Public Personnel Management paper

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Introduction

Public personnel Administration, Human Resource Development and Personnel Management and Government are interrelated disciplines this is because they in one way or the other mean the same thing but are separated by just the terminology used. Personnel was the term used to describe employees in an organization in early management, but in present time Human resource management is the term that is most popular, however the functionalities of public personnel and Human Resource Development and Personnel Development do differ although the lines of difference are blurred in some instances.

These three principles of management work hand in hand to make the different government and private entities run swiftly without a glitch but this is dependent on how they are implemented and formulated in order to achieve optimum output of their core interest which is the individual/group and the organization at large.

Body

Public Personnel Administration (PPA)

To understand fully what the term Public Personnel Administration represents a break -down of the words that constitute the term are necessary ; first of all the word “public” refers to the regional as well as the local government organization and also applies to non-profit agencies, “Personnel” are the workers or human resource who are employed in public service in society, Administer is an English word, which comes from the Latin word ‘ad’ and ‘ministrare ’which translates to serve or to manage; Administration means management of affairs, public or private. The comprehensive definition though of Public Personnel Administration is “a division of human resource management tasked with the attainment, development, utilization and compensation of a public organizations work force” (wisegeek.org).

The core purposes of public personnel administration are known by the acronym PADS this stands for Planning, Acquisitions, Development and Sanctions. Planning entails the formulation of staffing plans and budgets, distributing personnel to their various postings and deciding on remuneration packages, Acquisition refers to the process of selecting and recruiting viable candidates for employment positions, the third purpose is development it encompasses training advancement and assessment of employees. Sanctions are the last arm of public personnel administration and are charged with managing the interaction of employee and employer and tasks such as the deliberation on grievances and work place safety fall under here. Personnel Administrator most crucial roles entail ensuring reduction of employee turnover and this involves handling complaint expeditiously, these in public held companies especially have set out rules as to how complaints are lodged and followed up so as to ensure fairness for all parties involved this process is referred to as due process and goes a long way in assisting involved parties to explain themselves thus ensuring their employee rights are not abused, this is in line with employee retention programs which are more inclined to reducing turnover than to hiring new personnel that would disrupt normal processes for a long time as well as cost money due to factors such as retraining, development and tuition assistance to help build loyalty and reduce turnover.(Klinger,1996)

Klingner further states that PPA is the body tasked with the allocation of a scarce public resource (in this case employment) thirdly its reflects the effect of seven interrelated and opposing ideals (political responsiveness, efficiency, individual rights and social equity, under the traditional pro-government model, and individual accountability, downsizing and decentralization, and community responsibility under the emergent anti-government model) over how government jobs should be allocated, fourth “ it’s the laws rules and regulations used to express this abstract values-personnel systems(political appointments, civil service, collective bargaining, as well as affirmative action under the traditional model and alternative mechanism for providing public services and malleable employment terms under the emergent antigovernment model”(Klinger,1996)

For there to be effective public administration public personnel management has to be properly established in any democratic society.

Human Resources Development (HRD)

Adam Smith says that “The capacities of individuals depends on their access to education” this is mostly true in the field of Human resource development which is a well-structured and cohesive effort to improve the effectiveness of the human resource and the organization at large through use of both formal and informal methods of improvement the formal methods include training, succession planning as well as planning management. The informal methods of improvement include functions such as coaching, and mentoring this leads to the overall health of the organization and the optimal achievement of set objectives. According to the Xavier University website HRD entails an ‘‘integrated use of training, organizational development, and career development efforts to improve individual, group, and organizational effectiveness”( www.xavier.edu).Human Resource Development helps in connecting the needs of the organization with the right human resource as well as developing the necessary skills that help in the solving of present problems as well as emerging ones through use of planned learning activities. Departments within organizations use HRD to be able to cope with adjustment; the ultimate goal of any HRD effort is to develop a superior human resource that will aid the dispensation of the best services to the clientele (www.xavier.edu)

Richard A Swanson defines HRD as “a process of developing and unleashing human expertise through organizational development (OD) and training and development (T&D) in aim to improve performance’’. There are three core beliefs as regards Human Resource development; first that organizations are human made concerns that rely on human skills in order for the set out goals to be achieved, second that human expertise developed and maximized through HRD processes and as such should be done for both the good of the organizational and individual good of those persons concerned. HRD practitioners represent the individual or the group, work processes and organizational integrity, the HRD processes is just one part of the larger picture that constitutes the overall organization. If well implemented, HRD can streamline all the processes of the organization to optimal output. HRD is dependent on three core theories for its proper implementation these are system theory,Pyschological theory and Economic theory, system theory captures the ever changing and intricate interaction of environments, work process, organization, and group individual variables operating at any point in time and over time, Psychology theory stands for the core human aspect of developing human resource together with the social complementing nature between humans and systems, Economic theory captures the core issues of the efficient and the effective utilization of resources to meet productive goals in a highly competitive environment (

www.slideshare.net

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According to statistic this year alone 75% of all employed human resource will need to undergo retraining programs it’s also estimated that workers unlike in the past when a person worked in one position for a whole life time, nowadays employees shift jobs six times in the span of their active career life as they are more motivated by what they get from a position and expect to get in return what they invest in it, this however is more so in the higher ladder of the job market , this makes it necessary to update ones skills frequently so as to remain relevant to a dynamic job market. According to data from the American Society for Training and Development, in 2008 alone 134 billion dollars was spent on the improvement of employee skill set, Human Resource development practices include activities such as Sales and marketing training or retraining, professional skills training, customer service training, Executive and supervisory/management development, Technical instruction and coaching, group facilitation, classroom, e-learning and blending learning, Organizational development consultation. Health and safety training, and New employee orientation (

www.Xavier.com

)

