Slide 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
what are the 4 main functions of public personnel administration?
- planning
- acquisition
- development
- sanctions
What does planning involve?
this includes preparing staffing plans and budgets, deciding how employees will be used, and setting pay rates.
What is acquisition?
refers to selecting and recruiting employees.
What does development involve?
it involves employee training and advancement programs, as well as performance evaluations
What are sanctions?
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 HRM activities that deal with strategic focus?
Human resource planning
Compensation planning
Cost containment
Evolving legal issues
What is the operational focus of the PPA?
The operational focus concerns the day-to-day running of the organization’s human resources. Operational activities of HRM tend to be tactical and operational in nature.
What are some examples of operational activities of hrm?
Recruitment and selection
Employee complaints and grievances
Employee orientation
Employee health and safety
When did the Gentlemen System start and end?
It started with Washington’s administration in 1789 it ended with the inauguration of Jackson in 1829
What were the features of personnel management under the gentlemen system?
- For Washington, the primary criterion in making appointments was “fitness of character”.
- Fit characters were those with high standing in the community with personal integrity, such individuals tended to be members of the upper class.
- Washington hoped his fit characters would perform honestly and efficiently, but he also sought effectiveness
- Some lacked clear technical qualifications of competence for the jobs to which they were appointed
- He sought political loyalty as well as social and administrative fitness
Why did the gentlemen system collapse?
- The inauguration of president Jackson
- Intolerability of upper class bias in democratic era
- Unresponsiveness of personnel to the public and the public interest
What is the spoils system according United States History?
In the politics of the United States, a spoils system refers to an informal practice 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.
Where did the term, the “Spoils system” come from?
The term was derived from the phrase “to the victor go the spoils.”
Narrate the history of the spoils system?
After Andrew Jackson became President in 1828, he systematically rewarded his supporters.
He considered that popular election gave the victorious party a “mandate” to select officials from its own ranks.
Why was the spoils system introduced?
- 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
- He also rejected the notion that a government job was a kind of property to which the incumbent civil servant had a right
- He sought to establish a maximum term of 4years in office for public officials, to coincide with presidential administrations, thereby allowing the newly elected president to distribute “ the spoils of victory” among his supporters
- To help prevent the unpleasant necessity of actually dismissing incumbents, whose appointments, would simply expire as a matter of law and/or custom
What were some major effects of the spoils system?
- There was a serious decline in administrative ethics, efficiency, and performance
- A thorough inter-mixing of public administration and party politics
- A high degree of political corruption
- A reduction in the social class status of public administrators
Where did the merit system evolve from?
America
What were the roots of the Merit system?
China
When was the Merit System Principles set in statute?
1970
How many Merit Principles does the Intergovernmental Personnel Act that requires states that receive Federal funds follow?
6
What did the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 create?
- the nine Merit System Principles
- 11 Prohibited Personnel Practices
What are the 9 Principles of the merit system?
- Recruit, select, and advance on merit after fair and open competition.
- Treat employees and applicants fairly and equitably.
- Provide equal pay for equal work and reward excellent performance.
- Maintain high standards of integrity, conduct, and concern for the
public interest. - Manage employees efficiently and effectively.
- Retain or separate employees on the basis of their performance.
- Educate and train employees if it will result in better organizational or individual performance.
- Protect employees from improper political influence.
- Protect employees against reprisal for the lawful disclosure of
information in “whistleblower” situations.
