Public Administration vs. Private Personnel Administration
Theories of public personnel administration as compared with private personnel administration have arose in recent decades as a result of the emergence of trends in business management. Public administration is directly dependent on the social system as well as the system of production prevalent in society and is an important element of all administrative systems. Changes in the system of production and in the patterns of international relations have contributed to the current state of public personnel administration. Furthermore, the theorists of the past such as Ogburn, Machiavelli, and Marx have offered many great contributions to our current understanding of public administration.
The practice of public personnel administration has evolved in a continuum from the Classical Management theory, through shifting emphasis on Behaviouralism, Systems theory and Contingency theory (Haque & Ahmed, 1992). Past research and theorists have suggested that the development of modern management thought and practice can be traced by examining the evolution of societies as they have passed from pre-industrial economic structure. This development applies to public personnel administration as well, as there appears to be a correlation between a complicated system of production and the progress of the techniques of administration (Haque & Ahmed, 1992).
Public personnel administration began as a spontaneous process, with hardly any historic trace of planning. Some semblance of planning became noticeable with the advent of systematic agricultural activities. It subsequently developed in phases along with the transformation of feudal society. These phases are categorized as pre-industrial societies where the practice of management was consistent with the simple system of production. Later, the erosion of feudal society, the development of industrial society, the industrial revolution, and the capitalist mode of production led to new issues and problems in the field of administration (Haque & Ahmed, 1992). The history of modern administration and management theories are related to these developments.
Private enterprises offered employment to a larger number of citizens. This began to change toward the end of the nineteenth century. Discontent was becoming evident against the spoils system and demands were voiced for entry into the public service based on democratic principles (Haque & Ahmed, 1992). Contributing to such demands was the increasing rate of unemployment and the need to make American administration more dynamic by recruiting efficient public personnel on the basis of merit and open competition. The organization of public personnel administration had to depend primarily on private personnel administration. The literature on recruitment, selection, promotion, training, transfer, compensation, separation and other such concepts were borrowed from personnel administration as it was practiced in private organizations (Haque & Ahmed, 1992).
Public personnel management has been studied extensively from the following different perspectives: (1) the functions needed to manage human resources in public agencies, (2) the process by which public jobs are allocated, (3) the interaction among fundamental societal values that often conflict over who gets public jobs and how they are allocated, and (4) systems, or the laws, rules, organizations, and procedures used to express these abstract values in fulfilling personnel functions (Klingner, 1998). Researchers have described public personnel management in the United States as a dynamic equilibrium among competing values for allocating public jobs in a complex and changing environment.
Public personnel management consists of four fundamental functions needed to manage human resources in public organizations; planning, acquisition, development, and sanction. Planning includes budget preparation and human resource forecasting dividing tasks among employees, pay benefits. Acquisition is recruitment and selection of employees. Development is orienting, training, motivating, and evaluating employees to increase their knowledge, skills, and abilities. And sanction is establishing and maintaining the rights and responsibilities that the employer and employer have toward one another, such as discipline, grievances, health and safety.
In public personnel management, values are articulated through personnel systems; the laws, policies, rules, regulations, and practices through which personnel functions are fulfilled. The four basic systems in traditional public personnel management are patronage, civil service, collective bargaining, and affirmative action. Patronage systems are characterized by legislative or executive approval of individual hiring decisions, particularly for policy-making or confidential positions. Appointees serve at the will of those who appoint them and successful job performance depends on political or personal loyalty.
The rise of anti-government values led to new market-based personnel systems, or private personnel administration in which the role of government and the number of public employees is reduced by using alternative organizations or mechanisms for providing public services (Klingner, 1998). Purchase-of-service agreements with other governmental agencies and non-governmental...
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