups, families, and ethnicities
for their electoral support by
using illegal gifts or fraudulently awarded appointments or
government contracts.
20
“Wicked Problems”: Culture, Circumstance, and Power
Favorable Political Culture In the United States, the public
HRM system developed through successive (and successful)
fights against the excesses of patronage,

and against social pressures to be the “employer of last resort”
in a well-developed economy that provides ample jobs outside
government.
Although our conflicts with corruption, cronyism, and nepotism
are not completely resolved, we do expect that government will
provide services efficiently, using honest and qualified
employees.
Exceptions generate cynicism or indignation precisely because
they are exceptions.
Favorable Historical Circumstances The development of U.S.
public personnel management has occurred within a context
under a single Constitution and within a civil society widely
considered controlled by laws rather than by individuals.
Although our policymaking process is costly, complex, and
tortuous, it results in outcomes that are generally considered to
be transparent, effective at maintaining government authority,
and politically responsive to the will of the electorate.
Whereas our society is deeply affected by conflicts based on
race, ethnicity, and class, it provides great opportunity for
personal growth and economic advancement
21
22

Culture
Circumstance
Power
Wicked Problems
Civil Service (Merit) System
The term civil service can refer to either a branch of
governmental service in which individuals are employed (hired)
on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive
examinations;
or the body of employees in any government agency apart from
the military, which is a separate extension of any national
government.
A civil servant or public servant is a person in the public sector
employed for a government department or agency.

The extent of civil servants of a state as part of the "civil
service" varies from country to country.
Civil service system came about as a result of an increased
dissatisfaction with the patronage-based personnel system.
23
Collective Bargaining….
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between
employers and a group of employees aimed at reaching
agreements to regulate working conditions. The interests of the
employees are commonly presented by representatives of a trade
union to which the employees belong.
The collective agreements reached by these negotiations usually
set out wage scales, working hours, training, health and safety,
overtime, grievance mechanisms, and rights to participate in
workplace or company affairs.]
This is in contrast to the patronage system, where they are set
and operationally influence by elected officials, or the civil
service system, where they are set by law and regulations issued
by management and administered by a civil service board (or
their representative).
Please note: public sector unions never has the right to
negotiate binding contracts with respect to wages, benefits, or

other economic issues.
Because only legislative bodies (such as the city council, school
board, or state legislature) have the authority to appropriate
money to fund contracts.
24
Affirmative Action System
The term "affirmative action" was first used in the United States
in Executive Order 10925 and was signed by President John F.
Kennedy on 6 March 1961.
It was used to promote actions that achieve non-discrimination.
Affirmative action is intended to promote the opportunities of
defined minority groups within a society to give them equal
access to that of the majority population.
It help to compensate for past discrimination, persecution or
exploitation by the ruling class of a culture, and to address
existing discrimination.
25
Discussion Question…..
How do the following two emergent nongovernmental systems
impact on public jobs?

Privatization
Essentially, it is the process of transferring ownership of a
business, enterprise, agency, public service, or public property
from the public sector (a government) to the private sector,
either to a business that operates for a profit or to a nonprofit
organization.
It may also mean government outsourcing of services or
functions to private firms, e.g. revenue collection, law
enforcement, and prison management.
Partnerships
A partnership is an arrangement where parties agree to
cooperate to advance their mutual interests.
Since humans are social beings, partnerships between
individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools,
governments, and varied combinations thereof, have always
been and remain commonplace
26
27
Did you know…..

The federal government of the United States does not have
specific statutory law governing the establishment of
partnerships.
Instead, each of the fifty states as well as the District of
Columbia has its own statutes and common law that govern
partnerships
While partnerships stand to amplify mutual interests and
success, some are considered ethically problematic.
When a politician, for example, partners with a corporation to
advance the latter's interest in exchange for some benefit, a
conflict of interest results; consequentially, the public good
may suffer.
While technically legal in some jurisdictions, such practice is
broadly viewed negatively or as corruption.
28
Key Questions
So what is a Public Personnel System?
Can there be a uniform “best practice” HRM solution to build
local and global governance capacity?
As responsible public administrators and public personnel
managers, what can we do to promote the development of

rational and transparent government, at home and abroad?
29
Key Terms
Affirmative action systems
Pendleton Act (1883) / Civil Service Reform Act of (1978)
Collective bargaining
Faith-based organizations (FBOs)
Non-governmental organizations
Franchise agreements
Human resource management (HRM)
Office of Personnel Management (USOPM)
Partnerships / Privatization
PADS
SWOT analysis
Force field Analysis
30

Seminar in Public Human Resources Administration Questions & Key Te.docx

Seminar in Public Human Resources Administration Questions & Key Te.docx

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Seminar in Public Human Resources Administration Questions & Key Te.docx

Similar to Seminar in Public Human Resources Administration Questions & Key Te.docx (20)

More from tcarolyn

More from tcarolyn (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Seminar in Public Human Resources Administration Questions & Key Te.docx