Lecture 1 Flashcards
What is public personnel administration?
Public personnel administration is a branch of human resource management that is concerned with the acquisition, development, utilization and compensation of a public organization’s workforce.
How many functions of public personnel administration are there? What are they?
4 functions Namely; -Planning -Acquisition -Development -Sanctions
What does the planning function entail?
It includes preparing staffing plans and budgets, deciding how employees will be used, and setting pay rates.
Planning should help the organization achieve its strategic goals. There’s the need to understand the organisation and its strategic direction in order to determine the kind of staff needed to achieve set goals.
What does the acquisition function entail?
Acquisition involves selecting and recruiting employees.
What does the development function entail?
It involves employee training and advancement programs, as well as performance evaluations.
What does the sanctions function entail?
It deals with employer-employee relationships, and may include workplace safety and handling grievances.
What is the strategic focus of PPA?
The strategic focus of PPA emphasizes the need for Human Resource (HR) plans and strategies to be formulated within the context of overall organisational strategies and objectives, and to be responsive to the changing nature of the organisation’s external environment.
What are some of the issues HRM activities with strategic focus deal with?
Human resource planning - taking into consideration the jobs available and the workers needed to take up those jobs. It involves succession planning etc
Compensation planning - salaries, bonuses etc
Cost containment - being more efficient in terms of resources
Evolving legal issues -Understanding the legal context in which the organisation finds itself, taking into consideration the laws and abiding by them
What is the operational focus of PPA?
The operational focus concerns the day to day running of the organisation’s human resources.
Operational activities of HRM tend to be tactical and operational in nature.
They also deal with administrative, short-term and maintenance issues.
Name 4 examples of activities under the operational focus of PPA
Recruitment and selection
Employee complaints and grievances
Employee orientation
Employee health and safety
What is the strategic focus of PPA?
Strategic focus of PPA includes long-term plans made by top managers of the organization. These plans last for 5 years and above
What are the Public Personnel Administration systems?
- Gentlemen system
- Spoils system
- Merit system
Give a brief summary on the evolution of PPA according to the gentlemen’s system
The Gentlemen System started with Washington’s administration in 1789 and ended with the inauguration of Jackson in 1829. Washington had a primary criterion in making appointment to public offices. That is “fitness of character”. In simple terms, in order to become a civil servant, you had to belong to a certain social class Fit characters were those with high standing in the community with personal integrity, such individuals tended to be members of the upper class(elite). Washington hoped his fit characters would perform honestly and efficiently, but he also sought effectiveness. He sought political loyalty as well as social and administrative fitness. However, some lacked clear technical qualifications of competence for the jobs to which they were appointed. This and issues such as discrimination led to the collapse of this system.
Give a brief summary on the ‘Spoils’ system
The spoils system refers to a system by which a political party, after winning an election, gives government jobs to its voters as a reward for working toward victory, and as an incentive to keep working for the party. It all started after Andrew Jackson became president in 1828. He systematically rewarded his supporters.
Jackson explained that public personnel administration during the era of “gentlemen” needed a reform for the following reasons:
The long tenure of administrators in office made them unresponsive to the public and the public interest
The elderly gentlemen were simply unable to rise to the tasks at hand and consequently, the government was not functioning as good as it might.
This system had no regard for merit and ability to do the work (foot soldiers)
They were appointed into civil service career positions and not just political positions. The thinking at the time was that it makes them (the workers) accountable and makes them more responsive to the needs of the people. This however, led to a high degree of political corruption and brought about a serious decline in work ethics and performance as well as a reduction in the social class status of public administrators.
Give a brief summary on the merit system
The Merit System evolved in America in response to the troubles created by political patronage under the “spoils system.”
China is where the first Merit System was developed.