Human Resource Development importance since the early 90’s had been recognized as a critical factor in ensuring an organization had an edge over the competitors, however a HRD processes cannot be effective if it does not have the support of employees. This can only be achieved if the development programs are customized to the intended employees because the content of the programs cannot make up for the lack of commitment in their application by the human resource for which they are intended. When the various HRD processes are being implemented some workers will be totally invested in it but some workers will seem to put in halfhearted efforts in the voluntary development, this is as a result of how the programs are created with disregard to concerned parties (Maurer & Tarulli, 1994)

Personnel Management in Government

Personnel Management also referred to as Human Resource Management in government plays a crucial role in the smooth running of all government functions, this is because Human resource constitutes a large slice of government spending at all levels and is therefore at the center of the administration regardless of the administration running the government, Management of government employees is an important issue to many people in the society such as politician’s government managers, citizens and leaders .Personnel management is the obtaining use and maintenance of a satisfied workforce, it plays a crucial role in management and is mainly the enforcer of relations between the organizations workers. Brech defined Personnel management as “that part which is primarily concerned with human resource of organization” Flippo says it is “the planning organizing, compensation, integration and maintenance of people for the purpose of contributing to organizational, individual and societal goals(Kelly, 2006).

Personnel management is concerned with various facets of the organization that ensure a smooth running of the organization as a whole these functionalities include but are not limited to; employment, development and remuneration these responsibilities are carried out mainly by the personnel management together with other departments, Personnel management is a branch of the general management, it’s tasked with getting the most out of the work force towards achieving set objective, It’s also the duty of the personnel management to guide the line supervisors in personnel matters, therefore personnel department is a department tasked with employee matters in an organization, Personnel management does not put much faith in intricate schedules, work methods or plans but more so on actions, it’s a principle of personnel management that arising problems can be resolved more effectively though rational personal policies. It’s based on human orientation, it purposes to have employees reach the maximum capabilities. Personnel management in government provides motivational programs that act as incentives that lead to employees providing their utmost at their various work stations. In the core essence of its functions personnel management deals with the Human resource of an entity, in this context it manage both individual as well as blue collar workers.

The personnel department is headed by the personnel manager; he is tasked with both operative and managerial functions of management in a nut shell his role can be summed as follows; Assistance-the personnel manager provides assistance to the top echelon of an organization-this are the people whom come up with policies that the company will follow, the personnel manager recommends policies that affect the workforce to this top management and they in turn consider in it while coming up with their policies regarding personnel. Go between– He acts as the spokesperson of the workers as he interacts with them on a daily basis, he is mandated to act as a representative of the company in committees instituted by the government, he is also the companies liaison in training programs Advice line manager– the personnel manager acts as an adviser to the line manager as a staff specialist he acts as a staff advisor and assists the line mangers in dealing with various personnel matters. Counselor-he/she acts as a mediator on all arising issues that are lodged by employees and gives his professional position as to their resolution (

www.heritage.org

)

The core functions of personnel management are Man power planning, recruitment, selection, and training and development in that order.

Man power planning- entails the conversion of raw labor into human resource as people who are able to do work alone do not necessarily lead to the success of the organization as a whole, man power planning put into consideration the employees required for a particular function the skill, period of time personnel is required for, the aim of the job at hand which must be in tandem with the goals of the organization as well as other issues of concern. An ideal man power plan acts as a master plan the other three roles of the personnel manager should follow therefore it should apportion enough time for the man power planning so that recruitment, selection and training of personnel can be properly done.

Recruitment- the recruitment process is set off right after man power planning process is over, it involves the seeking out of potential workers and motivating people to apply for the position for the entity in question. It works on an elimination method where by the most suited candidates for the advertised position are selected as per merit, recruitment which succeeds man power planning has to be flawless because wrong recruitment practices may affect the performance of the organization in the long run

Training- constant updating of skill set for employees is relevant if they are to remain relevant to prevailing job conditions as well as imparting of necessary ethical patterns of behavior not forgetting the instilling of an aptitude awareness of organizational as well as societal objectives thus increasing the motivation of the employee in adding to the same, in a sentence training is the response to a need (www.heritage.org)

Conclusion

For any organization to run smoothly it has to have the good will of the different components that make it into a whole, this can only be achieved if both the organization and those charged with different responsibilities are reading from the same script proper personnel administration principles constant Human Resource improvement and the cohesiveness of the personnel management with the employees will ensure that the organization and the individual will achieve their maximum potential.

Reference

Swanson A. Richard “HRD Foundation Brief (2003); Retrieved from

www.slideshare.net/ashfaqzaki/hrd-foundation-brief2003

Public Personnel Management Retrieved from;

http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-public-personnel-administration.htm

“What is HRD” Retrieved from

http://www.xavier.edu/hrd/what-is-hrd.cfm

Stewart Liff

,(2011), Improving the Performance of Government Employees: A Manager’s Guide, AMACOM, New York,

Wood row Wilson on administration Retrieved from

http://www.heritage.org/initiatives/first-principles/primary-sources/woodrow-wilson-on-administration

Kelly D. (2006). Human Resource Development: For Enterprise and Human Development